Alvarado Gold (26 page)

“I don’t doubt you did what was right, sir. I’m just surprised none of us knew anything about this.”

Mr. Hamilton reached for his pipe. “Your grandfather had a well thought out plan.”

This was it. He was about to tell us about the gold.

“He told me that over the last one hundred and fifty years different members of the family had looked for the gold, but they’d always looked around Barnesville. Never up into Alvarado. The letter about the gold being buried on the Hansen property settled the deal.” 

I suddenly felt this situation would turn out far differently than we’d planned.

Clay shifted nervously in his seat. “The old goat. He planted all those clues so we’d wind up here. So where is it? Is there a bank we need to find?”

“No. Mr. Barnes. I’m sorry. It was never his intent for the family to have the gold.” Mr. Hamilton let the statement fall out into the flat, stale air of the conference room.

Donnie’s voice pitched up three octaves. “No gold!”

I felt the breath go out of my lungs. I glanced from face to face looking for a reaction. There were five expressions from thoughtful smiles to shock and disbelief. I eagerly asked about Grandpa’s plans. “Then what happened to it and why are we here?” I looked over at Donnie trying to make eye contact but he stared down into his empty coffee cup, his face the gray of a cold, winter day. I surmised he probably felt that way, too.

“Your grandfather wanted me to use the money to build the Boy’s Home. The funds were running low on the project and with his generous donation we were able to finish and pay for much of the equipment on the playground. The portfolios in front of you explain everything.” Grandpa lived his life giving to others. I realized this knowledge was his final gift to us.

I leaned over in the direction of Mr. Hamilton as I posed my question. “Do you think our grandfather used this wild goose chase we’ve been on to bring us all together?”

“Precisely. He knew he didn’t have many more years. He went back home and planted each one of the clues carefully so you’d find them when he died. He left the tortoiseshell box with his lawyer, but from what you’ve told me, you found even more clues than your grandfather knew about.”

“I guess fate, or something greater, intervened so we’d find each other.” I stood and extended my hand to Mr. Hamilton. “We’ve taken up enough of your time, sir. You’ve been truly helpful.”

“I’d like to offer my condolences.” Mr. Hamilton reached for my hand. “Your grandpa was quite an endearing man.”

“I have one final request. Do you think we might petition the city fathers to call the home the Addison Barnes’ Home for Boys?”

Mr. Hamilton smiled broadly. “I think that might be arranged, especially since I’m on the Board of Directors.” I knew he’d keep his word.

We reassembled on the sidewalk in front of the building. Donnie looked like he was in shock and Eric mumbled about the episode being an incredible waste of time. The girls were quiet. Although I though Susan looked a little stricken.

“Look.” I scanned their faces. “This is what Grandpa wanted. Not for us to find the gold but to find each other.” I turned to stand closer to Donnie. “We’re all that’s left of the family. His legacy was to bring us together–something he couldn’t do with his own children.” I took Donnie’s hand and one by one the cousins did so in unison.
A time to heal.

****

We met Gary at a local restaurant and filled him in the morning’s events. The time came too quickly for us to bid our farewell to Alvarado. Our jobs and families beckoned all of us, except for Donnie. He hadn’t said much since we’d found out about the gold.

“What’s your plan, Donnie?” Clay pressed him.

“I don’t know.” He rubbed his forehead. “I put too much stock in finding that gold. I can do some odd jobs somewhere. I don’t have much of a background in anything except I worked in the bakery at the youth authority.”

Clay questioned, “You any good?”

“Not bad.” Donnie continued to talk about his life with animation for the first time since we’d met. “I didn’t get a chance to make anything fancy but I can make some artisan breads and pastries.”

“You have a job, then. I need a baker.” Clay reached over and they shook hands, sealing the deal. “Two Barnes boys in one kitchen, now that should be interesting.”

We all stood and said our good-byes. Donnie made plans to join Clay in Arizona as soon as he could tie up all his loose ends in Oklahoma. Mel, Gary, Eric and I stood in the parking lot as Clay and Susan left in his van and Donnie in his pickup. Mel drove the rental car to Dallas where she and Eric caught their three o’clock flights home. Gary and I remained in Alvarado until my flight left at six.

