Lanker Returns to The World of Man
When he returns to his original size, he crawls his way back down the hallway, and into the living room. His mother and Grandmother are seated on the old, tattered couch. His father is seated in the chair by itself in the far left of the room, across from the couch. His Grandfather is seated in the large single chair across from his father to his right. His Grandmother turns her head sharply to the right as he enters the room, with a sudden broad smile upon his face.
"There he is! Where on earth have you been all day? Have you been all cooped up inside your room for the duration, there son?"
"Yes, I guess?" Lanker replies.
"What in the world were you doing in there? Were you playing with your imaginary friends again?" she asks.
"I guess," Lanker hangs his head and speaks.
His overweight Grandmother continues to smile, dressed in her evening gown. She chuckles as she speaks.
"Lindza, I do declare you sure have raised such an unusual child."
"Yes, he is very imaginative, I should say," replies his mother.
"Well, if we had a Tele' we might see some movie worth watching, I suppose. Since we don't, then I guess we can sit around and shell these cool weather garden peas."
In his grandmother's lap she holds a huge brown paper bag filled with these flat shelled peas. This bag must weigh some fifty pounds. In the lap of every family member, there sits an empty aluminum bowl. Each person has their bowl filled with these flat peas. Soon the sounds of snapping ring throughout the house. The empty shells are tossed into a paper grocery bag sitting beside the chair, and the peas are simply dropped into the bowl being held.
"These things sure are lots of work, but well worth the labor come eating time," speaks his grandmother, as she continues to smile and laugh.
"That's why we go to the trouble, so we can have something good to eat," replies his grandfather as he works shelling them. "How do you feel about this matter, Lanker there?"
Since Lanker cannot hold a bowl, he can only sit on the floor beside the bowl and work.
"It's ok, I guess," he replies.
"It's, ok?" asks his grandfather in jest. "Well what else would you be doing, if it were not for shelling these peas?"
"I don't know. Maybe chasing Leprechauns?"
"Chasing Leprechauns?" asks his grandfather, with a sudden smile. "What in the world would you do with one when you caught him?"
"Get that pot of gold," replies Lanker.
"Awe now, you're way too young to be thinking about gold.," spouts his grandmother. "You have many more important things to fill your precious time with. In a year or so you'll be starting school, little boy! You need to be thinking about that. Forget about Leprechauns and pots filled with gold. Whoever told you about such nonsense?"
"Grandfather did," replies Lanker in a somewhat repressed voice tone
"Tom, did you tell this boy about such business, like he claims you did?" his grandmother fires.
His Grandfather chuckles, while saying nothing, and continuing to smile brightly.
"I do declare all you think about is money, making it, and keeping it. I've never seen the likes of such a thing, myself," his grandmother spouts with a frown on her face.
"Well, I do declare myself, indeed there are Leprechauns in this world! I will take you out and we will look for some, come tomorrow, son."
"Yeah, and then we can get that pot of gold!" snaps Lanker with a fresh sense of excitement in his young voice.
"Tom? Please now.," his grandmother glares.
"No, Granddaddy says we had ancestors who came over from Ireland. These ancestors were old Irish and were rich until the English took it all away. But the old Irish had a custom of laying back a value in gold equal to twenty percent of their estate."
"Yes, maybe, but that past has no bearing on us now," his grandmother retorts, with a slightly agitated expression on her face.
"Uh huh, yes it does! That pot of gold is around here, somewhere," Lanker snaps.
"I tell you what, now," speaks his grandmother, with a deep sigh and a certain firmness in her face, as she directs her speech toward Lanker. "I do wish I could find that pot of gold, if it indeed is around here. We need new furniture, new clothes, the house needs painting, trees need cutting, etcetera cockalorum! I would have this old house completely wired up for lighting, rather than only for a freezer and a kitchen light. I would have some type of central heating and an electric stove, for crying out loud around here. We would be living so much differently around here, son, and in far more improved conditions. I, personally, am tired of making do. I have been doin' it now for some fifty years or more, son."
"Yeah, all of those reasons are why I have to find this pot of gold," says Lanker in a voice of honest conviction.