by Bob Blink
“I sold it over a year ago,” she said. “I guess it was premature, but everyone was certain you were gone for good. We actually had you declared legally dead, which delayed a lot of the legal closure on the house. I didn’t like driving anything so big, and couldn’t stand just seeing it rot. Maybe we can rent you one in the morning.”
Randy wondered what it would be like to drive again. He still had his driver’s license, and it was good for another six months, which was longer than he expected to need it anyway.
“I guess I still have your money in the bank.”
“I wondered if you might have needed it,” Randy said.
She shook her head. “Things were tight for a while after Bud and I split, but once the house in Denver sold we had enough. I’ll start teaching again in the fall – I’ve already been accepted here at the high school. I put everything in one account, but I can transfer it anytime you like.”
“Maybe we can draw some out tomorrow,” he said. “I have a number of purchases I want to make. I don’t think money will be a major problem, although I plan to spend quite a bit over the next month or so, but I’ll need to find a place to exchange gold.”
“Gold?”
“I have some hidden in the garage unless you found it.” She was shaking her head to indicate she hadn’t any idea what he was talking about. “I also brought this with me.”
Randy reach down and lifted the small, but heavy box he’d been carrying around with him and set it on the scratched old desk in the corner of his room. He reached down and slipped the latch that had held it closed and flipped back the lid.
“Oh my god,” Janie said, seeing the ingots of gold. “Where did you get that?”
“Courtesy of the royal treasury of Angon,” Randy replied. “It’s a bit more than I asked for, but I had no idea what gold might be worth now, and I wanted to make sure I had enough.”
“How much is there?”
“About ten pounds. I had about twenty thousand dollars in gold coins in the garage. I’ll check in the morning and see if it’s still there.”
He reached over and grabbed the one gold coin in the box. He didn’t know why he’d brought it, but on a whim had thrown it into the box with the other gold. He handed to his sister.
“Here’s an official coin from the country I’ve spent most of my time in. One gold Royal. You’d have the coin dealers going crazy trying to figure where that came from.”
“This is too much. I still am not sure what to believe and what not. We have a great deal more to talk about in the morning. One thing though. You haven’t asked about Sharon.”
He hadn’t and he expected he knew the answer. He’d known he was going to have to face the matter at some point, but wasn’t sure he was ready so soon.
“She’s dead,” Janie said simply. “At the time I thought maybe what happened to her was related to your disappearance. Now I don’t know what to think.”
“When? How did she die?” Randy couldn’t avoid the matter now.
“Almost two years ago. She overdosed. I didn’t think she even used drugs.”
Randy sighed. It didn’t come as a surprise, but it was different hearing it stated as fact. He’d failed her. Cheurt had taken her away, and when he was done with her, he had gotten rid of her. The way he’d done it made her death just another statistic.
“She didn’t. She was murdered. Most likely killed by the man you’ve seen coming into the yard. That should be considered a warning. Stay away from him at all costs. He would kill you without a second thought if he considered it necessary.”
Janie’s eyes went wide as she saw the truthfulness of his statement in his eyes.
“These are very dangerous people. Before I leave for good, I think I can find a way to stop them from coming back, but I won’t know for sure until I try it. For now, if you see this person, let me know and stay away. I know where he is probably staying. I was forced to rent a house some time ago and . . .”
Janie was shaking her head and he stopped.
“I wondered about the house. After you were missing a few months I was able to look into your affairs, even though I wasn’t able to officially take any action. When I found the payments on the bank statements, I tried to find out who was living there. The place was deserted. I stopped the payments and no one ever complained, except the owner, and I told him you had died and didn’t need it any longer.”
That meant they had moved when they learned he was on Gaea, concerned that his being missing here on Earth might bring attention their way. Another in a long list of tasks. He would need to find where Cheurt’s man had moved to, a lot more difficult now that he was staying elsewhere.
“I’m going to check on the kids and then go to bed. We have a lot more to talk about in the morning. ‘Nite Randy. Welcome back.”
“Good night, Janie,” Randy responded automatically. He had a lot of conflicting emotions to sort through, and he needed to start a list of what he needed to do.
Chapter 105
Randy didn’t sleep that soundly and was up well before dawn and before he could hear any sounds of movement in the house. In a way, it was convenient, and being alone in his room allowed him a chance to become acclimated to the reality of his return. He rubbed his face and realized that he was now going to have to get used to the idea of shaving again, along with other changes now that he no longer could count on his magic to handle certain things for him.
He also discovered that he had grown. While his pants and shoes fit fine, some of his shirts were decidedly tight and uncomfortable. He spent some time and sorted through the offerings in the closet and found a half dozen that were large enough that they could be worn. Since the weather was getting cooler, he could get by wearing looser sweaters, which would help. He could see little point in acquiring more clothes, at least until he understood for certain that he would be making a number of round trips. If he were going to be here for a couple of months, then it would make sense to get a few items for comfort’s sake.
