The only number on the coin was a Roman numeral date: MCDLXII--1462. He determined the coin was hand engraved and stippled; it was actually a miniature sculpture. The high spots of the engravings were worn, but most of the details were still evident and there was very little damage. Its edges were a thick border. The face of the coin depicted a bearded man who was sitting with his arms over his knees, and had a small image of a lamp over small stamped letters FRNZ. The back side had two greek words around the border, φιλόσοφος and κύων and depicted a small dog offering a paw.
As Friday rolled around, his teenage brain and energy kept him up all night researching and studying articles. He’d accumulated a giant mass of notes that were scribbled on a stack of notepads. He shoved the mess in a bag and took his bike to Tracy’s.
Chapter Four
He wore a jacket on the ride and was too hot by the time he climbed a couple of hills to the Wells farm. The cool air felt great on his damp shirt as he coasted down the driveway. He knocked on the door and tried the knob. It was locked.
He got out his phone and texted her.
“AT YOUR PLACE” SEND
He got the hidden key from under a rock in the flowerbed and went inside. He called out, “Hellloooo.” The place was dead quiet. Tracy was probably out.
He went into the library and put the bookbag on the big table in the center of the room. He stripped off his coat and tossed it into a chair. His phone buzzed.
“OK. @ STORE.” she replied.
“Doing research on coin” SEND
“Np cu.” she wrote back.
He walked around the shelves. One aisle was labelled “Money and Finance”. He said, “ok, maybe something there…” The shelves were packed with materials. Some were books with leather bindings and titles. He picked up a few books from the shelf and piled them on the table. One of the volumes was particularly striking. It was thin, and was bound in a silvery gray leather. The cover had an embossed image a serpent coiling around a wooden cross. He ran his fingertips over the image, “interesting…”
He browsed the other shelves, taking it in. He spent time hanging out in the library ever since he knew Tracy, but they’d never really looked at the books--the library just provided an interesting atmosphere. The aisles were tall. He was a tall boy, 6’2” but he couldn’t reach the top shelves. He puttered around on the first floor for a few minutes, then climbed the steep ladder stairs to the second floor walkway. 4” oak planks formed a walkway around the perimeter of the room. He noticed that the planks were hanging off the shelves on iron braces and the shelves actually went all the way up and were anchored to the beams in the ceiling. A huge sculpture of the Sun was on the eastern wall. He’d never noticed that it was actually a lamp. He plugged it in and it glowed a pleasant yellow.
He climbed the stairs on the right side of the room. A silver sculpture of the moon was mounted on the wall. The label of the first row of shelves read “Magic and Divination”. “Sweet. Weird. Have to check that one out.” He walked very slowly through the aisle. He grabbed a few random volumes and carefully stepped down the stairs. He nestled into one of the comfortable chairs. He unpacked his pile of notes, then started browsing the books he selected.
He flipped through the pages of each, looking for a starting point, but kept coming back to the slender volume with the snake on the cover. He cracked it open. The pages were vellum. It was only 40 pages long. The frontispiece was an elaborate illustration. The title page was latin. There was some writing on the margin in a sloped, tight script.
“Finance and Belief, Library of J. Law”. There were also some notes in what he assumed was German more in language he didn’t recognize, which was actually Dutch. He thumbed through the book. The original printed text was double spaced lines of latin, but each line was translated to English in hand written text. He read about halfway through the book when he heard the Austin Healey crunching gravel outside.
He went out to help her bring groceries into the house.
“What’s up stranger?” she asked.
“What a weird week. Been working like a working man.” he smiled. “It’s been semi-good all things considered. What’s up with you guys?”
“Same old, same old. People are starting to get worked up for Homecoming.”
“Oh, yeah… I forgot about that. Still weeks away, though, right?”
“Yep. Oh, yeah, and my Uncle’s heading home. He could be here any time. Probably making some stops on the way up from Florida.”
“Oh, cool! I haven’t seen him in a while.”
She started packing away the groceries. He usually would have stayed there chatting, but the wheels of his mind were still churning. “I’ll be in the library.”
“Oh, Okay.” She felt strangely pained that he just walked away.
His head was down over the book when she walked into the room. “Did you find anything interesting?” she asked.
“Hmmm.” he just kind of grunted, and he rubbed his chin. “I’ve been doing research all week. At first, I was just trying to figure out how much this is worth.” He tossed the coin to her. “but, now, I’m just reading. There’s so much…” he leaned back. “So much I don’t know… I didn’t even know it existed…” he folded his hands on his chest.
She flipped through his notes. There were single lines of text, dates, sketches, arrows, big stars. “Wow, you’ve been busy.” she hefted the stack.
He looked at her, “maybe if I try to explain it, you’ll notice something.”
“Go for it. Want some coffee?” he rarely ever drank the stuff, “You know, yeah, that might be good.”
They walked into the kitchen. He flopped the coin from palm to palm.
