by D. R. Mather
Everyone was silent now, working on their own fantasies. Kevin pushed the invoices forward to see how deep the stack went and as he did so, he uncovered two scrolls bound with ribbon and a wax seal.
“Well now, come to papa.” Kevin pulled them out; he had to take off his glove because something didn’t feel right about the paper. “Shit, they’re sheepskin. This has got to be the original contract with the Feds.” Everyone was glued to Kevin now, if someone had set off a firecracker behind them, the group would be sitting on the roof. Kevin looked back inside the strong box, “These and the invoices seem to be about it.” Kevin closed the box while handing the scrolls to Will, “I believe you’re going to have the honor of breaking the seals.”
“But what if they are worth more unbroken?”
“They won’t be. Unless we know what they contain, how could you put a price on them?”
Will thought it over; “oh, yeah…good point.”
Kevin was on his feet and brought Will into the Inn. He turned as he was walking; “Roland, Alex, could you please bring that inside?”
“Oh sure, no problem,” said Roland.
Kevin was about twenty feet away now and had his back to the guys when he heard it:
“Geeeezz, got it?”
“No, lift your end more.”
“I can’t, you lift your end higher.”
“I can’t either, maybe if we try it together?”
“Uuuuggh…nope, that isn’t working.”
Kevin just stopped and dropped his arms down, then shook his head. He turned and saw that the girls were just standing and watching the ‘box show’ unfold, all of them giggling. Kevin silently walked back, bent over, grabbed the left handle with one hand, lifted the box up, placed it on top of his shoulder, and walked off to the Inn. Everyone just stood there in shock with their mouths hanging open.
Judy walked off to catch Kevin, but on her way she turned back to the others and said, “I told you, didn’t I?”
Once everyone was inside, Will got a knife from the desk.
“No Will, just snap it, that wax was outside long enough to be frozen, the knife might hurt the documents.”
“Oh, yeah, good point.” Will rolled the wax to the top and crushed it with his fingers, it crumbled away. He unrolled one, “Yip, sure is what you said it was. It’s a gold contract, but why?”
Kevin took the scroll and glanced it over, “Huh? Open the other one Will, I think I need to see them both.”
Will broke the other seal and handed the document to Kevin. He unrolled it and gave out a little, “Aha, that’s why.”
“What?”
Everyone copied Will and said, “Yeah, what?”
“It seems the Feds gave this land to your great-grandfather as part of the old ‘settle the west’ deal; as well as another contract for a 1% take of the gold.” Everyone except Judy looked confused so Kevin enlisted her.
“Judy if you would…” And he bowed away.
“Well, the government was giving land away to people who would settle out west. They were trying to grow the boundaries of the country and things.”
“Very nice honey, I’ll give you a reward later.”
Kevin got an all-around “Geeez” for that.
“What, I meant a Christmas cookie!”
That line was followed by the “OH SURE YOU DID” line. Kevin smiled, but Judy smiled harder.
“Will, can I take these for a while and go over the fine details?”
“Sure thing, take your time.”
“Thanks.” Kevin walked off to the living room and sat down. Judy sat next to him.
“Baby, aren’t we going to town?”
Kevin looked at his watch just before he started to read, “Oh sure, it’s only 9:25, plenty of time.”
One hour later and Kevin, Judy, Alex, Beth and April were all squashed together in the Mustang, and they were just reaching town. Kevin and Judy were comfy in the front; the rear seat looked more like a ‘clothes-on’ orgy. Thighs were overlapping thighs, arms were overlapping arms. Alex was in the middle, looking like he had just gone to heaven.
“Everything all right back there,” Kevin asked as he looked in his rearview mirror. He saw two very grumpy looking faces staring back at him, and Alex’s smiling one. As they poured out of the car into the mini mall, Kevin walked up to Alex and whispered in his ear, “They better not both be pregnant,” and slapped him on the back.
Kevin and Alex were laughing but April and Beth weren’t.