Dressed, and looking more like he belonged here, Randy walked out of his room and down the stairs and headed out into the garage. He surprised himself by opening his safe on the very first try, then realized he couldn’t remember the combination. He’d spun the dial automatically while his mind was thinking about the list of things that he needed to get done in the next few days. Now that he thought about it, the numbers wouldn’t come. Best to leave it unlocked just in case he was unable to bring them back. He’d had a similar thing happen to him in school years before. Everyday he’d open his hall locker, and his gym locker, and his science room locker without fail. Then they juggled the schedule for some kind of special presentation. As a result, he’d come to the lockers out of order, and, to his dismay, had been unable to open any of them. Trying to recall the numbers rather than instinctively just opening the locks had driven the numbers out of his mind completely. He’d had to go to the administration building, explain his plight, and get a written list of the numbers to be able to get access to his books.
His rifles and shotgun were exactly where he’d left them, unused for several years now. He took each one out and inspected it carefully for rust or other problems. Later he’d run a patch through the bores and give them a bit of servicing, but they actually looked in fine shape given the neglect they’d received. These weren’t the guns he wanted to bring back, but he’d bring them anyway for the trial run since he wouldn’t have time in the next few days to accumulate the items he really wanted. He’d thought about delaying his return so he could work on acquiring the guns he wanted, but finally decided if he could get back to Gaea, he was sure returning to Earth wouldn’t be a problem. More important would be whether he could return to Gaea at all, and how much he could bring with him. It didn’t make sense to run out and buy a lot of stuff, only to learn he couldn’t bring it back. Besides, if he didn’t return as scheduled, there would be a great deal of concern among his friends on Gaea.
While he had the long gu
ns, he was woefully short on ammunition. He had less than a full box of twenty rounds for the .300 magnum, and perhaps two hundred rounds for the .22. The .22’s were standard lead bullet stuff, hollow points, but he knew it would be better to have the copper coated bullets that could be easily purchased. He couldn’t find any ammunition at all for the Mini-14. Writing down the brand and bullet weight of the ammunition for the .300 magnum which he knew the rifle had been sighted in with, he added to his list the need to get a supply for each while he was here.
Satisfied, he closed the door to the safe, but didn’t spin the dial to lock it. He walked over to the side door and walked back across the yard toward the barn out back. He made a deliberate detour and as he approached the grassy rise, he sensed the Nexus active and waiting. At least it was still there and he could sense it. That gave him a better feeling about the situation.
The barn wasn’t locked, and he slipped the heavy wooden bar and pulled the large doors open and walked inside, flipping on the lights as he did so. Smelling the dust and mold and seeing lots of spider webs along the walls near places where there were breaks or gaps in the boards, he walked toward the back of the barn. In the farthest horse stall, he pulled open the gate and walked inside. He had to get the shovel and broom to clear away the dirt and hay that covered the area, but finally uncovered the small trap door that led down to the storage area below.
Halfway down the small ladder, he reached over and flipped on the power to the small light he’d installed down here some years before. His father had never known about the small room, and to this day Randy didn’t know what had led him to the hidden space. When he found it, the room had been barren and empty. He’d wondered who had built the room and what its original purpose had been. He’d kept it as his own secret, never telling anyone about it. Now that he returned, he could see that nothing had been disturbed during his absence. The various treasures he’d left down here were still placed as he’d left them. Far in the back he found the small strong box with the gold coins he’d stashed. He pulled that out to take back to the house. The first gold he’d exchange would be something a bit more familiar to the dealers here. Standard US Gold Eagles would be a bit easier to sell than raw gold. He wanted a little more experience before he tried to sell any of the Gaean gold. Since there was nothing else here that was relevant to his needs at the moment, Randy climbed back up the ladder and up into the barn, covering up the hideaway and returning everything as he’d found it.
Back in the house he grabbed a cup of hot chocolate and a couple of toaster waffles hot out of the toaster without syrup or anything else. He wandered over to where he’d seen the computer the previous evening, and sat down. Happily it was set up without any need for a password, and he was able to get onto the Internet without problem. He’d forgotten how handy it was to have virtually anything one wanted to know only a few keystrokes away. In a few minutes he learned that the gold coins were worth more than double what he’d bought them for, so he had over forty thousand dollars there alone. He also was able to find an item that he had hoped was readily available, what the name was and where it could be purchased locally. For the next thirty minutes he sat and worked on the list that he’d been developing mentally for months, occasionally checking the Internet, and making additional annotations next to certain items. He was still there when Janie came down a bit later.
“Couldn’t sleep?” Janie asked as she came up behind him. “I heard you moving around earlier and through the window saw you head out to the barn.”
“I wanted to check on that,” Randy said, pointing to the box of gold coins. “I was checking to see what gold is worth now. There should be somewhere between forty-three and forty-five thousand in there, depending on what it costs to exchange them.”
“You had that much stashed away? I don’t know where we can do that,” she said honestly.
“The value has really gone up while I was gone,” he admitted. “I found a couple of places in town, and more in Denver, that claim to be exchanges for both coins and raw gold. I thought we might take half of the coins with us today and see what happens.”
“Once we get the kids off to school, the rest of the day is open. I suppose we need to get you a car so you can move around on your own. This weekend I’ll be pretty busy with the kids. School just started a few weeks ago and we haven’t finished with new clothes and supplies.”
