Alvarado Gold

by Victoria Pitts-Caine

  I knew Gary had a better relationship with God than I did. He’d hinted at it and tried to get me to talk about my faith. When we were in the car going to Susan’s, he’d given me his perception of Ecclesiastes. I didn’t want to listen and it troubled me deeply. I may have made a wrong decision about his involvement with Donnie. But good people do bad things. I’ve regretted every day since mother died what I’d done. Even with all of that considered there was still the vexatious feeling–I loved Gary.

  “I guess it was fast, Mel, but it was good. During the last eight weeks we talked for hours on the phone. I think I know more about Gary than I ever knew about Jim. It just seemed right, that’s all. His folks live in Alvarado. He claims he knew the story about the gold before we ever showed up. His mom had seen it in their local paper. He said there was a big deal made about it since Alvarado is such a small town. He knows about the cave, too. If Donnie came to see him after we did, it would be almost impossible for him to know so much information before hand. I want to trust him, yet I’m afraid too. What do you think?”

  “I don’t think you’re afraid of trusting him. You’re afraid of trusting yourself.” She paused and point at a road sign. “Hey, there’s the turn off for Alvarado. We still going there?”

  I guided the car onto the off ramp and couldn’t help but think Mel had turned this around again. “Exactly whose side are you on?”

  “Yours. I just want you to be careful. Maybe we all judged him too soon. When you found out he’d talked to Donnie, you blew up. You didn’t give him much of a chance. I was afraid you might get hurt. We all pretty much iced him out of the picture.”

  Right as usual. I didn’t give him a chance to explain. “He kissed me right before we left for Susan’s.” There, now she knew.

  “How did it feel, Addie? Did it feel right to you?”

  We arrived in Alvarado before I could answer her and I pulled into a gas station to ask directions to the library. It did feel right, Mel. About as right as it gets.

  Two diet colas, a bag of wavy potato chips and a city map later we were on our way to the library. Luckily, it was just off US 67.

  Mel declined the chips but finished the soda in a couple of gulps. “What are we going to look for when we get there?”

  “The newspaper article. If your dad and Uncle Joseph were here in 1984, then that will be the first answer to this mystery.”

  The library was one of those old Carnegie brick buildings, similar to the one Mom used to take me to when I was a kid. I remembered I needed to be quiet and when you did talk your voice echoed in the cavernous hallways. As I walked up to the counter, I could hear my heels as they clicked on the hardwood floor. Things hadn’t changed much here. “Do you have microfilm of the Alvarado Newspaper for 1984?”

  “Ah, yes we do. The local paper was a weekly edition back then, not much to report. Do you know the time period you were looking for?” The middle-aged woman blinked back at me. She looked like the librarians in the old Carnegie library, too, with the black dress, hair rolled into a sleek bun, coiled at her neckline. The woman today, though, was a bit different in that she had a bubbly smile and a genuine willingness to help. There was something about her eyes, too. They were deep blue. They almost looked familiar.

  “I’m guessing late spring or early summer.” If I had the year correct, we’d only have to look at a dozen or so rolls of film. “I’m looking for a story about two brothers who came here to look for gold that was buried in the late 1800’s.”

  “Oh. The Barnes’ boys. That was big news here. May 1984. They never did find it but it sure had this town going for about a month.”

  It was well known. Gary hadn’t made it up. It never struck me a story out of my family history would be newsworthy in some burg in Texas. We looked at the microfilm and printed out the article so we could read it later in our hotel room. I returned to the desk. “What do we owe you for the copies?”

  “Let me see, two pages that will be twenty-five cents.” She smiled back at me, which made the skin around her eyes crinkle into familiar lines.

  “You’ve been helpful, Ms…?” I ventured.

  “Mrs. Wright. I’ve worked here for a long time. As I said, the gold story was big news.”

  Oh, no. The woman had to be Gary’s mother. Mel stood close by and looked at a magazine. I grabbed her arm and pushed her out the door.

  “What was that for?”