“I’m sorry girls; I told you it was going to be crowded when you asked to join us.”
Beth looked at Kevin, “You said crowded, not stitched together.”
In the mall, Kevin and Judy headed over to where they needed to go, while the others split up. They had instructions to meet back in the center in one hour.
Exactly one hour later, Kevin and Judy were sitting in the center mall seats. Alex and Beth arrived first; Kevin turned and there was April walking towards them. He looked at his watch, “Nice, I have them well trained.”
As they gathered together, he happened to see that Beth had a carpet push cleaner. It looked like a floor beater brush, but it was roller-powered.
Kevin looks at her, “Am…dear?”
“Yes?”
“That isn’t going to fit in my trunk...”
Ten minutes later and three mashed together people sat in the back of the Mustang, only now, there was a roller-powered carpet cleaner lying across all their laps.
Kevin said, “This is ridiculous.” He then took out his phone. Thirty minutes later, his Mustang was in the parking lot of the very Laundromat that Beth managed. They were parked facing the road and could see Roland coming up the street in Will’s Minivan.
Kevin smiled, “Folks, your knight in shining metal arrives.”
As they attempted to get out, Kevin asked if a pry bar would help. Only Judy laughed. He got out and helped them with the things in the trunk. As Kevin was closing the trunk, Roland had already parked with his side doors open. Kevin just has to zing them one more time.
“We really must do this again some time, I had a lot of fun.”
All he heard as they limped away was, “Idiot”, “Bastard”, and Alex saying, “Okay”. Kevin laughed as he got back in his car.
“They didn’t look too happy hun.”
“Well, they were warned.”
With that, he drove off for the next item on the list.
***
The rest of the day was mostly spent making contacts in the right fields. Kevin wasn’t sure if it was his skill or Judy but the fact was, when he met the people he needed to see it wasn’t Kevin they spent a lot of time looking at. Kevin just had to face facts; the woman was simply drop dead gorgeous. Near the end of the afternoon, he looked at his watch.
“I think I have just enough time,” he said, and drove to the last place on his list. It hadn’t been on his list until that morning. Forty-five minutes later, Kevin was driving down Colfax Ave.
Now even Judy was confused, “Why are we here?”
“I have to see a man honey.”
“This is the governor’s office though.”
“It sure is baby.”
Kevin found a place to park. As they reached the inner offices of the Governor, Kevin picked out a place and asked Judy to wait for him there, explaining that he might be gone a half hour or so.
“Can’t I come with you?”
“Not this time honey.” He gave her a kiss and she went to where he had asked her to wait.
Kevin entered the outer office and saw a receptionist as well as two men, one in a chair to his left, and one to his right. Kevin saw the desk was too big to reach her, so he thought for a few seconds, then moved to the man on the left.
He put his hand on the guard’s shoulder, “Hi, I’m supposed to have a meeting with the Governor, is this the right place?” Kevin squeezed fairly hard.
“Oh ya, you’re in the right place.”
“Great.�
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Now Kevin was nearer the side of the desk, a lot closer to the woman behind it. He reached out to touch her shoulder and the other guard jumped up, but the one Kevin had just talked to waved him back in an ‘it’s okay’ gesture. The guard looked for a second then sat back down.
Kevin made the needed contact, “Hi, I have an appointment with the Governor, the name is Kevin Chase.”
She blinked a few times, stalled a few seconds more, and then said, “Sure thing, right this way.” They both went into the Governor’s office. Kevin recognized him instantly, he should, as he saved his life.
The Governor got up from his desk, very confused, “What’s this, who are you?”
Kevin covered the distance to him very quickly and had the Governor’s hand in his in less than two breaths from when he entered. That was the hard part, now for the very hard part.
“Please, have a seat Mr. Chase.”
“Thank you, I believe I will.” Kevin opened his coat and took out two scrolls, “What I have here Mr. Governor, is the land rights to one Alfred S. Colburn, first owner and builder of the Colburn mansion, now known as the Colburn Inn, located in the Indian Hills.”
