Mango Lucky

by Bill Myers

  I figured carrying my treasures in a cereal box was a lot safer than carrying them in a money bag while out in public.

  Around nine, Anna knocked on the door.

  "Walker, you up?"

  I opened the door, "Yep, I'm up and ready to go."

  She pointed to the cereal box I was holding. "You plan to eat in the car?"

  "No. I've got my coins in the box."

  She nodded, "Not a bad idea. But walking around carrying a cereal box? You can do better than that."

  She walked to the kitchen counter and picked up one of the empty Publix grocery bags from our shopping trip the day before.

  Handing me the bag, she said, "Put the box in this. It won't look so strange that way."

  She was right. Walking around with a grocery bag wouldn't attract nearly as much attention as walking around holding a box of cereal. I did as she suggested, and we headed out.

  It took us about twenty five minutes to get to Ken's coin shop. And as before, the door was locked when we arrived.

  Anna pressed the buzzer, and a moment later we heard Ken's voice on the intercom.

  "Anna, did you bring me some more goodies?"

  "Maybe. Buzz us in and find out."

  The door buzzed and we heard the bolt unlock.

  Before entering, Anna looked around to make sure no one was behind us. Satisfied we weren't be followed, we went in.

  Inside, Ken was waiting for us sitting on the stool on his side of the counter.

  "So, what did you bring me today?", he asked.

  Anna reached into her pocket and pulled out the ring she'd found two days earlier.

  Ken looked at the ring and said, "Nice. Looks to be old gold."

  He weighed it on a nearby scale. "A little over fourteen grams. Melt value is around a thousand. You find this on the beach?"

  Anna nodded, "Yes."

  "So it's probably from the 1715 fleet?"

  Anna nodded again, "I think so."

  Ken paused, then said, "I'll give you three thousand for it."

  Anna shook her head. "No way. A gold ring from the 1715 fleet is worth a lot more than that."

  Ken smiled, "Just testing you. Fifty five hundred. Cash today."

  Anna smiled, "Agreed."

  Ken took the ring and put it below the counter. He then went to the back office and returned a few moments later with fifty five one hundred dollar bills.

  He handed them to Anna, and asked, "Got anything else?"

  Anna looked at me, and pointed to the plastic bag that held my cereal box.

  "Walker here has a few things."

  Ken looked my way, "Okay, let's see what you have."

  I reached into the box and took out the first clump of silver coins and placed them on the rubber mat on the counter.

  Pointing at the coins, Ken asked, "May I?"

  I nodded, giving Ken permission to examine them.

  He picked up the clump. "Not bad. A cluster of four reale coins. Looks to be about forty in this clump. A nice artifact. Worth a few thousand dollars."

  Putting the clump back on the counter, Ken asked, "What else you got?"

  I pulled out the second clump of coins and placed them on the mat.

  Ken nodded, "Nice. A larger clump. More coins. Probably seventy in this clump. Worth some money for sure."

  "What else?"

  I reached back into the box and retrieved the three gold coins and placed them on the mat.

  Ken inspected each coin, then asked, "Are these from the same place the coins Anna had the other day?"

  I nodded, "Yep, they sure are."

  Ken looked at the collection of treasure I'd placed before him. "Nice haul. You did good. Anything else?"

  I shook my head, "That's it for now."

  He picked up his calculator and started entering numbers.

  Before he could give me a total, Anna's phone rang. She answered it immediately.

  "This is Anna... Yes, I told him."

  "Hold on a minute."

  Putting the phone up against her chest, Anna turned to me and said, "I need to take this call. I'll be outside. You take as long as you want in here. This might be a long call."

  Turning to Ken, she smiled and said, "As always, a pleasure dealing with you. Buzz me out will you?"

  After she'd left, Ken looked up at me, "Shall we continue?"

  I nodded.

  "On the gold coins, I can give you the same as I gave Anna. Seven thousand each.

  "On the clusters of silver coins, I'll give you four thousand for the smaller one, and seven thousand for the larger. All together it comes in at thirty two thousand dollars."

  Nodding, I said, "The prices seem fair, but I want to keep one of the gold coins."

  "Okay, but that brings the total down to twenty five thousand."

  I nodded, "Sounds good to me. Let's do it."

  Ken walked to his back office, and returned with documents for me to sign and a red bank bag.

  After I signed, he opened the bank bag and handed me five stacks of hundred dollar bills, each marked 'five thousand.'

  "Count it", he said.

  After I counted the money, I nodded to Ken, "It's all here. Thanks."

