Asta Disappears

Asta Disappears

by Rick Messner

"He's gotta be somewhere around here."

"Why do you think that?"

"I don't know, just a feeling, I guess."

"Well, I think your feeling is wrong, he's not here."

"How do you know, we've hardly looked."

"I have feelings, too and mine say he's not here and not only that, they say he was in the red car that raced by a couple minutes ago."

"Did you see him in there?"

"No, but I think he was or could have been."

"I saw the same red car and he wasn't in there."

"It was going pretty fast so you can't be sure."

"Neither can you."

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

"I heard something, it came from the woods and sounded like him."

"I didn't hear anything and we're not going in the woods to find out."

"We have to, I'm pretty sure it was him."

"Pretty isn't attractive enough to get me in the woods. You're not sure you heard him if you heard anything at all but I'm sure the woods are dangerous, an unsafe place. Have you forgotten a body was found in there a few weeks ago? No, I know you haven't. Remember what happened whenever the kids from 'Stranger Things' went into the woods?"

"Why don't you remind me?"

"Bad things, that's what."

"We're not going to base our decisions on where to search on some stupid TV show. I’m basing my decision on I heard something and I'm going in there to find out what it was. You can come with me or stay here but I'm going."

"Hey, come back here. Come back here... Wait up. Jane, wait for me."

"Dick, where are you? Hey, Dick... Damn, I thought he was right behind me."

"Over here, sprained by ankle."

"Coming... What happened?"

"Tripped over a branch, twisted my ankle, I think it's sprained. See if you can find that branch behind me, I might be able to use it as a walking stick. Where's your flashlight, it's pitch black in here? Never mind, use mine."

"I've got one. I didn't have it out because I thought I heard Asta and got caught up in the thrill of the chase. Here's your stick, get up and see if you can walk with it."

"Not bad, a little crooked but it'll do. Asta, Asta."

"What are you doing, not so loud, it's dangerous in here or did you forget?"

"We're in here looking for Asta or did you forget? And we're not going to find him if we keep quiet, we have to call for him so he can hear us and come to us."

"Too dangerous."

"What was that? Sounded like something running through the brush and it sounded like something big."

"Sounds can get enhanced at night. Remember the time we were camping in the back yard and heard a squirrel in the bushes you thought was a bear?"

"You have no proof it was a squirrel and not a bear. There it is again, Asta, here Asta. That's his bark, it's Asta. Here Asta, over here, Asta."

"You're right, it's him. Here Asta...good boy, Asta. What's that in your mouth? Turn loose, Asta, let me have that thing. It's a key on a key chain, wonder where he got it."

"Let me see it. It's a skeleton key, looks really old."

"He came through here, I'm pretty sure."

"Did you hear that, someone's coming, and I think they're after Asta. Look flashlights, kill your light."

"Let's hide."

"No, they'll hear us if we move and it's too dark for them to see us unless they shine lights right on us. Lie down and we'll be ok unless Asta barks."

"Be quiet, Asta."

"OK, that's enough for now, it's almost dinner time."

"No, don't stop now, we wanna know what happens to Asta and Jane and Dick."

"Yeah, what's a skeleton key and what does it unlock?"

"Why is the dog's name Asta, I've never heard of a dog called Asta? It's a stupid name."

"Well, I'll have you know that once upon a long time ago Asta was a very famous dog's name, more famous than Lassie or Rin Tin Tin. And it's still famous today as the answer to a crossword puzzle clue."

"That's just because it's a four-letter word with two vowels."

"Who are Lassie and Rin Tin Tin?"

"Never mind. Asta was famous because he was a character in a series of books called 'The Thin Man' which was also a series of movies and a TV series and Asta was a character in all of them."

"I've never seen 'The Thin Man' on TV."

"It was on a long time ago. I watched it when I was a kid around the same age as you guys."

"Was that about a million years ago?"

"Something like that, maybe a little less."

"Why were the books called, 'The Thin Man?"

"Because the main character was skinny."

"Why wasn't it called 'The Skinny Man?"

"Because that was too silly, like you."

"Your silly too, Grampa."

"I know."

"OK you guys, go wash your hands, dinner is almost ready."

"No, can it wait fifteen minutes so we can hear more of the story, so far it's a little confusing?"

"Dinner can't wait but the story can now get washed up."

"See Dad, I told you the kids wouldn't get it. I didn't get it either when you read it to me when I was a little girl. What does happen to the terrific threesome and the key, anyway, I can't remember."

"That's because I never wrote the ending. When I read the story to you, I made up an ending on the fly and can't remember what it was. I'll do the same thing when I finish reading the story after dinner."

"May I be excused?"

"May I be excused?"

"May I be excused?"

"May I be excused?"

"What’s up with you guys?"

"We wanna hear the end of Gramp's story."

"OK, you may all be excused."

"May I be excused?"

"Yes, Dad, you may be excused, too. Did you come up with an ending?"

"No"

"Hmm, this should be interesting, I think I'll join the audience."

"OK, I have a confession to make. Our story does not have an ending, so we need to create one even though no story really ends if you think about it. So, how should we conclude the story about Jane, Dick, and Asta?"

"We have to tell what the skeleton key opens."

"No, skeleton keys open lots of different kinds of locks."

"We can still have them find one lock it unlocks, and it should be an old lock because that’s what skeleton keys are for."

"We also need to say something about the body found in the woods."

"No, they went into the woods after the body was found so it wasn’t there anymore."

"OK, then they find another body."

"Too many bodies, forget finding bodies, it'll make things too complicated."

"Asta needs to do something."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, you figure it out."

"Asta takes the key and runs back into the woods to a cave that has a big, locked treasure chest and the key unlocks it but it's empty because the key unlocks something else that is the key to our story. Ha, ha, I made a joke."

"Your joke isn't funny and there are no caves in the woods."

"So what, this is fiction, meaning we can put a cave in the woods if we need one."

"Right, but what's the other thing the key unlocks?"

"The treasure chest isn't completely empty. It contains a map that leads to an old cabin with a locked door the key unlocks.

"What's in the cabin?"

"A dead body."

"No, a skeleton."

"A skeleton is just a body of someone who's been dead a really long time and we said we were done with bodies."

"No we didn't."

"The cabin has another locked treasure chest, the key unlocks it, and it's full of gold and jewels."

"No, it's only full of gold, Confederate gold."

"Why not Union gold?"

"I don't know, it sounds scarier."

"How do they know it's Confederate gold?"

"The skeleton is dressed in a Confederate uniform."

"What do they do with the gold?"

"Show it to their parents who just lost their jobs, and the parents take it home and they all live happily ever after."

"Yuck, we gotta do better than that."

"We can stop with finding the gold and skeleton in the cabin. What they do after that belongs in another story called a sequel."

"Yeah, like the next season of 'Stranger Things'."

"No, we should tell what they do with the gold, but they shouldn't just give it to their parents, too nerdy."

"Hey, watch it."

"Sorry, Mom."

"What do you think Gramps?"

"Up to you guys. We can stop with the discovery of the gold which sets things up for a sequel or we can keep going."

"Let's sleep on it. Maybe we'll come up with some more ideas."

"OK, for now we'll call this the conclusion, not the end, of 'Asta Disappears'."