“At first, I thought this was a coin, money. So I looked through just about every coin image I could find. Let me tell you, there are a lot. But I found nothing.”
She started the pot brewing. The hot water gurgled and steam puffed through the top of the maker.
“If it’s not a coin, what is it?”
“Could be some kind of medal?” he shrugged.
She was about to reply, but zoned out mid gesture. “Tracy?” he gripped her shoulder.
“Whoa.” she said. “I know where we should look.” She grabbed two mugs and poured the coffee.
He took a sip, “Oh wow, whew, that’s strong. Do you have some cream?”
“Yup, hurry up.” she poured some cream in hers and trotted into the library. She set the mug on the table and went up to the second floor. She climbed up a couple of shelves and grabbed a book and the notebook from the shelf.
She trotted down the steep stair ladder and put the books on the table and sat down. He raised an eyebrow at her and sat down across the table. “How…”
“I just do, I remember it. It keeps coming to me in little fragments during the day, sometime in dreams--really weird and vivid dreams.”
“That’s amazing, did you learn it sometime, then just forgot?”
“I don’t think so. I think it’s like ROY G BIV, except instead of a little thing remembering the colors, it’s like remembering all the parts of a car and how they’re connected.” She tapped her head, “Somehow it’s up there.”
He just nodded his head and picked up the book and notebook. He opened the notebook first.
She pointed at the pages, “That’s notes from researchers--that would be you,” she pointed at him, “and then there are cross references.”
“Paper Internet. Cool.”
“I guess I’m a human search engine, now. I didn’t hear about that one on career day.”
The book was actually an author’s galleys from a printer that were loosely bound with string and a piece of cardboard that had been hot glued to the edge of the papers. The copyright date was from 1963. The title was Touch Pieces and Talismans. He thumbed through, “Color pictures for once!”
She laughed. “Yeah, there is no light reading material in here. Not one beach book.”
“Hmmm. I
think we’re getting warmer.” She came over and sat on the arm of the chair. He’d known Tracy since fifth grade. They’d been buddies for years and he took her presence for granted. He’d seen her puking, squatting in the woods to pee, drooling in her sleep, chewing with her mouth open, and just staring off into space. He never really noticed how beautiful she was.
She was tall for a girl, just about 5’ 10”. Her hair was deep red and had a buttery thickness with slight curls at the ends. She had it pulled back in two braids. Her eyes were large and light blue, and her eyebrows were fine and expressive. The light of fierce intelligence and an active mind and devious imagination animated her face. She was in shape, not from trips to the gym, but from just running around on the farm her whole life, but not thin, she carried a couple of extra pounds.
“What’d you find?” he felt conscious of her butt brushing against his arm. He froze in the chair a little to keep the contact going.
“Well, yeah, look at these.” he pointed to the page. “See the letters there? FRNZ” he handed her the coin and pointed. “Firenze, Florence Italy.” He read the text.
The City State of Florence issued sets of commemorative medals and tokens in the 15th century. Good examples were rare in those days, and exceedingly hard to find today. The photos [A,B,C,D] are courtesy the private collection of Doctor and Misses Milton Price III.
The tokens were given to individuals and members of organizations that were in Florence around the time of the fall of Constantinople in 1453 when the revival of Greek learning and thought spread rapidly through Europe.
“Wow!” she said “1453…”
“Well, there’s a date on that one 1462.” he pointed.
“You need to take good care of that!” she punched his shoulder and then rested her hand on it and squeezed. He looked up at her. Their eyes locked for a few seconds.
“What?” she laughed. She took a sip of her coffee to break the awkward silence.
“You what?” he laughed back. She stood up and shook her arms to dissipate some of the nervous energy.
“Want a warm up? I’ve got some food, too. We could do lunch out on the table rock.”
“Sounds great.”
Chapter Five
Keith Marte spent a lazy Saturday morning at home. Some college football game was on TV and he was browsing around auto ads online.
“Hey kiddo,” he called out to Chloe. She was in her room. Music was playing and she was just surfing the web and occasionally texting with friends.
“Check this out.” he emailed her a link.
“Cool!” she shouted back. She walked out into the living room with her laptop. She had the ad for a VW Jetta. The car was $3000.
“How much in your savings account?” he asked.
“Around $1500.” she’d accumulated birthday money, christmas money, and allowance money for a few years.
“Well, if you put down $500 with the bank of daddy, I’ll front you the rest.”
“A loan… or is this a gift?” she arched her eyebrow.
“Well, I expect to be paid back with happiness, grandchildren, and you not throwing me in a nursing home when I’m old.”
“Oh,” she feigned embarrassment, “Am I showing already?” and rubbed her belly.
He laughed. “Ugh! Don’t scare me like that! Do we need to have ‘the talk’?”
“No, no, no, that’s alright. I learned everything I need to know from the Internet--Two Girls One Cup--Lemon Party. Don’t worry,” she gestured at herself, “This is a temple. I am Divine.”
“Good! Don’t give it up to the first dumb high school boy that comes along. That is literally my only advice on this subject...”