“Yes, I know of it, go on.”
“Very well, if I can draw your attention to these documents then I would like to show you a few things if I could?” Kevin lay out each document side by side and began; “This is an order signed by president Ulysses S. Grant in 1877. In this document you will see that a certain parcel of land was granted to Mr. Colburn, and consisted of approximately 142,000 acres enveloping four mountain tops and down to the base of the valleys on the far sides.” Kevin switched documents, “And this document explains why so much was granted to only one man and his small family.” He changed back to the first document, “As you can clearly see here, it was Mr. Colburn’s intention to mine these hills for gold and precious minerals. It seems our Government wanted gold and such; they wanted it very much.” Kevin changed back to the second document. “This, Mr. Governor, is a contract for the collection of a predetermined amount of gold and other minerals collected and smelted at the site or land of Mr. Colburn. As you can see here, it states that one percent of all smelted gold shall be sent to the U.S. government in exchange for such a generous offer of land.”
“I see, and what’s this clause here?”
Kevin smiled a little. “In a second, first let me tell you that the existing owner, and great-grandson, Mr. William Colburn, has each and every one of the shipments on invoice, dated every three months without fail, from the beginning of the contract until its end, which is also determined by the average amount taken from the mines. In 1909 the final shipment was sent with the bare minimum delivered. Along with it is this attached document and final invoice. It clearly states that the Coburn mines are ceasing operation as the quantity of gold taken from the mines has fallen below the cost of removing it. Now if you look to the bottom of this document under where the original agreement is signed, you will see that president Theodore Roosevelt himself has signed and attested to the fact that all parts of this contract have been met with all satisfaction, to both parties. This contract is now rescinded and the second part of the contract shall take effect immediately.”
The Governor looked a little confused but was hanging in there, “So where is the second part?”
“Right here, close to the top, where it states that if the contract is fulfilled to a satisfactory end by both parties, then NO local, state or U.S. government will claim any rights to property for any reason, and marked property includes any buildings or equipment deemed permanently resting on said named property, as well as any future endeavors, shall become free of any and all tax burdens from the end of the contract henceforth, as agreed to and signed by the current standing President Of The United States of America. So here, Mr. Governor, we have the legal and binding contract of one Mr. Alfred S. Colburn and the U.S. Government.”
The Governor sat back and looked at Kevin, “And what does this all mean to me if I may ask?”
“Funny you should ask the best question possible. What it means, good question.” Kevin now pulled out a third paper from his coat, stood, and lay out a topographical map of the Indian Hills. It wasn’t just any map; this was the tax map for local and state taxation purposes. “Two things come to a glaring conclusion: one, the state of Colorado, for the past ninety years, has been moving markers back more and more to the point that it now shows that Mr. Colburn’s land only covers TWO mountain peaks, not the original four as set by this land grant.”
The Governor wasn’t relaxing at the back of his chair anymore, now he was looking over the map. “Well, it seems we have some apologizing to do, don’t we?” Kevin only smiled. “I’ll have the state surveyors up there tomorrow with a chopper, if it’s okay?”
“That’s perfect; however, you completely missed something here.”
“OH?”
Kevin took out the final weapon in his arsenal, “These.” He dropped a load of papers on the Governor’s desk. The governor started to pick them up and dropped them back down randomly.
“Shit.”
Sitting in front of the Governor of the great state of Colorado were seventy years of bills, with PAID either handwritten or rubber stamped on them, for local and state taxes.
“Amm...I don’t suppose you have a calculator in that coat as well?” asked the Governor.
Kevin sat and smiled, “No. I believe I’ll leave that part to the state’s legal department for the time being.”
The Governor hit his buzzer and called in his personal secretary, “I need these copied, all of them, don’t miss one, got it?”
“Yes sir, I’ll get on it first thing tomorrow.”