  “I think the librarian is Gary’s mother. No wonder he knows so much about the gold.”

  “Do you still think he’s lying to you? Do you want me to read the article now?”

  “No. I mean, I don’t know. And wait to read the article.” I wanted to go back to our room before we read about my uncles’ attempt to find the gold. “And, Mel, no more questions about Gary, please.”

  “You brought him up, I didn’t. But I won’t mention him again, if that’s what you really want.”

  “Thanks, Mel.” It was what I wanted, wasn’t it?

  As we exited the freeway back into Dallas, we decided the Summerfield was far too posh to have a pizza delivered. We stopped at a local place called Dominic’s and ordered a large garlic chicken with Alfredo sauce. Adams glared at us when we walked past the front desk, pizza box in tow. Mel and I stayed up until two. We planned our strategy, read and reread the newspaper article, struggled through the old writing of the land documents, and eventually talked about Gary. I began to realize that at Susan’s wedding I’d exploded too quickly, without getting the details.

  “Mel, why did you quit going to church?” I probed.

  “Where did that come from?” She looked at me, a slight annoyance tightening her mouth. “I just got busy. I started working Saturdays. Sunday was my only day off. I don’t know. I still believe though. We all do.”

  “You didn’t know that verse from Grandpa’s funeral.”

  “I said, I believed but I’m not a Bible scholar. Dad and Mom had the three of us in church every Sunday. He insisted on it. You should talk; you quit after your mom died.”

  I felt tears prick my eyes and walked to the window. “I know.”

  Mel joined me and touched my shoulder. “I’m sorry. What is this all about?”

  “It’s about Gary. I wouldn’t be right for him?”

  “And why not?”

  “Something happened when mom died, Mel. I did something I shouldn’t have done. I can’t talk about it.” I walked over to the coffee table and began collecting my things.

  “Addie. What? What happened?”

  “I’ll tell you someday, Mel, but not today. It’s too painful and I have to deal with it myself.” Neither one of us spoke another word on the subject. The silence was deafening.

  ****

  Susan and Clay would be there after nine and we needed to check out before eleven. We’d have just enough time to go over Uncle Clay’s journal before we left for Cleburne. The next three days would settle it all. We’d either find the gold or go home empty handed, but we’d do it as a family. It was six when I knocked on her door. “Wake up, Mel. Want some cold pizza for breakfast?”

  “That sounds great.” She rolled over and looked at the clock. “Four hours sleep. Wonderful.”

  “Want me to order some coffee? I can get some espresso. Want an extra shot?”

  “I’ll need an extra shot of something.” She groaned and pulled the covers over her head.

  We munched on our leftover pizza and drank the strong, hot coffee. While we dressed and packed our belongings, the morning passed uneventfully. Our suitcases stood by the door in anticipation of Clay and Susan’s arrival.

  Promptly at ten, Clay knocked on the door. As I let him in, he sang out, “Morning ladies.” Susan hugged me and I noticed the journal in her hand.

  “You two ready?” Susan asked hesitantly.

  “Couldn’t be any more ready if we tried. Let me see the journal.” I reached for it and took it from her, then thought better of it. “Does one of you want to read it? I mean, it’
s your father’s. If you’ve never even looked at it, I shouldn’t be the first.”

  “No. Go ahead, Addie. You read it. We need to listen to what he said.” Clay nodded in my direction and took a seat on the sofa. He raised the lid on the pizza box and looked slightly disappointed at the leftover crumbs.

  I thumbed through the pages until I found May 1984. At first it wasn’t much but a day-to-day accounting. Nothing entered from May 10 to the 14th, then an entry on the 15th.

  This whole adventure for the gold has turned into a nightmare. Dad gave us all the clues he could but Joseph accused him of holding out on us. We didn’t find the gold from the map that was drawn. The cave on the cemetery property doesn’t have any clues and I feel like we’re digging up half of Alvarado. Nothing Dad has been telling us matches the lay of the land as it is now and the letter in Spanish doesn’t make any sense either. I wanted to use the coordinates but Joseph knew better. I don’t know how much he’s been drinking, maybe not at all, but he has an attitude like he has been.