We sat, alone, on the porch swing at his parent’s home. A light rain cooled the hot afternoon air. While I sipped a glass of Mrs. Wright’s tangy lemonade, I asked Gary about the major obstacle in our relationship before it gnawed a hole in my heart. “How are we going to handle this long distance romance?”

He smiled, crinkling the edges around his eyes, which made them dance with mischief. “It won’t be hard.”

While Gary moved the swing patiently with his muscular legs, I rattled on. “How can it not be? We’re half a continent away from each other. I don’t know about you but I don’t have very many frequent flyer miles.” Why didn’t he interrupt? I started to wonder what he was up to. He sat on the edge of the swing, smiling, behind him a prism of light set the sky on fire with a brilliant arch. “I’ve waited all my life for you and you have to live in Texas. I just got that big promotion at work and I can’t leave it. Do you know how long it would take me to find something like that here?” As I spoke, his grin grew wider. “Tell me. What’s the joke?”

“I’m transferring to the San Francisco office. That’s why I came out the weekend of Susan’s wedding.”

Everything came together. I’d tried so hard to make it happen on my own and it happened all by itself. I’d found gold, after all, at the end of a Texas rainbow.

Epilogue

It’s hard to believe it all happened two years ago. Gary and I were married in the spring of the next year on the steps of the Barnesville Church. It didn’t surprise me he’d somehow gotten permission from the state for us to use the area. He had told me it was because we were direct descendants, but I believe he pulled a few strings at the BLM to make it happen. To be able to have our wedding on the site of the very church my great-great-great grandfather had built meant more to me than I think Gary even realized.

My four cousins were in attendance along with their families and Gary’s parents. His friends from college, a few of his work associates and their respective partners and children, most of whom I’d never met, traveled from throughout the state to celebrate with us. Nerd boy, Mitch, along with a toothy bespectacled girl I recognized from building C, held Mollie who was fresh from the groomer with blue flowers twined into her leash. Jack, Catherine, Liz and even old man Geller joined the assemblage of our friends and family.

The Texas Bluebonnets bloomed profusely. Grandma’s altered wedding gown elegantly swept the grassy prairie floor when I walked down the aisle, the old walk way of the church, on Eric’s arm. He led me to Gary who beamed at us from the steps of the foundation. Standing next to Gary was his father, who’d enthusiastically agreed to be best man, and Clay. Susan and Mel were my attendants; Donnie made the wedding cake and drove all night in a refrigerated van from Arizona to deliver it. His gift to me, the key Uncle Joseph gave him years ago. Donnie found a jeweler in Arizona who dipped it in gold. A poignant reminder of what we thought we’d lost, but instead renewed. I wore it on a velvet ribbon around my neck.

As I heard Grandpa’s voice telling me, “Dance, Addie, Dance,” Gary slipped a gold wedding band on my finger. I took Gary’s large hand in mine and gazed into his eyes before I gave him his ring. It had been his idea to inscribe both bands with the date and the verse,
Whither thou goest, I will go,
but I wanted Gary to know I’d follow him to the ends of the earth as he had promised me he’d do
.

I’d found my family and the love I’d searched for so long. As Gary pressed the rock he’d given me at the motel into my hand, he winked at me. The minister asked God to bless our marriage and my renewed faith washed over me. I looked into Gary’s violet-blue eyes and knew
to every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.

A word about the author…

Vicki Caine resides in Fresno, California with her husband and daughter. Her first passion is her family, which also includes a daughter in New Mexico, followed closely by writing and exotic gem collecting.

Always being the storyteller, ten years as a genealogist provided the experience for the background details for Alvarado Gold. A sequel, Cairo is currently in progress.

Vicki has also published both fiction and nonfiction articles in Seekers, Short Stuff, HI Families, The Front Porch and The Manzanita Literary Journal. Additionally, an honorable mention at the William Saroyan Writer’s Conference, special recommendation in the Writer’s Journal poetry contest and second place in the Writer’s Journal 2004 romance contest. A mini romance was published by True Story in their Sweet, Sweet Mini Romance section.

Contact Victoria at [email protected]