Rich Love

by Zoe Adams

  Susanna had already picked up on the vibes of self-importance that emanated from Royce’s staff, and once the feeling was recognized, it was hard to put aside. Sarai and Lawrence continued to command the conversation, as they talked about the food, shops, and clubs they missed.

  Susanna kept her eyes on the road, and her side of the conversation was kept to monosyllables. Her truck began to climb the beautiful peaks of national parks. The canyons had been steeply chiseled by weather, and they easily echoed the low gears of the engine. The afternoon chilled with the rapid creek that dropped from the heights.

  Deadwood was a mining town that had been built on sacred land in the late nineteenth-century gold rush. It currently offered gambling in a leap to justify historical significance. Bright neon signs welcomed guests to play slots, or try their luck at cards.

  The main cobblestone street led them past casinos, hotels, and restaurants. Steep mountains on either side contained new growth of the city like a vine growing up a trellis. The main road would eventually lead to the residential area of small yards and haphazard houses on treacherous slopes. Susanna turned at the stoplight and pulled into a large parking lot. They slowly rolled up to a mine that was showing new signs of ownership. After the long drive, Susanna was more than ready to park her car and get out.

  Standing in the snow, she waited for Sarai and Lawrence to join her on the curb. She put her head straight back and tried to appreciate the height and depth of the building before her.

  The mine was an eye catcher, to say the least. The old wooden mine was built into the side of the mountain. Different additions that spanned the last century and a half took up different sections of stone. The largeness of the building was slightly understated by its ramshackle sprawl.

  Royce had talked about tearing it all down and having it replaced. Susanna was torn on the issue. She liked the history of the wild-west mine, but could understand why Royce wanted to secure the area with impenetrable walls.

  “Ready then?” Lawrence asked from behind her.

  “Yes.” Susanna nodded.

  The trio set off side by side. A security guard was waiting right inside, and he opened the door with a heavy click.

  Susanna was the last of them to enter the building. The smell of rotting wood, rusting metal, and ancient dirt came to her before the sight did. The inside of the building was just as ramshackle as the outside. A brightly lit interior had a combination of different lights. Gas-looking lamps hung low from the ceiling. Stripes of white neon lights went up the tall A-line ceiling. Sconces along the wall lit up other portions of the room.

  For all of the room’s attempts to be light and airy, it failed miserably. Large shadows ran along the corners and hurdled across dark beams. Slowly rotating ceiling fans added another dimension of dark twirling shadows to the space.

  If this was the greeting room and main entrance of the mine, it left much to be desired. A long row of desks blocked off the first section of the room, where two female secretaries had a window facing the front door. They looked up at the newcomers, but did not stop what they were doing.

  The rest of the barrier was supported by security guards. There was a wall of camera surveillance screens, and three men watched them avidly.

  All the security guards wore the same spotless uniform. Dark grey slacks with button down shirts were starched into straight lines. Light reflective strips of yellow ran along the cuffs and between sleeves, pockets, and hems of the uniform.

  Another security guard waved them to his station and said, “Over here, please.”

  The guard looked down at his computer screen again. He looked back up and scrutinized Susanna’s face. “You’re Susanna,” he stated with authority.

  She nodded.

  “I received an email that you were coming.” He looked at his watch for emphasis. “It looks like you’re right on time.”

  She smiled. “Yes, Royce is good with his estimates. I had to drive extra slow through some places of the highway. This is Lawrence and Sarai. I’m sure they’re in the email as well.”

  Hesitant relief blinked over his eyes at the second and third confirmation of their presence. He nodded and stood up from the creaking chair. “My name is Simon, and I’ll be escorting you.” He checked his flashlight and picked up a walkie-talkie before continuing. “We’ll be collecting work gear and meeting up with a few more people.” He stepped aside and motioned for them to follow him.

