A Day In The Forest

It was a dark and rainy day, and I was walking around the forest in my favorite nature park. The rain didn't really get in here under the trees, so it was a good place to be. The rain freshened up the air and gave the forest a quiet dampness. I was happily taking in all of my surroundings when I saw something up ahead.

It was a little boy and his dad walking in my direction on the path. As soon as the boy saw me he ran ahead of his dad yelling to get my attention. "Excuse me! Excuse me!", he yelled urgently. He must have been only about five or six years old.

When he got up close to me he begged, "Can you tell us how to get out of here! My dad doesn't know where we are! I think we're lost!" He seemed really scared and not at all confident in his dad's ability to navigate these trails without some outside help.

As this was all happening his dad calmly caught up to him, and we greeted each other. He didn't seem all that lost to me. We were both amused by the little boy's anxiety. We both knew he would find out soon enough that his dad could get him where they needed to go.

As they were getting ready to go on their way, the dad stopped again and asked me, "Oh, can you tell me, is there a lake in here somewhere?" I told him it was up on the right, and all he had to do was keep going straight until he saw a path that was moving in that direction. After a little talk of fishing and talk of the rest of the park, they were on their way. And so was I.

I resumed my enjoyment of nature, and my picture taking, through the rest of the park on this dark but peaceful day. I saw nothing particularly unusual but I still had a good time. Just as I was leaving the forest I heard the little boy's voice yelling behind me again, "Wait! Wait! Wait!"

I turned around and there he was in the distance running towards me again. The trail curved around so the end was obscured by trees, and his dad was nowhere in sight. I waved and then stopped for him. When he caught up to me, I asked him what was wrong.

"We're lost! Can you get us outta here!" I asked him where his dad was, and he said he was still back there. I smiled to myself, knowing it was still the same as before. I told him he should go back to his dad before he began to worry about him. But he was having none of that, so I started walking with him back into the forest.

It was right then that his dad called out his name. I told the little boy to yell back to let his dad know where he was, so he yelled, "I'm right here!" After a few more seconds we found his dad and I turned around to leave. The little boy stopped me still insisting they were lost, and begging me not to leave them.

He said, "Can you help us find the parking lot? My dad doesn't know where it is. He's lost and we've never been here before. Will you show us how to get outta here?" I said to him that I was sure his dad was smart enough to find the parking lot, and then I pointed in the right direction to show him they weren't lost at all.

It didn't convince him one bit, so I walked with them out of the park. The man told me he just recently discovered the place, and asked me a few more things about it. We talked about the park, the trails, and nature in general the rest of the way to our cars. The little boy was happy to be back in the familiar surroundings of civilization, and we all went happily our own way.