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“I can’t wait to find a big gold nugget,” Martha said from the backseat of Lauren’s car. They’d just picked her up and were headed to the local park the following day.
“Brrt!” Annie agreed, sitting next to Martha.
“I hope you won’t be disappointed if we don’t find anything at all,” Lauren warned. She’d love to find something as well, but was trying to keep her expectations as realistic as possible.
“I know it’s a long shot, but a gal can’t help hoping.”
Lauren saw Martha’s grin in the rear-view mirror.
When they arrived at the park, the lot was empty apart from a couple of vehicles.
“Goody – no one else has the same idea.” Martha clambered out of the car. Today she wore fuchsia sweat pants and a matching sweater.
Lauren and Zoe wrestled Maratha’s fold-up walker from the trunk.
“Have you got everything, Zoe?” their friend asked.
“Yes.” Zoe hauled a duffle bag out of the trunk. “Water for us, gold panning equipment, and some energy bars in case we get hungry.”
“Good thinking.” Martha winked.
They made their way down to the creek, Annie leading the way wearing her lavender harness.
“Here!” Martha pointed to the edge of the creek bed. The water burbled along and it was easy to walk down to it.
Blue skies promised a pleasant afternoon, and the sun was warm enough to make the water look inviting.
“I hope I don’t get too hot in my sweater.” Zoe looked down at her red and purple sweater, and fingered one of the stylish shoulder buttons with a decorative red swirl in the middle. “I guess I can take it off if I do.”
“What do we do first?” Lauren asked.
“We dig up some dirt.” Zoe rummaged in the duffel bag. “I brought a garden trowel.”
“Only one?” Martha asked.
“Um – yeah.”
“I didn’t even think of that,” Lauren admitted.
“Since Zoe brought the trowel, she can have first go at digging.” Martha sat on the black vinyl seat of her walker.
Lauren hid a smile.
“Okay.” Zoe bent down and stuck in the trowel. “This dirt is packed solid. No wonder no one else is here.”
After a few minutes of scraping, she had a respectable amount of dirt in her pan, after sieving it through the classifier.
“Now you swish it in the creek,” Martha directed.
“Do you want to do it?” Zoe held out the bowl.
Martha looked tempted for a minute. “I’d love to, but I don’t want to get my walker stuck in the water.”
“Brrt,” Annie agreed.
“Okay.” Zoe stepped into the water, her black rubber boots offering protection. Bending over, she stuck the pan in the water, straightened, and swished.
“Huh.” She looked down at the muddy water, and frowned.
“Maybe you have to keep doing it,” Lauren suggested.
“Yeah – the gold is supposed to sink to the bottom of the pan,” Martha added.
After bending and swishing a few more times, Zoe straightened her slim frame. “My back is feeling it already.”
“Why don’t I have a go?” Lauren took Zoe’s place in the creek, filling the pan with water, swishing, and managing to get some wet drops on her sweater. “Oh.”
“Keep going,” Martha urged.
“Brrt!” Annie pulled on her lead, urging Zoe to stand right on the water’s edge and watch Lauren’s progress.
After a few more attempts, she stared down at the bowl. A lot of the dirt had been sluiced away.
“Well?” Zoe asked impatiently.
“I – we – might have something,” she replied slowly.
“Lemme see!” Martha almost leaped from her seat.
Lauren waded the couple of steps to land.
“There’s something looking like dull gold in there.” She pointed to the bits of dirt still in the pan.
“There is!” Zoe gasped, peering over her shoulder.
They brought the bowl over to Martha.
“See?” Zoe pointed. “That little bit right there.”
“We found gold!” Martha looked like she wanted to jump up and down.
Lauren showed Annie the bowl. Her fur baby stuck her nose into it, nearly getting the tip of it wet.
“Brrt,” she said in approval.
“Did you bring a bag or something to put our find in?” Martha asked Zoe.
“Yes.” She ran over to the duffel bag near Martha’s walker, and pulled out a small plastic bag with a resealable top. “Careful,” she urged Lauren, who tipped their find into the bag.
“Quick, hide it!” Martha commanded. “We don’t anyone trying to steal it.”
“Who?” Lauren glanced around. “There’s no one else here.”
“Yeah,” Zoe agreed.
“Brrt!” Annie looked up the small slope leading to the park. A few seconds later, a figure came into view.
“See? Annie knows,” Martha told them.
The person walked down the slope. “Find anything?” he asked.
“What are you doing here?” Zoe demanded.