by D. R. Mather
Kevin escorted April out of the living room and into the kitchen. Will and Barb were once again left confused.
“Huh,” said Will, “ain’t that a weird thing.” He headed back to his chair. Barb, on the other hand, turned to go to the kitchen.
Cindy grabbed her arm, “Whoa up there old paint, Kevin’s taking care of her. You go rest, you’ve been working all day and evening, you need a break.”
“But…April, she needs…”
“I told you, Kevin’s taking care of her.”
Barb began to resist the thought of such a thing, “Kevin’s a man, he doesn’t know how to take care of a stressed out woman.”
She tried to go again but Judy took her other arm. “Come on Barb, Kevin has it well in hand. Come on, sit.”
They finally got Barb to sit. She picked up her magazine and everyone went to other places to sit and wait. Barb couldn’t concentrate, it seemed, because she kept looking out the living room entrance towards the dining room, but she remained seated just as she was asked.
Kevin was wetting some paper towels; April was sitting on Barb’s work stool at the big counter. She wasn’t talking a lot and was still very upset. Kevin came up from behind her and put a wet towel across the back of her neck, then took another one and started wiping her face with it.
“You’re going to be just fine kiddo. I was wondering if one of us would get that particular power and it seems the ‘Voice’ didn’t wait. You must have a good amount of it in you if that’s the case.”
April gently took the towel from Kevin, so he took a step back and looked at her.
“You knew about this?” she asked.
“Yes. Well no… well yes… I knew it was possible for them to give someone such a gift, I just wasn’t informed that they already had decided who and then gone and done it without telling me first.” Kevin looked up at the ceiling as he said that part.
April smiled a little at that. “So what exactly was I given?” She looked up to the ceiling as well.
Kevin laughed, “I like you April, you’re alright. From what I’m hearing from you, you have something that I’m going to have to test rather than just explain.”
April half snorted, half laughed, “Last time a guy said that he almost lost his balls.”
“Well then, as I’d like mine to stay just where they are, let’s try a little experiment shall we?”
“I’m game Kevin, and I trust you, so fire away.”
“Barb’s rose, the one in the vase over at the sink, give it to me.”
April started to get up.
“AH…AH…Simon didn’t say…” Kevin sat her back down, “Hand it to me honey, with your mind.”
April looked at Kevin, then the vase, then at Kevin again, “Yeah right!”
“April, focus.” He touched her shoulder a little.
April sat and turned to face the vase head on. She squinted her eyes real tight and puffed her cheeks out; a few seconds later, she expelled a huge blast of air. “See… Nothing.”
Kevin smiled, “How about trying again. This time, no show and all go; use your mind and focus.” He touched her shoulder again, this time a bit harder. She tried to focus on the vase; nothing happened for a few seconds, then the vase went flying off the window sill at breakneck speed towards Kevin. He caught it as if it were standing still.
“HOLY SHIT!” said April. “And TWICE SHIT TOO! How the hell did you catch that? I had that puppy moving past two hundred miles an hour!”
“You have your little secrets kid, I have mine. Are you cool with this?”
April thought for a second, “I could have used it on a customer last week.”
Kevin laughed and put his arm around her, lifting her off the stool, “I think you’re ‘cool’ with it, but we need some training. You won’t just always need to be pitching fast balls.”
He took April back to the group, went over to Judy, and plopped down next to her. Judy moved next to him and asked, “Good huh?”
Kevin smiled at her, “Yes, Miss Intuitive, good, only I think Mark is no longer alive.”
Judy gasped; “Did April kill him with her mind?” The thought of that was frightening to her.
“No, I think she felt him die. That’s why she said what she did.”
Judy looked at him and said, “Icky.” They picked up their reading materials and rested a bit.
***
The next morning proved to be a rather astounding one to say the least. Kevin was up, dressed and fed before Judy had even stirred under the covers. He asked Will to bring the keys for the third floor rooms and came up with him.
“Sure, no problem Kevin, wanna check out the closed rooms do you?”
“Well, if I remember, you ‘did’ promise me the ‘full’ tour when I first came here.”
“Ha, so I did buddy, so I did. Come on, let’s go look shall we?”
As they made it to the top of the third floor, Kevin remarked, “You can already smell the dust from out here.” The stairs went half way up, and then turned in the opposite direction so that they landed right in the center of the third floor.
“Pick a room Kevin.”
He saw that there were rooms going in two directions, left and right of the stairs, with a main hall dividing them as it did downstairs. It was actually similar to the second floor, minus the library.
Kevin turned left and headed down, “Why not start on one side and work our way up, shall we?”
They went to the far left end of the wall and Kevin picked the left door. Will went to the side of Kevin and found the key that would fit the room.
“You should have these rooms numbered as well, then you’d know which key to use,” Kevin said.
“Yeah, maybe, but I never bothered because it never happened that way.”
Kevin patted him on the back, “I know buddy, I know.”
He finally found the right key and they went in. The room was empty except for a few pieces of old clothing on the floor and an old chair in the center. Kevin walked around it once, leaned into the bathroom and walked back to Will. “Shame, it’s just as fancy as the rooms downstairs, damn shame.” Kevin exited to the second door that faced the front driveway. After having the same problem with keys, Kevin suggested something, “Listen Will, this might be a touch faster if you just go ahead of me and start unlocking the doors huh?”