  Gathering up everything except the one gold coin I was keeping, Ken asked, "You want me to issue a certificate of authenticity for this?"

  "Yes, that'd be good."

  Reaching under the counter, he retrieved a pre-printed form. Picking up a pen, he wrote some notes about the coin I was keeping. Then he signed the form, and using a hand stamp, notarized it with his seal.

  Sliding the form across the counter to me, he said, "Keep this with the coin. It'll make it easier to sell."

  Then he asked, "Anything else?"

  Pausing for a moment, I decided to see what the gold ring with the emerald in it might be worth. I reached into the box, pulled it out and set it on the rubber mat in front of Ken.

  Carefully unwrapping the paper towel from around the ring, I placed it on the mat in front of Ken so the emerald was facing up at him.

  Upon seeing the ring, he took a deep breath.

  "Is that what I think it is?" he asked.

  70

  "I don't know," I replied. "What do you think it is?"

  Ken picked up his jeweler's loupe and examined the ring. He said nothing as he was doing this.

  Then he put the ring down and said, "You really don't know what this is?"

  I shook my head, "No. Tell me."

  "See the marking on the side? That's King Felipe of Spain's family crest. The initials on the other side would be those of a ship's captain.

  "This is a King's Authority ring and it gives the wearer the power to act at as an agent of the King.

  "The wearer can seize land, make treaties, assign right, and assert the authority of the King in trade matters.

  "These rings were only given to the King's most trusted confidants. Sometimes, ship captains and new world explorers would get them. But they are very rare.

  "Only two other King Felipe authority rings are known to still exist. One is in the Vatican, and the other is in Mel Fisher's treasure vault."

  Ken paused, then looked at me, "You want to sell it?"

  "Maybe. Tell me what it's worth."

  Reaching into his pocket, Ken removed his phone. "Mind if I shoot a few photo of it? I've got someone who can give me a better idea of the price once they see it."

  "Go ahead," I said. "Take as many photos as you want. As long as I'm not in them."

  Ken shot three photos of the ring, and sent them to someone on his phone's contact list.

  A few moments later his phone rang. I could only hear one side of the conversation.

  "Yeah, this is Ken... Yes, I've got the ring right here."

  "Yeah, I think it is real."

  A pause, then, "Yeah, it was found on the beach this week. No one else has seen it... Okay. Hold on."

  Ken put the phone down and said, "My buyer says seventy five thousand. Cash. To
day."

  I smiled. "That's a lot of money. But I think I'll pass."

  Ken shook his head, then picked up the phone.

  "The seller said no. He's going to keep it."

  Then into the phone, "Are you sure?"

  Ken put the phone down and looked at me. "One hundred and fifty thousand."

  I smiled, "That's getting closer. But still not there yet."

  Ken groaned, then told the buyer, "No. Not enough."

  Then, "Okay, I'll tell him."

  Ken put the phone down again, "The buyer says he'll do two hundred fifty thousand, and can have a cashier's check in your hands in ten minutes. But that's his final offer."

  I smiled, "Sounds good. Let's do it."

  Ken returned to the phone, "It's a deal."

  Then, "Okay, I'll tell him. We'll get it signed. Ten minutes. Sounds good."

  Ken ended the call, then turned to me. "The buyer is sending a cashier's check. It'll be drawn on SunTrust bank. There's a branch office in this shopping center. You can take the check over there to make sure it's good."

  I nodded.

  "The buyer wants you to sign a non-disclosure agreement promising to never reveal to anyone what you sold the ring for, or to who.

  "You won't be able to tell anyone, not even Anna, about what you got for the ring, or what kind of ring it is. Any problem with that?"

  I shook my head. "No, that's fine."

  "Good, wait right here."

  Ken went to his back office and returned a moment later holding three sheets of paper. He put these, along with a pen, on the counter in front of me.

  "The first is the non-disclosure. The second is a statement saying you found the ring on the beach, and not in the water, that makes it a legal find. And the third is a statement saying you are giving up all claims to the ring."

  I looked at each document, then signed them.

  As I was handing the papers back to Ken, his door buzzer sounded. Ken pointed at the security monitor behind the counter, which showed a man in a suit standing outside at the door, a manila folder tucked under his arm.

  Ken buzzed him in.

  The man came in and handed Ken the folder. Ken inspected the contents, thanked the man, and buzzed him back out.

  Returning his attention to me, Ken said, "This is your check. You can see that it is made out to the bearer and is in the amount of two hundred fifty thousand dollars.

  Looking up at me, he asked, "Do you have an account at SunTrust?"

