Leap Year Promises

I thought about heartbeats and a number of the descriptions I had for them, the blacksmith's steady hammer toiling with the reluctant iron. I longed for the pure scent of linen being worked with steam and heat. I looked across the room and within my view the face and physique that were like a lever prying on a bracket that held my heart in place, but it also felt like it was singing from a morning branch, I looked away without getting caught. Spring was coming but my heart went unanswered. The days were getting longer but the nights were not getting any shorter...

We had gathered again at the Cosmologist's house. I had started calling it the 'Announcement House', like one of those houses between the worlds sort of thing. [you know the metaphysical bridge, A large house with a porch and the windows lit up, but all around is only dark] But back to the lecture. We were all seated comfortably and everyone had tea. Some had chai, some had green but Cosmole liked his tea with milk and lemon.

"I think of it as a metaphor, we are adding time to our clocks and calenders, the Time gardener grafting on a day here and there and sowing leap seconds. Oh yes there are leaps seconds thrown in every year..."

"Remember the timekeepers are not measuring historic Time, they are measuring basically only one interval, the second... Because we live in a techno world and all of our gadgets use frequency. At the level of interaction we have, with everything that uses discreet portions of the electro magnetic spectrum; all the cell phones for instance, but that is still only a small part of the overall. This means that the use of frequencies has to be very finely tuned, to prevent overlap, what you call static."

I thought about heartbeats, a very low frequency indeed...
"Oh, no more for me thanks."

What is a treasure hunt?

"It is a set of worries that allows you to forget another set of worries. Which worries are more important? Well, if we can actually get the treasure we won't have the money worries and we can get to the next set." These were the thoughts that were going through her head as she was lowered into the shaft. Whispers of hope and regret undifferentiated, were also passing through her mind.

So lost in her thoughts she was abrubptly brought back, as the sling stopped and she was sittng just above the floor of a small gallery. It was the impenetrable soft black of forever. She turned on the light and it bounced harshly around the broken walls and jagged openings leading out and up. The floor sloped and was very uneven, only the path they had cleared was free of the splinters and shards of a hard rock mine. She undid the belt and climbed out of the seat, then gave two short tugs on the rope. After this she took up the plastic bags that had been tied to the chair. These bags were the incredibly durable type.

Regrets

"You' ve had those days, no one hear's you, no one sees you, let alone understand. It is not the first days of Spring it is the last days of Winter. The days are longer but the Sun is no stronger, he tips his bright hat and slips into the West."

Above are the thoughts, below are the words.

"I will not be able to make the party, I'll be out of town."

Now the reflection.

"You are lonely and yet you won't go out. You are in love and you won't speak up. People will talk to you and what is it you reply to, How's it going?"

"No legitmate complaints.. Can we drop this?"

Sisters Ancien

Prince Paul Nicholas Alexandrov Romanov, born 1843

Lady Andromeda Kent Wembley Alexander, born 1847

This is the primary pairing, wed 1866

They had five daughters.

Rose Marie, born 1867
Iris Marie, born 1870
Lily Marie born 1872
Violet Marie, born 1874
Ethel Marie born 1887

Rose Marie was wed to a Mr Price Reynolds in 1886. She gave birth to

Eurydice Marie, born 1890

So a little family history. The family followed Nicky acrosss the Atlantic in 1887. He had previously been back and forth to the 'Americas', his term for the US west. And yes she gave birth to Ethel during the passage.

The two girls while from different generations were raised as siblings. They grew up as Americans. As we have read previously, Violet died in England 1885. She was exhumed and removed to Denver and put into the family plot. Iris Marie disappeared in Chicago in 1888 and no one ever heard from her again. It was the family legacy that she eloped and then lost track of the family. So I suppose there is part of the family out there that does not know of their family.

Setting the Story

The original thought was to have each day a one minute long blog on a story. This would build as it went forward. Kind of like one of those daily calender, with the cartoon, or word or thought, short and to the point and thus more accessible. Now it is quite a bit of material for someone to read on the web. At the beginning there was a play on the profile and the pictures were, in my plan, specifically placed nxt to the corresponding text. As the blog grew things became seperated. I am working on that..