“Hey, good idea,” said Will, looking at him. With that, he headed off to the next room.
Kevin walked around the room and found nothing at all in there; he went to the window and looked out. Alex and Beth were in the driveway throwing snowballs at each other – Beth was kicking his ass too! Kevin smiled and walked to the bathroom. After he’d had a look in there, he left the room.
Most of the rooms were barren; a few had a small amount of things lying on the floor but nothing even worth picking up. Some had a few sticks of furniture that didn’t look like they were worth saving. Kevin and Will finally completed their visit of all the rooms on the front side of the house. Now they were making their way back from right to left again, via the back side of the house.
“I notice some rooms are smaller than others Will, is there a reason for that?”
“Well at the front of the house it’s because of the stairs. For these back ones, I’d have to guess it was a family request or my great granddad’s decision for some reason. I can’t say for sure.”
“Could be Will, who knows.”
Kevin entered the room across the hall from the stairs.
“Well now, this is more like it.” He moved into the room and Will followed.
The room had a lot of things in it. It had several wooden crates stacked in one back corner and all manner of things everywhere else.
Kevin spun around, “I think we’ll save this one for now.” He then headed out to the hall, “Will, have you been in all of the rooms in the house?”
“Up here? Nope, I looked at those two and figured they were all the same.” Will pointed to the door to the righ
t of the stairs and the one to the left of them.
“So you’ve never been in these rooms?”
“Not even as a kid. We used the second floor rooms then. Our plan was to open the second floor to guests and see how it went from there. It didn’t went.”
“Huh?” was all Kevin said. He stood across from the center stairs and thought for a second, then pointed to the left, “This way, far door on the left back room.”
Will shrugged his shoulders, “Sure thing boss.” He fell in behind Kevin.
The remaining room was pretty much the same as most of them. They were in very good condition, but mostly or completely empty. All but two, that is. Kevin was now standing between the two remaining rooms that were left. Kevin looked at both rooms. Will had unlocked both and popped the doors a bit, but never actually opened them. Kevin pointed, and went to the left door.
Will laughed behind him, “When did this become ‘let’s make a deal’?” With that, he followed Kevin in.
It was just like the one to the right of the center room – mostly filled with storage. A lot of old furniture and more crates.
“Will, I think maybe you and Barb could have a blast in here someday; just digging up your families past.”
“I guess we could at that. I think Barb would be pleased as punch to tell you the truth.”
As they exited the room, Judy was standing at the top of the stairs; all dressed up in a beautiful off-white winter sweater with a hand warmer at the bottom and heavy denim pants. She was wearing white boots that went to the top of her ankles, and they had thick white fur rolled around the tops. Kevin’s heart just melted all over again at the sight of her. Judy saw them coming out of a room and was there as quick as a wink.
She pulled Kevin’s head to hers and gave him a big wet kiss, “Good morning honey; good morning Will.”
“And a good morning to you too fireball!”
She giggled at this.
“Honey, Will and I are checking out the rooms up here if you want to go grab some breakfast before we leave.”
“I already did.”
She pulled out two blueberry muffins from each side of the hand warmer part of the sweater. All Kevin and Will could do was laugh. Kevin reached over and rubbed Judy’s head.
“That’s my girl, always ready to roll on a minute’s notice.” Kevin moved to the door of the last room to enter and stood there. Judy was off to the left side, peeking in the door of the room they had just left.
“HUMF, HOF ABTH FATH,” she said, her mouth full of muffin.
Will looked at her, “What?”
Kevin just said; “Polishing school”, and walked into the last room.
Judy called out behind him, “OFH, HAW AWTH.”
Kevin and Will could hear her giggling at her own sound. Kevin stepped into the room and it was packed solid, wall to wall. In a lot of areas things were even up to the ceiling. Old furniture, crates, hat racks, boxes marked ‘toys’, boxes with no print at all, some saying ‘China’, and a lot that you just couldn’t read without wiping the boxes off. A thick layer of dust and dirt covered everything. Kevin weaved his way around towards the head of the room where the windows were. He looked there but kept moving. Suddenly he stopped and looked down.
“There you are,” he said and he bent down.
Will was on his tip toes trying to see where Kevin had gone. “Kevin, did the room suck you in?” Kevin didn’t hear Will; he was locked onto what he was looking at. “Okay, be that way,” continued Will, “I’m sending in the body sniffing dog.” He turned Judy on the hunt, “Go fetch girl, go fetch me a Kevin.” Judy barked and was off, weaving in and out of boxes and furniture. She soon disappeared as well. Then Will heard an “OWW… OWW… OWWOOO.”
“Good doggy,” he yelled and headed in. He found Kevin still kneeling on the floor; a big strong box in front of him. It was made of steel, with steel straps laid across from back to front, then left to right across the top. It had three locks set one third apart from each other in the front. It was about two feet long, over a foot high and about a foot and a half deep from front to back. Kevin began taking things off that were stacked on top of it. Judy helped clear the box for Kevin.
