A Journey Toward Understanding

The shrill ring of the telephone pierced the night air. There is something about the sound of a telephone that jars the senses.

As used to it as we are, it is not an easy sound. It is harsh and insistent. It demands attention much like the cry of a baby or a child in trouble. And, at 9:00 at night, it was unlikely to be casual conversation.

Both members of the Larson household were startled by the sound. Darkness had settled in, dinner was over and the sink stacked with dishes to be washed in the morning. Dad and daughter had finished sparring about chores undone, homework, choices of music and other things that they could never quite agree on.

An uneasy truce hung in the air. Each person had staked out their camp for the evening. Rachel was spread out at the dining room table. She was, as she called it, multi tasking. It was possible she insisted, to listen to an Eminem CD, instant message a friend and do algebra homework at the same time.

Rick was settled into his favorite spot, a worn recliner by the fireplace with a cup of tea and a scientific periodical. He was a Park Ranger for a neighboring town. It was a job that demanded a lot of time and many varied skills.

On any given day he could be teaching a program to school kids on native plants, kicking teenagers with beer out of the park, setting up an exhibit for the ranger station or answering a phone call about what to do with an injured hawk. It was an interesting job but not one that a 14 year old girl could easily relate to.

It was into this room that the phone call came and as Rachel bolted from her chair to grab it; neither person realized the impact this one call and the journey it would spark on each of them. The phone call was a cry for help.

A fawn had been found abandoned by the side of the road in one of the parks that Rick patrolled. A motorist had found it. Rick knew that a doe had been hit and killed near that same spot two days earlier so it was possible this was her fawn. The baby was weak and listless but still alive.

Rick prepared to leave. On a whim, Rachel asked to join him. Ordinarily she would have stayed home but there was not much going on and it seemed like an adventure of sorts. Rick looked at her carefully as if studying whether this was a good idea and slowly nodded his consent.

The two of them set off together into the night. Neither one was sure what lay ahead. The first part of the drive was a silent one. Both were lost in their own thoughts. Rick was making mental lists of what he needed to gather for the deer and what its chances might be after two days alone. Rachel was listening to CDs and watching the dark world slide by the car window.

The evening was overcast and not even the moon was visible through the cloud cover. As they neared the spot where the fawn had been seen, Rachel clicked off her CD player and began to study the man who was her father. It was just the two of them now since her mom had been killed in a car accident five years ago.

He was not much of a talker and not someone Rachel felt comfortable going to with stories and concerns from her 14 year old world. Since she had lost her mother, Rachel had had to forge her own way and build her own circle of friends for support. The clearing loomed ahead and father and daughter looked for the orphan in the high beams of the van.

At first there was nothing visible in the tangle of weeds and shrubs by the roadside and then as their eyes adjusted, they both saw it. It was a small and helpless bundle lying in the long grass. Rachel's heart ached to see it lying there all alone. Something in the scene reminded her of how empty and alone she had felt five years ago when she learned that her own mother would not be coming home.

It had been a collision with a drunken driver that had killed her mother. She had been on her way home from the grocery store when the accident happened. She had died instantly they said. Rachel had been angry then, angry that the accident had happened and angry somehow that her father had not been able to make it all right.

Rachel's thoughts returned to the present as the car stopped and her father got out. She followed him to study the baby in the weeds. The fawn was very weak, probably dehydrated and in shock her father guessed out loud. Rick carried the fawn to the car. He tried to get it to stand, but its legs were too wobbly to support its weight.

Rachel hurried to make a nest of rags and towels in the back of the van and carefully they laid the fawn down. The fawn needed food so their next destination was the Stop & Shop.

As they drove towards town, Rachel couldn't help but check the deer every couple of minutes to see if its little chest was still rising and falling. It was such a fragile little package and it was in their care. Father and daughter worked as a team to scan the labels on all the cans of formula.

They finally found one in the pet aisle. Next they had to find a bottle. They bought two different types in case one didn't work. Back in the car, Rachel was impressed with how efficiently her dad worked. He didn't have a lot to say but he certainly knew what he was doing. She supported the fawn while her father forced small quantities of formula down the baby's throat.

It was so weak that it could hardly swallow. The effort of drinking seemed to exhaust it. As she and her dad worked, Rachel was peripherally aware of late night shoppers moving past their van. They were lost in their own conversations and their own worlds and she knew that none of them could ever imagine the rescue mission underway in their parked van.

When they had forced as much liquid as they could into the fawn, her dad gently laid it down on the blankets again. They had done all they could. Both of them knew that. Now it was up to the fawn. Time would tell if they had made it there in time and if the fawn had the strength to continue to fight.

They stopped briefly on the way home to grab a bale of hay from a construction site. Studying her father, Rachel knew that he was probably puzzling out in his head where they would put the deer and how they would secure the site for the night. One didn't always need conversation to solve problems she realized. She was a talker.

She liked to sort things out with words but people could solve problems by thinking them through quietly too she realized. Different people could have different styles. At home they fenced in a corner of the yard. A log pile formed one wall and a pine tree another.

They used logs and wire to close in the other two sides and they filled it with hay. There was a peace that came with knowing that they had done all that they could. Gently they settled the deer into the hay and covered it as best they could to ensure it stayed warm.

Rachel's sleep that night was filled with images of the fawn and the car drive with her father intermingled with images of another night long ago. She saw her mom's face and the mangled car and her dad's silence. They all mixed together and tangled in her mind and finally gave way to a deep and dreamless sleep that follows hard work and exhaustion.

Morning came and Rachel rushed downstairs to see the deer. When her eyes met her Dad's in the kitchen, the sadness there told the whole story. The fawn had not survived the night. It didn't have the strength to fight anymore. It was too weak. She went with her Dad into the woods to bury the fawn.

It was a quiet journey but somehow the words were not missed. There was an understanding between them that had not existed before. Words were not always necessary, Rachel was coming to understand. Hard work, shared experiences and common goals could sometimes take the place of conversation. Rachel had a new understanding of the man who worked beside her.

She mourned the fawn, but she knew that it was at peace and its spirit would return to the woods around them. She and her Dad had done all that they possibly could and somehow right now, that had to be enough.

Article provided by

View more articles | Information provided by collegeanduniversity.net