At this point I am going to leave the blog as it is and just proceed forward. So, for the few readers that I do have I apoogize but I am going to be repeating myself alittle bit, but I think it might clarify the characters and story plot.

Principal Characters

1) Andy, 1983 to present, seventh generation. Daughter to Barbara Anne(2) and Sammy(13), Andromeda Marie Winters. She is bright and took college courses in high school and graduated in 2004. Now however she feels free and is unwilling at this point to either find a ‘real’ job or return to school. "I am in no rush.", she says. When she announces she has a passport Cassandra(4) feels ill.

2) Electra, is the name she will known by during the story. Was born Barbara Anne, 1959. She was scared by what she saw of the 60's when she was growing up, but thought the 70's cooled off. She is bright and funny, but has mild depressive cycles, sister don’t we all? Sammy and she were married in 1982. Andy was born in 1983. "My mind just shuts off I was so grown up in 1984.", she says. She and Sammy split up in 1991. Went to court, changed her name to Electra Marie. It was not easy with her and Sammy for 10 years. Gradually they patch it up to friendship with an edge, or a row of buttons. She and Cassandra have an uneasy relationship that is fun sometimes but hugely frustrating at other times.

3) Gael Angeline Marie 1945 to present. She is half sister to Cassandra. She was there for the 60's in a way Cassandra had never experienced and therefore never understood. She was it all for womanhood. She is an artist and a lingering hippy. She had moved in with GG in 1972 and helped take care of her as she failed. She is there in GG’s house by default and becomes a weaver, in one room, a potter in the garage, and painter in the rest of the house. She will come across the legendary lavaliere and thus initiate the treasure hunt with Electra.

4) Cassandra Marie, 1938 to present. She spend’s less time with GG because she was older. She was 17 when her mother, Helen(5) died. She went to college and she did amazingly well in her courses and graduated magna cum laud. Practical and self sufficient. On the spur of the moment she had another graduation and found herself pregnant, then shortly engaged and shortly wed. She went back to school and was in two terms at once. The husband was in marketing and was a complete flop as a father, husband and marketer. After catching him In flagrante delicto, she divorced him, severed the relationship and found that she had pleased him more than was her intent. "Damn him!", she said. But this did not slow her ardor for banking. She had risen to president of the bank, there were only three other presidents, unlike someone who tells you they are a bank president nowadays. She is a republican, lapsed Presbyterian, and had come up through the 60's and 70's as a single mom, before it was one word.

5) Helen Lynne Marie, nee Hermann, 1911 to 1955. She was a wild one. A beauty that finished her life with cigarettes, drink and one spectacular car crash. She had two husbands; she divorced the first and the second divorced her. She had Cassandra by the first one and Gael by the second. She had been a spoiled child and was unprepared for either marriage or child rearing, she fought back with booze. These half sisters are raised by GG. Fourth generation.

6) Eurydice Marie, nee Eliot, Hermann, 1887 to 1975. She is also know as GG. She is 28 when her mother Rose Marie(8) dies in 1919. GG is the link back to the treasure. Her diaries and journals provide a large part of the story’s background; she will also communicate by means of the wax cylinder recordings. She is married to Henry Lloyd Hermann. Their daughter is Helen. HLH had cause to regret spoiling his only child. Hers is the house Gael lives in since coming there in 1972 to help out. This one of the estrangement issues between Gael and Cassandra. Third generation.

7) Ethel Marie Alexander, 1887 to 1953, is the last daughter of Nicholas(10) and Andromeda(9). She was proof of her father’s undying love for Mum. She will hear, growing up in the US of the travails of Merry Old England. The especially dreadful incident of the tomb of Violet Marie. Because she was such a late addition to the family she was a contemporary of Rose Marie’s daughter, Eurydice. Second generation.

How does this go together?

