Wiping off the dust
Posted on Mon Nov 23rd, 2020 @ 1:58pm by Lieutenant Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell
Edited on on Mon Nov 23rd, 2020 @ 9:34pm
Mission:
Healing of Minds
Location: Vulcan / Smithsonian on Earth
Timeline: Current and Past
Her giggle could be heard rebounding off the large alabaster halls making it difficult, though not impossible, to track her and her friend down. They had only been hiding for ten minutes or so and he had followed his normal course throughout the mission, checking the dinosaurs first, followed by the ruins of ancient Greece, and now to where the mummies lay dormant. He smiled as he entered the cavernous room, and another giggle rose up from within. He was neering her location and she was having trouble containing her excitement, as usual.
The dry planet below spun unimpressively below. It was hot, it was dry. She had debated for hours about the worth of trying to go down to the surface, a place she had visited only once before. Vulcan literature was beautifully written, but as dry emotionally as the people and the air. They were not much of a commercial society though there were areas that catered to off worlders, mostly souvenir shops and food courts. None of which appealed to her. So she stood, staring out the window at the planet below, her leave from the ship and duty coming up soon, with the horizon.
He knelt down, his knees groaning as he did so, into a crouched position. He projected his voice to fake his location as per protocol, “Now, where on earth could those giggles be coming from?” And no sooner had he said it when a pair of giggles erupted once more into the acoustics of the room. It was enough to bring a smile to his face as he lingered just long enough to embrace the moment before reaching out and lifting the skirt surrounding the display, only to find it empty and devoid of giggle. Strike one.
This trip required a refreshing and lightweight onsemble, loose fitting pants and an off the shoulder shirt. To tie it together, she placed a wide brimmed hat with a chiffon scarf for embellishment upon her head. Then, because she simply could not be without, she tucked her reading tablet neatly under one arm and nodded her approval to the woman which stood before her in the mirror. It was a refreshing moment to let one's hair down and she was going to take advantage of the time while it was here. Minutes later she was in the transporter room, double checking the landing coordinates, just in case. Before transporting to the surface.
The room held several areas where one might hide, but few where the giggles could be coming from. Like any good parent though he had to play the game as it was meant to be played. Finding the child on the first try left no room for mystery or excitement. As he moved to the stone tablet containing sample hieroglyphs he called out, "gotcha!" Poking his head behind the stone only to find nothing. "Hmmm. Not there either. I wonder where she could be?" He scratched his chin with an amused smile. Strike two.
There was a light breeze, just enough to stir the dust and blow chiffon scarves about unruly. Ahead of her though, sanctuary within the shoppers bazaar. It was not unlike the ancient Turkish bazaar in Istanbul in the fact that they shared a similar name and format. Otherwise the noise level and flare were lost on the Vulcan people. They just didn't see the logic in the art of salesmanship. The Ferengi, however, knew how to sell a girl a new pair of boots she didn't even know she needed.
One last place to look. Small stage, ominous lighting, large stone sarcophagus. She had never feared the dead even with the chance her mother would never be coming back from her adventure through the stars. The mummy inside had actually been a draw to the young girl. He surmised once that she missed her mommy so much she would cling to her mummy instead. It was an amusing sentiment if not a little off-putting.
He had one more trick up his sleeve. "Fee fi foe fum I hear the giggles of a little one." Which in turn garnered the giggle he needed to turn out a hearty belly laugh as he peeked around the mummy resting place to find his daughter and her little friend. "Gotcha." He said while grabbing and tickling her. She let out a laugh that turned into a shriek which echoed the museum walls and out into the halls.
carpets and tapestries, linens and textiles were not her thing. Some trinkets and odd bobbles were also not something she wanted. That painting is an obvious fake while that urn probably contains the ashes of someone's dead grandma. Shop after shop of disappointment in discovery as nothing held that zing, that mystery and intrigue she was looking for. Years of her life were spent in the marvels of history and the antiquities that were on display at her father's place of work, the Smithsonian museum in old D.C.
After calming the girls and helping pack up her friend from their play date, little Bonnie waved goodbye and followed her papa back into the museum. He still had some things to tend to before they went home and she, well she had her usual questions.
"Papa, why did the dinosaurs die? Papa what killed them? Papa, did it hurt when those men poked the fluffy elephant with the pointy sticks?" This particular night however her inquisitive mind also had other things on her mind. Things that made men weep at night. "Papa, will mama be home tonight? Papa, when will mommy be home?" And finally as they reached his office, "Papa, why do you like all of these old dusty things?"
Throughout it all he maintained a peaceful and caring response pattern knowing that developing minds sought answers and while they couldn't process every response, giving information was better than giving the breath of silence to a wondering child.
"Most died of starvation. It was a combination of asteroid collision and greenhouse gases. I am sure it hurt them very much. No, I am sorry. Soon, I hope. She was just beyond comms range last time we called, remember?" The last question though gave him a moment to pause and think. 'A teachable moment.' He looked into her attentive eyes needing answers and took her by the hand. "Come Bon-bon, let me show you why."