The governor looked at Kevin and Kevin was shaking his head, “Things have a tendency to get lost. I believe now would be a good time as I’ll be with them.”
Kevin stood to accompany the man to the copying area, “Mr. Governor, I believe that I can persuade Mr. Colburn to settle the tax matter if the state and local tax offices returns the last five years of taxes and then begins to stand up to this original agreement, However, the land MUST be returned to its original markers as determined in these documents, and as soon as possible.”
“But, there could be people living there now.”
“There isn’t. Mr. Coburn’s home is the last one on this side of those mountains in any direction. I know, I checked it this morning, it’s all shown as state property.”
“Well thank god for that, could you imagine the mess this could bring?”
“Mr. Governor, I won’t take up any more of your time. I’m sure we can settle this matter as quietly as possible if the state does its part.” Kevin reached out and shook the Governor’s hand.
“I hope we can.”
As Kevin shook his hand, his other hand found the governor’s shoulder, “Good evening to you sir.” Kevin then turned and said, “After you” to the personal assistant, who had already picked up Kevin’s papers for him. Kevin left the Governor’s office with a huge smile on his face.
Fifteen minutes later, Kevin walked out a side door and saw Judy sitting quietly. She looked up, saw him and came dancing over.
“How did it go? Why did you see him? What’s this all about? Why couldn’t I come in…?” And on and on it went, all the way to the car.
When he got in the car, he realized Judy had asked about fifty questions so far and he hadn’t even opened his mouth. He reached over, grabbed her chin, pulled her face to his and gave her a huge kiss, “Sweetheart, you don’t need any one around you at all, you are your own entertainment.”
Judy sat back and quietly looked at him; he could hear the confusion gears grinding away in her head. He laughed and drove towards home. They made one little stop on the way, but were back at the Inn soon after. Once Kevin had parked the car at the drop-off area and they had got out of it, he asked Judy, “Can you go get one of those rolling serving carts that are under the dining room windows hun?”
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“Can do, where am I going with it?”
“Bring it out here to the car and set up the stuff we got.”
Judy looked blankly at Kevin for a second as she pieced together his plan, “Oh. OHHH….ya, I get it, and when I’m done?”
Amm,” Kevin thought, “leave it in the foyer near the coat closets.”
“Your wish my lord,” Judy leaned over to Kevin.
“Give me those lips woman,” chuckled Kevin and they kissed hard and deep. As soon as Kevin pulled away he said, “Now what the hell was I supposed to be doing?”
“You were going inside, heading up stairs to our room and taking off your clothes to wait for my arrival?”
Kevin laughed, “Nice try, but I remember.” He kissed Judy once more and smacked her butt, “Now you stay with the goods until I cue you, ok?”
“Got it boss.”
Kevin walked into the Inn and looked around to see who was where. “Ah, April.” he said.
She was sitting in the living room with Beth and Alex. Kevin walked over, “April, can I borrow you for a minute?”
“Sure thing Kevin.”
Kevin walked her over to the desk area, “I need you to do something for me; something you might think is weird.”
“Weird huh, that’s my favorite game!”
“Do you know the Governor of Colorado?”
“Yip, I voted for him.”
“Good, I need you to find him for me.”
April looked at Kevin for a second, “Sure, can I use your Mustang?”
“No need to honey,” he laughed. “I want you to look for him in here.” He touched her head.
“What’s going on here, am I being pranked?”
“Not at all, remember the kitchen?”
“Oh, you mean think about him?”
“Exactly, I need you to think about him really hard. Let me know what you find.”
April closed her eyes and started to crunch her nose and eyes real tight.
“No April,” Kevin said, “just the opposite of what you’re doing. Let your mind flow, like liquid. Don’t tense up…loosen up, and try again.”
April closed her eyes and focused on the Governor’s face. After about a half a minute, she said, “He’s in a car, he’s sitting…in the back…someone else is driving, there are three others with him.”