  I nodded, "Sure do."

  "Good. If you'd like, I can call the branch manager and let him know you're coming over. He'll verify the check, and then deposit it into your account."

  I nodded, "Do that. Tell him I'll be right over."

  Ken picked up his phone and made the call.

  "It's all set. He'll be waiting for you."

  I thanked Ken, and he buzzed me out. He had given me a plain brown paper bag to hold the cash he'd paid me, along with the cashier's check and the gold coin I was keeping.

  Outside, Anna was sitting in the Cruiser, still on the phone.

  I signaled to her that I was going to walk to the end of the shopping center, and she nodded 'okay.'

  Five minutes later I was sitting in the bank manager's office. I'd given him the check and my bank account number.

  He punched a few keys on his computer, and a moment later, a teller walked into his office and handed him a deposit receipt showing that two hundred fifty thousand had been deposited into my account.

  Handing me the receipt, the manager said, "The money is now in your account. You can draw on it immediately."

  I took the receipt, checked it, and smiled. The money was there.

  The manager rechecked his computer screen, then turned toward me with a smile and said, "Mr. Walker, I see you have a very large balance in your checking account. Would you like to speak to one of our investment advisers?"

  I shook my head, "No thanks. Not today."

  Leaving the bank with the deposit slip safely tucked away, and the paper bag from Ken under my arm, I headed back toward Anna and her Land Cruiser. She saw me coming and quickly ended her phone call.

  As soon as I opened the passenger door and climbed in, she asked, "How'd it go with Ken? He treat you right?"

  I smiled, "It went well. He seems to be a good guy."

  She nodded, then said, "That was Sarah on the phone."

  "That's what I figured. How's she doing?"

  "Pretty good. She's excited about her new job and her new apartment.

  "She wanted to know if I'd told you yet. And how you took it."

  I nodded, "What'd you tell her?"

  "I told her you were happy that she landed her dream job."

  "I also told her not to worry about you. You were a big boy and could take care of yourself."

  I laughed. She was right.

  We spent the rest of the day playing tourists. We visited the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum, walked the docks at the marina, ate lunch at Captain Hiram's on the Riverfront, visited a few specialty shops, and ended our day back at Publix, where we picked up supplies for our final dinner together.

  Back at the campground, Anna prepared dinner in the Love Bus. I tried to help, but she said, "You open the wine, I'll do the rest."

  After dinner, she suggested we go outside, sit at the picnic table, finish our wine and watch the sun go down.

  We were starting on our second glass when Anna reached over and took my hand. "There's something I need to tell you."

  "Again? You're full of secrets aren't you?

  "Is this one going to be good or bad?"

  She smiled, "I think it's going to be good."

  She paused, then announced, "We're going to be roommates."

  "Roommates? You and Sarah?"

  "No, silly. You and me. We're going to be roommates. At least for a while."

  "See, about two weeks ago I mentioned to Sarah that I was planning on moving back to Englewood.

  "Then a week later, she called and told me about her new job and the apartment she was moving into. During that call, she said that since the rent was paid up on her old apartment, I could live there while I looked for another place.

  "But there was a catch. She said there was this guy living in a motorhome in her back yard. And I wasn't too sure about that. About a strange guy living in the back yard.

  "But as it turns out, you're the guy. And now that I know you, it seems like a good idea. So we're going to be roommates. You and me."

  I shook my head, "So let me get this straight. You're moving to Englewood, and will be living in Sarah's old apartment?"

  "That's right. Except, her old apartment doesn't have any furniture in it, so I'll just pull my camper up next to yours, and live in it.

  "Won't that be great!"

  I shook my head, "I'm not sure what it will be. But what about work? What will you do to make a living?"

  Anna smiled, "That won't be a problem. While on medical leave after the attack, I studied and got my Florida real estate license.

  "I've been offered a job with a local real estate office in Englewood.

  "So when we both get back over there, I can be your real estate agent. I can help you find the perfect place."

  I stopped her, "Anna, it sounds like you've got this all figured out. Except for one thing. What makes you think I'm going to be buying a place?"

  She smiled and patted my hand, "Walker, you'll see. You can't live in other people's backyards forever. You're going to want your own place."

  I nodded, "That may be so, but why would I want you as a real estate agent?"

  Anna smiled, "You're going to want me as your agent because when I worked for the power company as a meter reader, I visited every home in the Englewood area at least once a month.

  "I can tell you which neighborhoods are good and which are bad. I can tell you which areas flood and which are always high and dry.