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Smell coffee. Jessica already up. Alex rolled over. He hadn't noticed when she got up. Or didn't remember. He sat up and swung his feet off the bed and onto the floor. Hit the deck, assume the position. How many? Been on thirty-two, no thirty-three now. Since Monday. Time for thirty-four? Nah, next Monday. Doin' good, no need to rush. He did the pushups without pausing. They always got the circulation and breathing going. Six months ago I couldn't do one. He went into the kitchen, a coffee cup waited by the coffeemaker. Jessica was getting the Pop-Tarts out. Alex filled the cup and went to the table. Jessica put the Pop-Tarts in the toaster and pushed down the lever. She came back and sat down. "Is it weird to eat Pop-Tarts every day?" he asked. "Beats me." Jessica smiled. "You got me started. I got in a habit of doing it at home, even when weren't staying together all the time. I think maybe there's something about the morning routine being simple and easy. No cleanup, get the day going quickly." "Makes sense. Was it always cherry?" Jessica laughed. "Frosted cherry. Once or twice you got upset because your usual store was out. We went to Hays - you never went there but it was the closest other store - and luckily they had some. You started buying a half dozen boxes at a time." "I ever try any other flavors?" "By the time we were together you were all cherry all the time. Frosted cherry. You told me, long ago, when I asked you that, that you tried some others. Apple, strawberry, maybe some others. But cherry was it." "Frosted cherry." "Oh yeah. Without frosting you wouldn't touch them." Wish I could remember those times. I'm not sure I remember what we did yesterday. Talked to Harry, but I know it happened, don't have any picture of it in my mind. "When's Brenda likely to be in town again?" he asked. "She's in town every couple of weeks. Want to see her again?" "If she has some time. I'm trying to figure out this memory thing. I'm seeing flashes now and then, when something triggers them I guess. I wonder what they mean. "I'll give her a call. She'll be interested in your progress, and any developments." "That'd be good." "How about the place?" Jessica asked. "You seemed to like it." "A lot. Let's get started. Have Laura offer four-fifty. He seems like a good guy, we can afford it. Might have to dig up the gold." "Maybe not. You could pay for it out you your current bank balances, but there's no need. You've got collateral, your farm, the house in Paragould is an easy hundred, hundred-fifty. And your 401k, and the farm. You might want to take out a loan - you could pay if off any time you wanted. The only problem is your only official income being Social Security. But we can probably work something out. "The main thing about a loan is the bank will make sure all the details are correct - title search and insurance, a survey - and it doesn't attract the attention of the IRS the way a cash purchase would." "Makes sense," Alex said. "I like the part about being under the radar." "And I forgot about your inheritance." said Jessica. "That's probably worth as much as Gilbert's place. I'll give Laura a call and have her get started." Jessica picked up her phone and called. "Hi, Laura. Jessica. Alex says let's do it. Start at four-fifty." Pause. "Yeah, just use this number. We're free pretty much anytime." "OK, she's on it." she said to Alex. "What next?" "Let's take a look at the farm. I'd like to get some ideas about how we get that gold out if we need to. That'll probably take most of the day. Maybe call Scott and see if he's up for some shooting. I need the practice. And figure what kind of weaponry we need to be carrying. The way Harry talks, this could get serious.
"We've had enough rain by now it should be easy to dig." Alex said. "This looks like the tool." The long narrow blade of the shovel suggested it had been used recently, with a few bits of mud on it. Even though it hadn't been used in over a year. Like everything else in here. They walked out to the fence, Jessica carrying the metal detector. "OK, third from the left." she said, looking at the map. "Let's check." She used the metal detector to check. "OK, ready to dig?" Alex pushed the shovel into the ground, adjusted the angle, pushed down hard, then down. A large chunk of wet earth came up, he tossed it aside. About six inches. Shouldn't be too bad. Gotta get under the post though. At least that's what I'm thinking. In a few minutes the shovel was no longer striking the post. Something gave slightly. "Something under the post." he said. "Three feet. This is going to be fun." The hole was much wider when he finished. He lay facedown, reaching into the hole. "Something there, moving." he said. "I might as well get it out and see what's in it. Hope nobody's watching us." He enlarged the hole, making enough room to pull out the container under the post. "Here you go," he said, handing it to Jessica. "It's heavy." Jessica grasped the cylinder and pulled up, laid it on the ground. Alex climbed out of the hole. Mud all over me. Should have brought a change of clothes. "Let me fill this hole." he said. "I don't expect we'll want to rebury them." He refilled the hole. Somehow there didn't seem to be enough dirt to completely fill it. There would be a low spot there. Easy to spot, anybody comes by. They want to do that much work, good luck. Besides they'll have to know where to dig. "We'll need to keep an eye on the place." he said. "Let's get inside and see what we have."
The cylinder was about eighteen inches long and approximately eight in diameter. Each end was covered with a cap of the same material. "PVC pipe," Jessica said. "You remember how you did it?" PVC. Yeah, must be something ubiquitous. Glue the fittings on, plumbing. "We'll probably have to cut it open." Alex said. "I probably was only planning to open them once, if ever. Need a saw. What's out in the shop?" "You've got all kinds of tools. Let's take a look." Damn, this is heavy. They went out to the smaller shop, which had workbenches along the back wall. Two more long benches were separated by about ten feet of floor space, their ends a few feet apart. Alex set the cylinder on one of the benches at the back. "Hacksaw I guess," he said, looking over the array of hand tools. "Wonder when I... there's one." He took the saw down, turned to examine the cylinder. "Guess I cut around, just under the cap. This may take a while." A large vise looked like a good place to secure it. If it was big enough. It was, barely. He balanced the cylinder between the jaws and tightened them. OK, here we go. He had to loosen the jaws to turn the cylinder several times as he worked, finally it was back to the beginning of the cut. Loosening the jaws again he tilted the cylinder so the open end was elevated, tightened it again. Inside was a large plastic bag, apparently a heavy duty trash bag. He pulled it out, got both hands under it, laid it on the bench. "Well, here they are," he said, removing the coin tubes and lining them up. "Ten. Ten, no twenty in each tube. Two hundred." "That's two hundred ounces of gold." Jessica said. "What's gold about now? he asked. "Beats me," Jessica said. She wiped her hands on her jacket and took out her phone. "Nineteen-sixty-three and change." "Hmm, what's that? Almost two hundred times two hundred's forty thousand." "Approximately." Jessica said. "I gold and silver are both going up lately." "What'd we find, twenty-seven?" "Yeah." Jessica smiled. "You certainly don't need to worry about money." "Yeah. Just a few other things I'd rather not have to." |
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