“Well, well, what have we here?”
Both Will and Kevin had noticed the minute they stepped into this room that the things in here were MUCH older than those in the other two rooms. They were clearly from the 1800s.
Kevin pulled the box out and went over to an old table; “Hun, can you clear this please?”
“Sure thing handsome,” and Judy cleared the table. Kevin put the box down and began to examine it. Will was only there for the entertainment now; this was Kevin’s thing from this point on. Kevin looked at every aspect of the box, every strap, every corner and all three locks.
“Will, didn’t I see a four inch power grinder in your shop in the back pool house?”
“Yip, you sure did, only, I put it in a roll away toolbox to bring into the house for the winter, just in case. The snow gets pretty deep out back, as we don’t usually shovel it. Now the roll away is in the ballroom.”
“Great, wait here and I’ll run and get it.”
Kevin was most of the way to the bedroom door when Will snapped his finger, “You can get it if you want Kevin, but unless you plan on spinning the wheel really, really fast with your fingers it won’t do you much good, there isn’t any power on up here.”
“Okay, then you take the box outside and I’ll meet you there with the grinder.”
“Can do Kevin.”
He got no more than a foot from the door and then stopped because he could hear Will and Judy:
“Christ, this thing weighs a ton. Judy grab the other side.”
“Will I can’t lift it.”
Kevin called out, “Will?”
“Yeah Kevin?”
“I’ll get the box, you go get the grinder.”
He couldn’t see them but he heard Will say, “This is your fault, I told you to eat your Wheaties, didn’t I?”
“Oh, look who’s talking, Mr. ‘I AM MAN, hear me roar.’”
Kevin was chuckling as he headed back into the Frey, “God I love this place.”
They passed each other through the piles of boxes and Kevin tilted an invisible hat to them “Howdy ma’am, Sir.”
Will responded back, “And a fine day to you Sir,” followed by Judy’s, “A pleasure I’m sure.”
Out in the main entrance, Kevin was cutting away at the second lock; there was a shower of sparks cascading out into a snow bank and the first lock was sitting on the walkway now. Judy was sitting on a marble seat next to Will.
“Are you here for the grand unveiling ma’am?” Will asked her.
“Oh no sir, I’m here simply for the fireworks display”
Kevin had to stop and turn around to them; he was laughing rather hard, “Will you two stop, I have work to do here.”
“Sorry Kevin, my mistake, I’ll be quiet,” said Will.
“Well, I dare say,” said Judy, as she flipped an invisible hand fan and began waving it in front of her face.
Kevin looked at this and said, “Remind me never to take either of you to an old west show; I don’t think I could survive it, I really don’t.” Then he went back to cutting.
Fifteen minutes later, the third and final lock hit the walkway. By now, everyone at the inn had circled Kevin. He sat back on the heels of his feet and stared.
“Well, here goes,” he said, and he opened the box.
It was chock full with papers, all of them very old. It seemed to be fairly well preserved though. Kevin began to reach in, then stopped and turned to Will.
“Would you like the honors?”
“Nope, it’s your show kid, it stopped being my show the minute you carried that damn thing down from the third floor to here alone. Please, be my guest.”
Kevin reached in, but only lightly moved things around; he didn’t want to damage anything. A lot of it seemed to be invoices for somet
hing. They all had pretty much the same lines filled in on each piece of paper. The paper itself seemed to still have some strength left in it so Kevin took out the top one.
“It’s a shipping invoice, its dated 1909, June.”
Will spoke up; “My great granddad died on September 16th, 1909.”
Kevin read some more. “This was for a shipment of gold that was pulled out here, smelted here, and then shipped off to the U.S. government.” He read what was sent, it said two ‘Good delivery, bars totaling 800 ounces’. Kevin started to figure it out but didn’t even begin to fire up his old math brain when Judy said, “Fifty pounds.”
Everyone turned to her, “What?”
“800 ounces, divided sixteen to a pound, is fifty pounds!”
Kevin tried a fake off, “Ah, yes, she’s right.”
Will smacked him in the head, “Who are you kidding; Judy had the answer while you were still trying to figure out how many ounces to a pound.”
Kevin ducked in case there was a second blow, “Okay, okay, we seem to have a brain child among us, I get it. Now no more hitting, my brain already hurts from doing the ounces to a pound part.” Everyone laughed. Kevin went on to read, “Will, this tells me that your great-grandfather had a contract of some type with the U.S. Government. It seems to be 1% from what I see here.” Kevin pulled up the next invoice in line, which was dated three months before, and looked below that. He did this again a few times more, then turned to Will, “From what I’m able to glance over, they were sending this amount, more or less, every three months to the Feds. Will, this says ONE PERCENT of smelted weight! Do you have any idea how much they were pulling out from here?”
Judy started to answer and Kevin said, “Hang on Einstein, the amounts vary a lot from shipment to shipment, I was just making a general point.”
“I know they did quite well,” said Will.
“Quite well?” Didn’t you tell me that near the end, when they closed the mines, that most of it was already gone?”
“As a matter of fact, I believe I did.”
“What amazes me is how your past family managed to blow it all. This must have been one major haul in its heyday.”