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“It looks like I’m doing the same thing as you.” Howard, the historian from the senior center, chuckled.
“Have you found anything?” Martha asked.
“No.” He indicated the day pack resting on his shoulder. “Haven’t got started yet.”
“I thought you weren’t searching for gold anymore,” Zoe said. “Didn’t you say you found gold a long time ago around here?”
“True.” He chuckled. “What can I say? I guess gold fever struck me since my talk at the senior center on Monday, as well as your enthusiasm when you bought the equipment from me. When that lady Shirley spoke about her gold nugget – well, it got me thinking. Maybe there is still some gold to be found around here, even though her great-great-grandfather found that piece of treasure.”
“We got here first,” Martha advised him. “This is our claim.” She waved her hand around the area, including where Zoe had dug up some dirt.
“Don’t worry, I won’t bother you. It’s nice to see someone else take an interest in the subject.”
He waved goodbye and started back up the slight slope.
“Well.” Martha shook her head, her short, curly gray hair springing in the breeze. “What do you think about that?”
Lauren and Zoe glanced at each other.
“Maybe it’s just like he said – he thought it would be a good idea to see if he can find some more gold,” Lauren offered.
“Just like us,” Zoe agreed.
“We’d better get digging,” Martha advised. “See if we can find some more.”
Zoe held out the trowel to her. “Your turn.”
Martha eyed it for an instant. “Why not? I wanted to do it.” She grabbed the trowel, walked the few steps without the aid of her walker, and bent down.
“Are you okay?” Lauren asked.
“I’m not completely decrepit,” she replied. “I do need my walker most of the time but I should be okay to take a couple of steps on my own.”
“Sorry, Martha,” Zoe said. “I can dig if it’s too much for you.”
“No.” Martha waved her hand in the air. “I might have been a bit bossy – didn’t mean to be. I just get excited, you know?”
“I hear you,” Zoe said ruefully.
Martha dug for a couple of minutes and filled up the pan.
“Here you go.” She handed it to Zoe.
“Do you want me to swish?” Lauren offered. “You’ve done more work than I have so far.” And it might be good exercise for her curves.
“I’ll do some and then you do some,” Zoe suggested. After swishing for a few minutes, she beckoned to Lauren.
“I don’t think I can do any more bending – no wonder some of the miners gave up if they didn’t find something big.”
“I know what you mean,” she agreed, taking her cousin’s place in the water.
Lauren bent and swished, bent and swished, but when the last of the water ran out of the pan, there was nothing that looked like gold flakes.
“Oh, pooh.” Zoe wrinkled her nose.
“Are you sure?” Martha called.
“See for yourself.” Zoe took the pan and brought it over to Martha. “Nothing shiny, or even dull looking gold flakes like our first bowl.”
“You’re right.” Martha sighed. “Oh, well, at least we’ve still found a little bit.”
“Let’s try again,” Lauren suggested. “I’ll dig this time.”
“Good idea.” Martha grinned.
She squatted down and pushed the trowel into the ground. Annie watched for a few seconds, then started digging as well, her paws sending the dirt flying.
“Good work, Annie,” Zoe praised. “That’s awesome!”
“Brrt!”
Annie continued to help Lauren, and before long they had a decent pile of dirt.
“This might be enough for two lots of panning.” Lauren used the trowel to put the dirt in the classifier.
“I’ll swish.” Zoe grabbed the bowl and waded into the shallow creek. After a few minutes of bending and swishing, she looked disappointed. “Nothing.”
“Huh.” Martha looked mystified. “How did we find some on our first go?”
“I have no idea,” Lauren replied. “Beginners’ luck?”
“Maybe this happened all the time to the miners back then,” Zoe mused.
“I’ll swish the next pan,” Lauren volunteered.
Annie watched from the water’s edge as Lauren bent and swished, bent and swished. When the water was clear enough, she peered into the depths of the bowl.
“Well?” Zoe asked impatiently, shifting from foot to foot.
“I think ...” she said slowly.
“Did you find something?” Martha rose from her walker seat. “How much? How big is it?”
“There might be a few more flakes,” she replied.
“Goody!” Martha sounded delighted.
“Brrt!”
“Let me swish again.” After swishing twice more, she gave a definite nod. “We’ve got a little something.”
“Awesome!” Zoe waded into the creek and looked over her shoulder. “Yeah – I can see them.”
“Show me, show me,” Martha urged.
Lauren and Zoe shared a smile, and stepped out of the creek.
“See?” Zoe pointed at the tiny gold flecks in the pan.
“I can’t believe we found more!”
“Brrt?” Annie nudged Lauren’s leg.
“Sorry.” Lauren bent down with the pan and showed her fur baby. “See the gold in there?”
“Brrt!”
Zoe placed the flecks in the bag with the others. “I wonder how much we’ve got in here?” She shook the bag. “It’s very light.”
“I bet it’s worth lots and lots of money,” Martha said. “How much is gold these days?”
“I looked it up this morning,” Zoe replied. “It’s around fifteen-hundred-and-fifty dollars per troy ounce.”
“I think the price fluctuates, though,” Lauren said.
“Yeah,” Zoe agreed.
“Let’s show Shirley on the way home.” Martha’s eyes lit up. “I bet she’d like to see it – and we can ask her if this is where her great-great panned for gold.”
“Good idea!” Zoe looked just as excited.
“Do you think she’d mind if we just dropped in?” Lauren asked. “Is she even back from her trip out of town?”
“That’s right, I heard she was gone for a few days. Well, we’ll soon find out.” Martha grinned.