Justin and the Key ~ Chapter 4

Justin fished with his new acquaintance.  Will taught him how to gut and clean a fish, talking about random things the entire time. Justin had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing at Will’s slang ascent.  

Going home at around five o’clock, he saw that his uncle’s truck was parked outside so he ran in to find his uncle asleep on the recliner and his Aunt Ruthy making cheese lasagna and salad for dinner. He loved home-cooked food, especially of Aunt Ruthy’s making. Justin was content and happy here. Now he even had a friend, idiosyncratic as he was. Interrupting his thoughts his aunt shouted from the kitchen “Your grandparents called and said you could call them after you got back”. He’d almost forgot about his grandparents. He walked into the kitchen and picked up the phone. It was a dial phone like the ones in old TV shows and movies and it felt cool to use it. He called them and they talked about his time after he left Florida and his new friend Will although he  didn’t tell them about the key or the cabins.

The evening carried on as usual. They ate dinner and Uncle Bert read to him some more from Mark Twain. After they finished, Uncle Bert talked about the plans for the next month, going over trips and work schedules. Around nine o’clock Justin headed for bed.

In his room he got out the stuff he had gathered that day and the day before: A marble he’d found in the woods when hiking, a stick he carved, an ax head and, of course, the key. Emptying the rest of his backpack he saw that he still had a couple of snacks in it, so he packed them back in and got it ready for tomorrow. Justin was planning to go to the old settlement and find exactly what the key unlocked. Lying in bed, Justin drifted to sleep after a hard day’s play.

Waking up to the fragrant smell of Aunt Ruthy’s cooking was becoming familiar.  He had a sore throat when he walked into the kitchen. He had forgotten Aunt Ruthy’s advise when he first arrived in Paradise to drink lots of water. The air was so dry here compared to Florida he could almost feel his lungs shriveling into an unusable state. He asked were the cups were and filled one up with water. It barely soothed Justin’s parched throat although it did help a little.

Today was a Saturday and a nice one, too.  So, after breakfast, Justin went outside to the creek and noticed that, at one point in the river, there was a boulder completely covering the stream like a tunnel. He walked up to the over-sized rock and studied it with interest.

The choice scaring technique of all the expert practical jokers is jumping out of a tree, not only because it is an air frontal attack and scares the willies out of anyone you’re doing it to, but also because their face can be seen as they look up, contorted with terror, at what they think may be their death.

Justin found himself lying on his face, his mind so clouded with fear that he just lay there. Somebody turned him over. It was Will, laughing hysterically at his own cynical joke. Will’s laughing continued, and so profusely that Justin couldn’t help but laugh with him. When they stopped, Will said “Y’all don’t know how long I waited for you to come under that tree, so’s I could scare you.”

“That’s not the nicest thing in the world to do to a daydreaming boy,” Justin said, still giggling.

“Yah, but it sure is a whole lot of fun!” Will answered.

The night before, Justin had decided that he would show Will the cabins and the key, so he did so now. Will, staring at the key with wide eyes exclaimed, “Golly Gee. I wonder what it opens.”

“I was thinkin’ it might open a chest full of gold or something but I guess that’s just wishful thinkin’.”

“No, there’s lots of hidden gold up in these hills, haven’t you ever heard the story of the sheriff of Bannack?”

“No, I suppose I haven’t,” said Justin with curiosity in his voice.

“Well, here goes.  I don’t know the entire story just so, but I’ll give it a go. It all started with a young man that had been electeed for sheriff of Bannack Town; that was state capital around 1900. There was lots o’ covered wagon trains headin’ out of Bannack; chock full of pure solid gold,” he said this with vigor, “Now the sheriff wanted in on all this gold so he took on raidin’ the trains, not wearin’ a mask or nothin’.  And with none of them suspectin’ nothin’ he just shot ‘em and took the gold and hid it up in the mountains in old cabins and caves. Pretty soon his entire posse wanted in, too, so they helped ‘em get the gold. Now this was all fine and dandy for them ‘til the town’s people found ‘em out and hung the bunch of them,” he said, waving his hands in the air. “But before they hung the sheriff that mornin’, he had been seen riding his mule out of town with saddle bags full of something.  A lot of people think it was gold and so do I.  Well there was nothin’ in them bags when he got back. He had said if they didn’t hang him, he would tell ‘em where the gold was, but they where so flamin’ mad that they hung him anyway.

“Now one man has found a couple bags of gold in an old cabin outside of Bannack, but as far as I know, no one else has. All I knows is, if I found gold I would keep it for myself,” he said with shifty, suspicious eyes “because the government will take it from you if you don’t.”

Justin sat there a moment and thought about the story.  He asked “Do you think we could find some gold down in the cabins and that big barn?”

“Fate only knows,” Will answered in a mysterious voice.

They decided to head down to the settlement and look for things of value. They came to the top of the cliff and Justin showed Will the old town with its large church and spire.