  He walked them across the austere and antiquated room that funneled everyone through the same door, and they entered a long, semi-wide room. Lockers were lined down both sides of the wide hall. Since the theme was gold, the lockers were painted a dull school-bus yellow. Age had crept across the lockers, and circles of black handprints were visible around the combinations and latches.

  Simon entered a code into a keypad, and a heavy metal door unlocked with a click. The group was ushered into a side office where Susanna was shown a shiny locker with her name on it. She lifted the handle and it swung open. Inside, there was a brand new heavy coat, harness, and hard hat. She put the protective wear on quickly.

  She shuffled her feet and waited for her two bodyguards. Sarai was holding up the group. Lawrence held her purse and her arm as she leaned over to take off her high heel shoes. They adjusted themselves to more appropriate attire, and soon all of them were ready for the trek.

  Simon made a call through his walkie-talkie. “Sam? Are you there?”

  “This is Sam,” a voice answered back.

  “This is Simon. We’re heading your way right now. We’ll take the elevator and meet you in Shaft A.” Simon listened to the other man confirm before replacing the voice receptor on his hip.

  “Is everyone ready?” Simon asked, turning his attention to the trio.

  They followed the burly leader out the door and back into the main hallway. This was the first stop that everyone had to use before they could go deeper into the goldmine. They passed an outdated time clock and a bank of slots that used to hold time cards. Further down the hall was its updated version. A black box protruded from the wall, and its red lasers lit up a little pocket that waited for the next scan of a plastic card.

  Simon bent over with his lanyard and paused for it to be read. The laser-reading computer turned green in an instant. There was a mechanical beep that came from the black box on the wall and from the lock on the fence. Simon latched onto the blackened handle and turned it, then stepped through the divider and held the gate open for his party.

  Susanna walked through the gate and kept moving toward the large commercial lifts straight ahead. The industrial sized elevator was made of steel with chain link walls and was large enough to fit thirty men at a time. It could also have been used to lower any sort of large machinery.

  Each corner of the massive mover had thickly coiled cables supporting it. Susanna had a man’s mind, and she could understand the large piece of machinery that rivaled the strongest of the strong.

  The chain link and solid steel floor of the elevator had been painted that same bold yellow. Gouges from other times had left shiny silver scars. Other places along the edges had oil splotches that had absorbed two different colors, either tiny gleaming specks of gold or fine dark dirt. It bumped up from the surface like a soft, speckled moss.

  Susanna felt a weird calling toward the elevator. She wondered silently if the magic of wealth was starting to affect her. She smiled, knowing that Royce would agree.

  She looked to see who stood silently beside her. A new respect was emanating from Simon as he looked at her.

  “Are you ready to go down into the mine?” he asked.

  Susanna smiled. “I’m ready.”

  She hadn’t moved, but Simon quickly stepped forward to prepare the lift for the VIPs.

  Four people in a huge elevator slowly descended into the mine. Susanna felt the temperature cool one degree at a time, and the air got thinner as it picked up more of a tinny and metallic smell.

  She studied the
stone walls that ran down the length of the shaft. It looked old because of the amount of dust that had accumulated on the roughhewn ridges.

  The elevator continued to unravel its coils and drop into the mine. Susanna could not see directly below her because of the sturdy chain link, so she didn’t know how far they had gone until some spray painted numbers on the wall read one hundred feet.

  Not much past that, they came to a well-lit floor, and the elevator stopped its drop. A large room was lit up with yellowish lights. A few industrial golf carts, electric trucks, and rusty carts were lined up along a wall.

  There was a group of desks that had collected dust years ago. Huge fans were circulating air from the elevator shaft and into the room, combining with other sounds to produce a melancholy hum. Electric cords were bundled and looped down the hall as far as you could see. Huge luminescent lights lit up one stretch of hall at a time. They beamed huge circles of light that almost gave in to darkness before another one would bravely glow.

  The quartet of people stepped off the lift. No sooner were they all gathered on unmoving stone, when the elevator was raised to somewhere else.