Randy had met the kids the previous evening. They accepted his presence as no big deal. Over the years they had seen him off and on, and the fact he’d been gone for some time was just another discontinuity in their encounters with him. Their interests were elsewhere, and after the mandatory greetings, they’d headed off to whatever held their attention these days.
* * * *
“So many questions,” Janie said as they drove away from the bullion exchange. Seems like they take a large enough cut.”
Randy was driving her Subaru so he could get used to the act of driving again. Technically he wasn’t sure of his status. His license was current and valid, except for the fact he was legally dead. That might be interesting if a policeman were to stop him, so he’d have to drive carefully while he was here. The skills hadn’t been lost, and he found his reactions automatic, if a bit rusty. He was surprised at how easily he could recall the streets and his way around town after so long, but then he had spent more than twenty years here.
Randy now had more than twenty thousand dollars in his pocket. He didn’t know how good a deal he’d made, and suspected there were ways he could have reduced the exchange costs if he’d the time. It didn’t matter. Time was more important than the extra money at the moment. He had also learned that exchanging the raw gold in the quantities he had was going to be a bit trickier than he expected. He would leave the gold here with Janie, and deal with that matter on his next trip when he had more time.
Their first stop was a large hardware store that he’d called earlier to see if they stocked the items he wanted.
“Two coats minimum,” the man told him. “I would use three if it were me. Cover the bottom of the boat thoroughly and make sure to have it extra thick next to the waterline.”
Randy nodded his understanding, and purchased ten gallons of the paint, which he knew surprised the man. He could tell the clerk wanted to ask Randy what kind of boat he had, but he had refrained from doing so. After putting the paint in the back of the car, which was now nearly full, Randy and Janie went back inside to look for copper. He bought several large spools of bare un-insulated wire in various sizes. In addition to the more common gauges, he bought one spool of fifty feet of .2 inch diameter wire and a couple pairs of cutters to make it easier to snip off the desired lengths. They didn’t have any sheets of copper, but the salesman directed him to a metals shop across town that would have what he wanted. When he finally realized how much he had, Randy paid for delivery, and unloaded the paint from the car to be delivered later in the day with the rest of their purchases.
“Why so much copper?” Janie asked a bit later after he had purchased a dozen sheets of quarter inch thick stock. “What are you going to do with it?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I just know that there isn’t any to speak of on Gaea, and I can see the need arising. It just seemed prudent to stock up. Besides, I’ll be rich. The copper we have bought today will make me the equivalent of a trillionaire there.”
The next stop was an electronics shop. Randy bought an Apple MacBook Pro, two external 2 terabyte drives, and something that hadn’t existed when he had been pulled from Earth a couple years ago, an iPad. He also bought two iPod touches, and two solar charging sytems. One of the chargers was for the iPod and iPad, and the other for the laptop. They were a bit slow and bulky, but would work even better than the “batteries” Buris had available in his lab. Randy also bought a variety of cables and adapters for the units to be sure he had enough.
Next Randy headed for the two-way radios. He purchased a dozen of the top of the line units, each with eight se
lectable channels and a nominal range of five miles. The units used a nine volt rechargeable battery, which Randy knew he could charge with his solar charger, but he also bought ten packages of throwaway batteries as backup. It wasn’t enough, but until he was sure what he could take, he was probably overstocking.
As they drove away from the store and headed to the car rental, Randy had a thought.
“When was the last time you saw the man in the back yard?”
“Six weeks ago,” she answered without hesitation. “I started marking it on the calendar. He comes every couple of months.”
That was good and bad, Randy thought. The timing was a bit of a surprise to Randy though. There were good and bad aspects to the spacing between the man’s visits. It didn’t sound like Randy needed to worry about the man showing up while he was experimenting with the transition, but he wouldn’t have a chance of trying to track the man for some time. It sounded like he might only get the one chance, so he’d better not screw it up. So far he hadn’t come up with any ideas on how to locate the man. Even hiring a professional seemed pointless because he couldn’t give the man anything other than a description. He wouldn’t be able to provide names, history, or any other information that would help make locating Cheurt’s wizard possible.
Janie had rented a large sized car at Randy’s request. He’d rather have an SUV for hauling, but none had been available. The large trunk would have to do. He followed her home, where they’d unloaded her car of the purchases made earlier. Then Janie had to run some errands of her own, while Randy waited for the delivery from the hardware store. He’d had them place everything on the small knoll in the back yard, and after they left, Randy had stood there as if to make the jump back to Gaea. He remembered that Cheurt had been able to sense when he’d brought too much stuff with him, yet even with all he had purchased, Randy could sense nothing telling him he wouldn’t be able to activate the spell to return home. He wondered if he was taking a risk trying to bring so much, but finally decided it was something he needed to know. It looked as if using the proper departure point for the Nexus significantly improved the amount he could bring with him. He was somewhat reassured by the memory that the one time Cheurt had tried to make the jump with too much weight, he’d simply arrived without some of the stuff he’d intended to carry. Randy had never found anything in his back yard, so he had no idea what might have happened to the excess.