  I looked up at the others. “Seems like they had the same clues we do. Maybe we won’t find it either.”

  “Go on.” Mel gave an impassioned look in my direction. ”Read the rest of it.”

  Today, I told Joseph I had to go back to work and we needed to give up. He flew into a rage and told me the gold was his. He said if I didn’t care enough to look for it, then it was my responsibility to relinquish my claim. I told him Margaret had a stake in it, too, but he wouldn’t listen. He told me he would go to Margaret’s and buy her out if necessary. None of us cared about him. He wasn’t going to let the rest of us take what was his. He’s so bull-headed. We were so close growing up. But the bottle has separated us.

  I suddenly realized Uncle Joseph was an alcoholic. That was one of this family’s secrets. It could have caused all the problems that long ago summer. I remembered the hushed tones and arguments long into the night between my mother and Uncle Joseph and then again between my mother and Uncle Clay. “That’s why everyone came to see us that summer. It was around August.” I looked at the others with astonishment.

  “Flip over to August. See what he said then.” Mel moved to the arm of the couch next to Clay. The three of them sat in a row and I paced the floor as I read.

  August 22, 1984. We made the trip from Arizona to California to see Margaret and her family. We’re enjoying the vacation. Our children are getting along well. It was one of the few times they’ve been together. Joseph has already been to see her. She told him if he thought the money belonged only to him then to take it if he could find it, but she wanted him to make up with Dad. He’d hurt Dad a lot by accusing him of not giving us the correct information. Joseph refused and left in a huff much the same as he did with me when I made the same request. Margaret wants me to talk to Dad and let him know Joseph is an alcoholic, but I can’t do it. I couldn’t break the old man’s heart any more than it already had been.

  August 23, 1984, I knew as we left Margaret’s place it was the last time I’d see her. There is too much now between all of us. We are like three separate families.

  Clay stood up and walked over to the window. “That’s why we never saw each other. Uncle Joseph was mad at everyone. Dad and your mom fought over Uncle Joseph’s drinking problem and we all suffered.” Mel slid off the arm of the chair and held Susan’s hand.

  “It’s all right, Clay.” I put my arm around his shoulders. “We’re together now. That explains, too, why Donnie thinks we’re after something that belongs to him. Uncle Joseph probably told him the gold was his and his alone.”

  I glanced over and looked at the digital clock near the television. “We need to go. It’s ten forty-five.”

  Without a word, Clay picked up our bags and headed for the lobby. I knew by his actions he must have felt like the rest of us, robbed of our relationships with each other because of our parents. As we left for Cleburne, I vowed we’d change things. A time to rend, and a time to sew.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  After dropping off my rental, we took the same route to Cleburne Mel and I’d taken. I pointed out to Clay and Susan what we’d seen the day before. While Mel told them about our trip to the courthouse, I thought about how Uncle Joseph had single-handedly ripped our family apart. He’d taken away our opportunity to grow up together, then planted the seed in Donnie that we all had turned our backs on him. It saddened my heart this had happened to us and without us even being aware of the details. It made me cherish our time together even more and I vowed we would continue to nurture the love we’d found for each other. We decided not to stop for lunch and drove straight through to the town square.

  While he pulled into the parking stall, Clay glanced over his shoulder, “Did you find us a place to stay, Addie?”

  “We’re staying at the Comfort Inn Cleburne, not far from here. They were heavily booked for some Labor Day event. I have three rooms.”

  “That will work. You and Susan can flip for who will stay with me. I’m sure I’d be the first choice for a roommate.” Mel grinned.

  “Does Susan know you snore?”

  “We shared a room for a while when we were kids. She knows all my nasty habits.”

  “Then I won’t have to tell her you ate pizza in bed last night.” I enjoyed the teasing. I wished I’d had a sister when I grew up but instead I was stuck with Eric. I’d called him one last time on Thursday and begged him to fly down and join us but he refused. He’d never know what he’d missed.