  Sam Brasaac was waiting for them. She remembered him as the foreman from her previous tour. He was missing a hard hat, and wore a soft baseball cap instead. He didn’t have a shred of reflective fiber on his flannel shirt or jeans. His flagrant disobedience to the safety precautions of miners set him apart by itself, but his attitude was an upstart as well.

  He spoke very loudly with a voice that had aged itself into overuse. “All right, everyone,” he said, addressing the group as a whole. “My name is Sam, and I’ve been in this mine my whole life. There is nothing about mining or this mine that I don’t know. My job is to escort you safely in and out of Shaft A. We’re going to an older part of the mine. It’s not the place I would’ve chosen, but I’m to follow orders, just like you.” Sam lowered his gaze at the newcomers. “You will do what I say, when I say it. I speak really loud, just to make sure that you can hear me. Can you all hear me all right?”

  They all affirmed him in firm nods and yesses.

  “Good.” Sam waved them forward. “We are going to load up in that electric truck. Keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times. Don’t get distracted and try to touch every little shiny thing. I was informed on what we’re collecting, and don’t foresee any problems as long as you listen to me.”

  He walked around to the steering wheel of the truck with an air of superiority about him. He was a hard man, and he clearly knew it. He expected people around him to have a lower level of survival skills, so he explained everything smoothly and concisely enough for anyone to understand.

  Susanna let herself be somewhat herded by the professional and took the front passenger seat beside Sam. She wanted to be in front of the line, and be the first to see where they were going. Lawrence raised his eyebrow at her request for him to move, but lowered his head, and climbed onto the back seat immediately behind the driver’s bench. From this position Lawrence would have an unhindered view of everything behind them. No one would have enjoyed the position, but Susanna reasoned that she was the one picking out the tile, wasn’t she?

  She sat where Royce would have if he had been with them, since she was his eyes and ears while he was away. Susanna did it naturally because of some innate direction for order, and fell easily into a dominant role.

  The truck lurched forward and was driven in a medium speed just fast enough to defy safety. The headlamps picked up the road ahead and repeated the necessity of keeping the steering wheel straight.

  Susanna quit trying to peer out of the windshield at what was ahead and looked out the side of the car. They were moving too fast to distinguish the difference between steel beams, large thick railroad ties, and mountain. It all added to the mystery of the cave, and she leaned back, content.

  It was amazing to be involved in such a large endeavor like a goldmine. She had been keeping track of the directions of turns since entering the mine. She was lucky the road they were on was straight as an arrow. She calculated in her head that they were somewhere below the little city of Deadwood.

  Knowing Royce the way she did, she could guarantee that he had picked the place for Susanna’s golden plunder. If they were going to start slicing out walls and sections of granite, then they might as well hollow out a room underneath his soon-to-be-mansion.

  Susanna kept her thoughts to herself and grinned until the tunnel widened and the truck stopped. Her eyes widened at the broad gold streak that slashed across the rough cut of rocks. Everyone stepped out of the car and looked at the short wall in awe. It was just as beautiful as Susanna remembered it.

  “We can check this place first,” Sam said and turned off the truck.

  He left the headlights on, and they helped light the cave significantly. Susanna didn’t say anything as she stepped out of the vehicle. She felt a little dizzy and lightheaded, so she stood very still as she waited for the group to form.

  Sam was holding oxygen tanks and tubing. “There’s no oxygen down here.” He held out a rubber hose to Susanna. “Here are a few oxygen tanks. Each one has two hoses, so we will pair up and share.”

  It was obvious that the groups would be Sam and Susanna, and Sarai and Lawrence.

  She didn’t mind Sam carrying the oxygen tank, but she did mind having to wait for Lawrence and Sarai to be properly hooked up. Sam was redundant with his helping them. She couldn’t blame him for seeing them as complete city slickers, because that was exactly what they were.