After an hour or so perusing the local shops and finding nothing she was interested in, her tummy rumbled indicating she was hungry. Lucky for her there were a few food stalls near the strip which just happened to serve delicacies from around the quadrant. After looking over the various stahls including a Kartellian Pretzel, a Breen Ice Cream stand and a competing Andorian Ice Cream stand, she settled on a Vulcan shop while muttering the phrase, “When in Rome.”
Minutes later a stoic looking Vulcan sat a bowl of Jumbo Mollusk and a glass of Plomeek tea on the small table in front of her, then stood like a statue and waited for her to sample them both. She nodded while ignoring the awkwardness of his gaze, knowing he didn’t mean to be awkward by invading her bubble of personal space and he probably didn’t give two thoughts on the subject. She took a sip of her tea first, it was smooth and a tad bland for her liking but the aroma lifted straight through her sinus cavity into her brain, tingling her senses. Then she sat the cup back down and sampled the mollusk broth. Again it was bland on her tongue and tasted like overcooked buttered crab.
The Vulcan waiter took her expression to mean she had liked the entree, nodded and then took leave of her table. She continued to sample the soup and the mollusk while casually observing the local people and establishments. So many off world people, tourists, yet very few Vulcans seemed to pervey the landscape. Obviously they found such locations of little interest to themselves or failed to see the logic in such places.
The door parted and he led little Bonnie inside a room filled with artifacts in various stages of cleaning and restoration. There were two employees working diligently on two very different projects. The woman with the blonde hair looked up from her work, “Hello Doctor Durnell, and is that little Bonnie? Oh my she’s grown up a lot since I’ve seen her last.”
Turkov, the man with the blue skin and tiny antlers responded, "Anita, you say that everytime you see her. That is how the aging process works and you know it."
Anita responded with daggers for eyes but no words. Doctor Durnell smiled and carried on. "She has come to see why we do what we do." To which Anita clapped her hands rapidly in excitement and beckoned for Bonnie to come and sit on her knee.
Bonnie climbed up onto Anitas knee as requested and gazed at the spread of artifacts on the table. To her they were dusty old trinkets with little to no value. That is until Anita spoke in a soft voice with an aire of mystery. "Some of these items date back thousands of years. Archaeologists dug them up, studied them and then turned them over to us."
Bonnie finished her mollusk and thanked the nice Vulcan waiter with a smile and a friendly wave, then made her way back towards the shops and down an alley shaded by dust covered tarps that flapped in the small breeze. It was a cramped and shady corner of the market but Bonnie understood that to find something special one has to dig deep. The joy was often in the search.
As she traveled deeper into the market a particular shop with shiny tinker toys in the entryway caught her attention. They appeared human made in their simplistic construction. One particular doll, like a flat pillow with sewn edges and red yard for hair made Bonnie smile as she touched it. She had dollies as a child but they often went unplayed with because she was too busy playing pretend or had her nose buried in a hollow lesson. When she looked up to find the shop keep and ask how much the doll was, something else caught her eye, something shiny in spots, but mostly covered in a thick layer of dust.
"Like pirate treasure?" Bonnie asked innocently. She and her papa had been reading Treasure Island for a bedtime story and her favorite part was when he did the pirate voices.
"Exactly. But sometimes things like this.” She placed a half cleaned vase, clean side down on the table in front of her. All that could be seen was dirt and rock that wrapped the vase like a cocoon. “This needs an expert's touch to bring out it’s beauty. It needs someone to wipe away the dust, making it new again.” She turned the vase around revealing a Dynasty era vase that had at one time been cracked and put back together with a ribbon of fine gold.
“But it’s been broken. Who would want that?” Bonnie asked.
Anita smiled and was about to answer when Turkov responded for her, “The gold inlay makes the vase even more valuable because it means someone cared enough to take the time to preserve it, much like what we do here.”
She moved forward, her eyes large as she questioned the find in front of her. Her hands reaching out and her mind remembering the words from long ago. ‘Wipe away the dust’. She ran her hands along the brittle plastic frame, and touched the glass screen and the small apple sticker with a bite taken out of it. Her mind raced to know, did it still work after all this time or was this simply a paperweight piece of trash someone was trying to hock in a back alley?
“So, if something is lost and broken it can be found and put back together again?” Bonnie asked, a tear streaming down her cheek.
Anita frowned. Dr. Durnell answered as he picked his daughter up and looked at her in the eyes. “Many things, but not all. The more we love and care for something, the more it has potential worth to us and to others. That’s why we do what we do here, do you understand Bonnie?”
Bonnie nodded then asked her papa one more question he struggled to answer for himself. “Is Mommy lost or broken papa?”
From behind Bonnie rose a voice from a little Ferengi who had been watching her. “If you like that Apple II Computer, I have something you will love even more.”
TBC
