The Adventures Of Indiana

Meet Indiana, I hope you will love her as much as I do.

Indiana wished she were a boy.  Her father had wanted a boy.  He had even named her after the roughest, toughest character ever to grace the silver screen, Indiana Jones.  She tried very hard to live up to her namesake.  She fought with the meanest boys in her fifth grade class, performed daring acts of rescue to save the neighbor’s cat from a fate worse than death (Angus the doberman), and she scoured the countryside excavating for artifacts.

Was her father proud of her?  She didn’t know, he never said.  Mostly he just said things like, “Stay out of my office and don’t touch the books.”  Indiana tried to obey, but that was difficult even on her best days.  Her favorite past-time was sitting under the window air-conditioning unit in his office, reading a forbidden book and smoking one of his cigars.

One book in particular always piqued her interest, Ancient Archaeology 2050-750 B.C.  It was Indiana’s habit to sneak it from her father’s study and curl up in bed with it.  One night she drifted off to sleep reading a chapter on the Philistine Empire. 

A tickle brushed Indiana’s cheek and she woke with a start.  Dark, dry vines spilled from between the pages.  Touching a leaf, Indiana found herself squinting against a desert sun.  She pulled the bill of her hat forward and grasped the whip that hung from her side.  Angry shouts rang out.  She realized her left hand was clutching a stone.  Pausing briefly to examine it, she noted its smooth texture.  Obviously an ancient rock the blemishes had been worn down from use. Instinctively she knew it was one of the stones of David.  Clutching the artifact, Indiana turned her face into the desert wind and ran.  She ran fast.  She ran like Billy Simpkons running for the bathroom the day beef stroganoff was on the school lunch menu.   

Men pursued her into the city.  Scampering between the stalls, she turned right and then left.  Hopping over a pottery stand she rounded the corner coming face to face with a giant.  A balding gargantuan, he stood like a mountain and blocked her escape.  The villain grasped Indiana by the collar and yanked her up into his face.  His fetid breath caused her to gag.   She kicked out and slammed her boot into his stomach.  Wriggling free from his grip she dropped to the ground and ducked between his legs.  Before he had a chance to grab her a second time, she bolted down a back alley.  Shots pinged off the walls as she stumbled briefly to her knee.  No time to waste, up again she ran.  Indiana felt she had never ran so fast in her whole life.  Endlessly twisting and turning, bullets flying past her head.  She sucked the air into her lungs, heaving from exhaustion.  Her mind stayed focused, she would not give up.  Indiana was determined to live long enough to place the stone in her father’s hand.

The bullets forced her back into the vendor filled streets.  Running past a carpet stand, Indiana’s feet became entangled.  She fell hard on her face and the stone leapt from her hand.  She watched defeated as it rolled out of her sight into the busy street.  Swearing, Indiana pushed herself up off of the floor, slammed the book shut and climbed back under her covers.