  “We need to find a hardware store to get rope and camping shovels. I brought what I had in the garage but we should each have our own supplies.” Clay held the door open and helped me. “You okay? Mel said Gary showed up.”

  “I’m fine. I just need to think some things over. I don’t want this to be about Gary and I’ll do my thinking later. Right now, we have three days to solve a mystery no one has been able to figure out for 150 years. From reading your dad’s journal, they knew the same things we do and they couldn’t find it.”

  “There was one thing that stuck in my mind from when you were reading. My dad said he felt like they’d dug up half of Alvarado. What were they doing up there? The gold was supposed to be in Barnesville.” Clay looked puzzled.

  “I noticed that, too. We need to find out where the property mentioned in the letter was located. It belonged to a Mr. Hansen. How many Hansens could be here in 1870? One thing we can do this afternoon is check out the property records. We’re right here at the courthouse. I’ll see if Ms. McCall can help me again.”

  Mel stood in front of the Burger Bar, one of the town’s quaint little restaurants, which was nestled in between two antique stores. The town possessed a mid-nineteenth century flavor. I wondered how much it had changed since our ancestors were here. At least, the antiques were new then. Mel broke into my thoughts. “Come on, you guys. We’re starving.”

  Clay cleared the distance between the car and the curb with one giant step. “Great. I can feel the heartburn starting already.”

  I put my arm through his and we joined his sisters. “Buck up, Clay. We’ll be back to civilization by Tuesday.”

  After lunch, Clay and I went back to the courthouse but Ms. McCall couldn’t find any information on Mr. Hansen. She told me she would call the records department in Alvarado and hopefully would have an answer for me before five. She also confirmed my hunch from yesterday. Donnie came in for copies of the documents, too.

  She smiled. “How’s the treasure hunt going?”

  “Oh. It’s coming along nicely. The rest of my group is here now. We’ll get started tomorrow. I’ll be back right before five to see what you’ve found.” Oblivious to my conversation at the desk, Clay stood by the map. I walked over and pointed out the cemetery. “That’s where we have to be in the morning. Let’s go on over to the hardware store and buy our gear. We have a couple of hours to kill before I can check with her.”

  “I saw a True Value over on Henderson when we came in.” Clay pulled the list
he’d made that morning from the pocket of his plaid cowboy shirt. It looked fairly new. I doubted if he owned many western clothes so he probably bought it for the occasion.

  We found Mel and Susan near a fountain in the town square park. The tall, protective oak trees shaded a well-groomed area surrounded by a wrought iron fence. Susan threw pennies into the water.

  I joined them and reached into the cool water and touched my hand to my face. “Wishing for something?”

  “Good luck.” Susan looked apprehensive.

  “Susan. I’m sorry about the fuss Gary and I made at your wedding.” I stood close to her and watched the ripple the coins made as they hit the water.

  “Don’t worry.” She smiled as she laced her arm through mine. “No one noticed. It was just one of those behind the scenes things.”

  “I was so upset with him.”

  “It will be okay, Addie." She patted my arm. “Right or wrong it will work out.” Grandpa must have worked on her a few summers, too. Id heard him say that same thing.

  “Susan. Did you visit grandpa here?” I questioned.

  “Mel and Clay came once but I was afraid. I was a pretty shy kid. Of course I was the baby so I stepped up to my role.” She threw another penny into the water. “He came to visit us a couple of times. He had wonderful stories, didn’t he?”

  “Yes. He did.”

  A black bird soared overhead with one last acorn for winter and carelessly dropped it into the fountain and broke the surface. The tight circles caused the reflected blue sky and lazy white clouds to blur. But the sphere widened and rushed toward the edge before the stillness was restored. The pool glistened in the sunlight and returned to its routine. I felt an overwhelming sense that I needed to set things right, too. Or at least return things to the way they once had been.

  We piled into the van for the short drive to the store. When we arrived, Clay immediately went to look at the shovels and rope. Susan, Mel and I decided to buy backpacks.