  Susanna understood that her hands had lost callouses and she had cultivated a new smoothness. This was also the first time she had worn jeans in a while, and they didn’t really give her the homecoming feeling she had expected.

  She even felt silly for packing her pistol. It was a stupid thing to carry around the oxygen tanks, aside from the fact that one shot could be loud enough to potentially cause an avalanche.

  Susanna shivered subconsciously, harboring a whole new respect for the narrow passage under the earth. She kept her mind on positive outcomes and pushed thoughts of fearful what-ifs back into the darkness.

  The group had been informed and duly equipped, and they started off behind Sam.

  They walked around the circular room, and Susanna swept her mining light across the wall. The wall was cut in layers and still had lines from being blasted by dynamite. It looked like a dark vein of something with little specks of light. She stopped and inspected it. It was a start for what she had in mind, but it was her mission to find the best.

  “This isn’t good enough,” she said to Sam.

  “Fair enough. I thought we’d try the easiest locations first.” Sam’s voice easily controlled the group. “All right, guys. We’ll go deeper.”

  Susanna put her faith in Sam, and hoped the granite, stone, and gold combinations got better. They loaded back into the truck and drove deeper into the shaft.

  A few minutes later they were stopping the truck again in an even bigger room that had been quarried years ago.

  “All right, people,” Sam announced, his voice taking on a new sound as it echoed around the hollow room. “This is where the gold veins are richest, and the color of quartz is the most diverse. The combinations in stone make the wall too brittle for heavy mining, but cutting slabs should be easy. Go ahead and look around. I’m assuming Susanna will have the final say on where we cut.” He looked heavily at the group. They nodded and split into pairs. Sarai and Lawrence began on one end of the room, and Susanna and Sam took the other.

  Susanna walked a little to the side of Sam and kept her light straight forward. With their combined lights facing forward, a large portion of wall could be seen. They staggered their steps until Susanna could touch the wall.

  There was a deathly silence that accompanied the group. Their footsteps carried a muffling shade through the cave. Tiny dust particles danced through the thin air.

  Susanna wondered when was the last time someone had b
een down there. She almost felt guilty as she enjoyed the mine without Royce. She suddenly missed him and brought the realization to her mind with other uncontrollable things.

  As she looked around, she saw the walls were more like what she had in mind.

  “Do you like this one?” Sam asked.

  “Yes.” Susanna twisted her diamond-dripping watch. “But I want to circle the room first to make sure this piece is the most brilliant.”

  When she looked up, Sam was watching her with unguarded interest. Then he nodded and followed her around the room.

  Susanna took a few steps and looked directly beside her. The light on her forehead caught a wall so shiny that it was hard to tell how far away it was. Clear quartzes in amethyst and pink mingled with the gold, granite, and slate. It looked like a crystal sea of glass.

  The marbling effect of beautiful elements was an amazing combination, leaving it no choice but to shine. Every part of it was made of something good. For a vain moment, Susanna likened it to her life. She had intensely satisfying memories of her life before and after Royce. She knew that it made her unique when she could make every corner and task in her life shine.

  Royce liked her for all of it, and right now she had another chance to prove it. Susanna touched the face of rock. She had been expecting a cool, hard touch, but what she received surprised her. The stone felt like nothing. It was body temperature, instead of a cold, hard surface.

  Susanna ran her fingers along the stone just to make sure it was all the same. She stopped after a few feet and rested both hands on the rock. She reached up as high as she could and swayed slightly like windshield wipers.

  All of the rock felt and looked the same. The light on the front of her hard hat picked up shine across the ceiling as well. She made a sweeping arc with her head. Up, over, beside, and below was intensely glittery stone.

  She gasped, and it was just one more sound of wonderment from the group. Somehow, Susanna forgot about being deep underground. She forgot her insecurities of too much land or too much water. The fresh air that she constantly craved was now full of metals and dankness. It was a comforting twist for her to feel welcome in such a place.