Sitting in the park, right about here, is a large grey rock, One sunny Sunday I was taking a walk, feeling a little blue and introspective, and I came upon this rock. I sat on it (it’s quite big) and ate my sandwich, which I had stashed in my backpack before I left the apartment. The rock was warm to sit on, and I was actually quite comfortable, considering I was sitting on a rock in a park on a Sunday.

I looked at the trees and the grass, just watching the wonderful things of the world all around, and I watched the people who happened by. There was a family of four–parents and two little boys. I was worried about the way they ignored the older boy and he seemed withdrawn as they lavished their attention on the baby.

After I ate I got sleepy and I might even have dozed off for a bit.

It was starting to get chilly and I decided it was time to leave. I had spent a nice day sitting on my rock (maybe it’s really a boulder?), and I had the idea that I wanted to leave a memento of my nice day, some kind of little token to mark my presence here.

I got out my notebook and tore a piece of paper into strips. On one narrow piece I wrote that this rock and I are friends, and I spent a lovely day with it, just watching the quiet passing of an afternoon. Then I folded up my note into a tiny square, and hid it in one of the little niches in the rock.

That was last summer, and the Sumac is a vivid, iridescent fuchsia this fall. I had a free day recently (which is rare–I have been so busy since I started my new job) and I decided to take a walk in the park. I ended up at my old friend the rock and sat in my favorite perch on it for a while, and then, just for fun, I looked for the little note I had hidden there one lonely summer Sunday afternoon.

I found the little niche where I had stuck my note. But my note was gone, and in its place I found a little yellow plastic whistle, You know, the kind you get in a box of Cracker Jax.

I may be making too much of this. But somehow I think there is a great significance to finding a toy where I had left my note. (Whistle-to call someone? Yellow for remembering?)

If you are the person who left a whistle for me on this rock, next time please leave your name.

Maybe I’ll find you someday.