“Let me fill the awkward silence by saying ‘awkward, awkward, awkward.’”
“I’m a little serious, but I know you’ve got good judgement… Probably better than me. Maybe you learned from my bad examples.”
She nodded emphatically. She sighed and said, “Soooo, what’s the plan?”
“Well, let’s go look at this rusty bucket, then maybe go running at the observatory?”
“Lemme get my jock outfit on and I’ll be ready to roll.”
The car was parked on the lawn of a house on Wilson Mills. They pulled in and Keith honked the horn. An older man waved from the porch then shuffled out to greet them. He wore a white cuban shirt and white cabana pants and sandals. He moved like a cloud drifting across the yard. “We’re interested in the car.” Keith pointed at it.
They kicked the tires and took a test ride. Chloe climbed in behind the wheel and Keith sat in back. The owner eased himself down into the passenger seat. It was a manual transmission and had a little pep. She goosed it a couple of times, “OK, Chloe, take it a little easy.”
The owner laughed. “Oh that’s like my daughter, she loved this car. She’s in grad school now, out in Boston,” he pointed over his shoulder, then realized that direction was north, then emphatically pointed east, “No that-a-way. She just bought a new hybrid. This car’s a lot more fun.”
They pulled back in the yard after a quick trip around the neighborhood. Keith talked the car down. “It sounds a little rough. How long since the last oil change? You have service records?” There was a ream of papers in the glove compartment he handed them to Keith. He nodded in appreciation, then gestured at his daughter. “Honey, you take it from here.”
“I love the car.” she smiled brightly. The owner was charmed. She had an uncanny ability to make people happy. “How firm are you on the price?”
“Well, I’m selling it for my daughter. Ultimately, it’s up to her, but I think she’s a little flexible.”
“Would you take $2000?” She asked.
He rubbed his chin. “Let me call her.” He glided away around a flower bed and called his daughter. They chatted for a while. He walked back and put a hand over the phone, “would you do $2500?”
“How about $2250?” she countered.
“Yeah,” he nodded and gave a thumbs up, “She says OK.”
Chloe hopped in the air a few times. Both the men laughed. “First car!” she said.
Keith paid him the cash. The man handed over the keys. They drove back to the condo, then she drove them both to the park. She was beaming and singing every single car song she could think of.
“Two laps?” Keith was stretching.
“Let’s take that little connector path over there?” she made a zig-zag motion with her arm.
“Oh, yeah, that little trail, sure. Warm up the first lap?”
‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll take it easy on you.” She smiled.
Their footfalls crunched over the trail rocks. They loped along easily for the first couple of miles. The stone trail made a big loop around a field, then crossed into the woods. There was a little footpath that was worn in the woods that cut from one section of gravel path to the other. It wound through trees and over small dirt piles and went over a couple of logs. She sprinted ahead of her father through the section.
Her breathing increased and her mind was entirely occupied by determining where her feet should land on the irregular surface. Keith loped along behind her as she shot away into the foliage like a rabbit. He was careful not to trip and fall. When he got back on the main trail she was jogging lightly in place, “C’mon slowpoke!”
They finished the first lap. He said, “off you go tiger!” She sprinted away. He picked up the pace a little bit, but didn’t even try to keep up. He was only about half way around the field loop when she was already a small dot heading to the woods. He shouted, “go, go, go!”
He cut the course short, and got back to the parking lot just as she was wrapping up. “Cheater!” she shouted.
“Man, you got jets, girl! Hey, let’s go check this place out.”
They walked around the main complex of buildings at the park. There was a small helical turbine spinning in the breeze. It was a white blur against the blue sky. A couple of people were setting up tables in one the buildings. A young woman
in a green park sweatshirt walked outside to meet them.
“I’m sorry, the park’s actually going to be closed for the evening.”
“Closed?”
“Yeah, once we’re done here, we’ll put the signs out. We didn’t get a chance to do it earlier. There’s a big event tonight.”
“OK. It’s a lovely place here, keep up the good work.” Keith said.
“Oh thanks! You guys have a good day!”
Chapter Six
Thousands of years ago, glaciers carried a big flat boulder south from a river valley in the Canadian Shield to what became the state of Ohio. The boulder was greenish gneiss, shot through with pink veins of marble--it looked like something a giant would use to skip across the ocean.
When the glacier receded, the boulder slid down onto the muddy ground along with tons of debris and dirt. Year after year, rain and snow percolated through the soil around the boulder smoothing the massive pile of dirt into a gently sloping hillock. Moss and grass knitted the soil together but eventually the top of the rock emerged into the sun. For centuries, animals like deer and coyotes, squirrels and chipmunks would pause on the the rock for a rest. When the Wells family built their home, the rock became a picnic spot. Men, women, children, family pets, friends and visitors spent countless lazy hours basking in the sun and feeling connected to the mass of the planet.
The Chardon Chronicles: Season One -- The Harvest Festival Page 6