Well, Liz the librarian goes to Denver to do some research on the journals. One of the librarians at the Denver Public Library, Western History Section, gets her in touch with a woman named Electra, whose family it was that kept these journals. At this point they have agreed to meet for coffee, at a place called Common Grounds, convenient to both. Let's give them a few moments for pleasentries..

The Journals

The story goes thus, Elizabeth the librarian has the journals of Rose Marie and of Nicholas, they came as a bequest of the woman Liz had come to think of as the dowager empress. The bequest doubled the size of the library. She had had more volunteers than she knew what to do with to help her catalogue the bequest. She understood when she heard that the rumor was the empress had hidden cash in her books asa hedge against the failure of banks. There had been a couple of days of enthusiastic participation, that dwindled away rapidly on the third and fourth days, since there had been no cash left in the books. It was three weeks since then and after steady effort of forty eight hours a week, nearly all the books had been shelved. There were still a number that would have to be catalogued at checkout, since getting them shelved had been the priority. Each uncatlogued book had note taped to it so that she could get them all catalogued whether they were checked out or not.

There were one dozen hand written journals tha she had held back, it wasn’t that she meant to keep them only for herself, it was a perquisite to be the first to read them, for her diligence in putting in the unpaid overtime to get the ‘new’ books out. She had read pioneer journals before and had found them quite interesting. Usually always kept by a woman, but not always. Very literate and yet fluent with the the frontier and its rawness and dangers.

It was the very first one that had grabbed her right away. The man claimed to be a banished Russian prince. It told of his arrival and successes and starting a family in England. In the second journal he told of his adventures with his brother Alexis, on a hunting expediton in America. He claimed to have made a pact with this brother, who was destined to become Alexander III Czar of All the Russias from 1881 to 1894. He was the father of the last Czar, Nicholas the II, 1868 - 1918, Czar 1896 - 1917. Please note the discrepancy of one year between AlexIII, 1894 and Nicholas II, 1896.

And further claimed to have part of a Russian treasure that he had later mixed with a small Masonic trove, plus the gold he had ammassed as speculator in some of the mines of Colorado.

Liz thought,fFor a Russian he has very good English and yet we have no examples of his Russian. But then at that time the three royal families in England, Germany and Russian were closely related and spoke the languages of the aforementioned countries as well as French. So it’s an 'I don’t know.'

Author's Note

Circa 1867 A man claiming to be Nicholas, the eldest son of Tsar Alexander II shows up in England; the one problem with this was, that son had died in 1865. [Alex II, 1818 - 1881, he was czar 1855 - 1881, life and reign terminated by a bomb thrown by an I. Grinevitskii. This is the man that sold Alaska to us for six cents an acre, two million plus dollars, in 1867. They called it Seward's Folly... Anyway not to get distracted, this Czar has another son Alexander III, Prince Alexis, who becomes the next to the last Czar. But before that he does a number of interesting things, but the one we are interested in is his hunting expedition in America which began with the Svetlana docking in New York, New York 19 November1871. There are more detailed notes in the appendices, of this social juggernaut]

The seond son Alexander III from St Loui Missouris to Topeka, Kansas by train then by horses and wagons crossing Kansas and Colorado to Denver, hunting all along the way. The interesting correlation to this is the journal entries of our Nicholas. It begins in Topeka and it documents the expedition very thoroughly, and according to the sources I have seen accurately. And in the journals are some things that did not make the newspapers or other memoirs. Such as a fond reunion of the two brothers, where they make a pact to Nicholas's true status when Alexis becomes Czar. If you do the math it turns out to be ten years from the journal entries.

GG's Journal

"It was understood by GG,[ Great Grammy], that the lavalierre held the clues to finding the treasure. Each face of the pyramid referenced a clue hidden in another place, a book for instance. She had done a lot of research and I have been checking her work, against my searches. I believe it was a Masonic construct, it could have been worn as a watch fob or as a necklace. Look at the symbology. We are going to have to get deeper into it and find the books that were referenced. I suppose the family owned copies of them, we need to focus on finding those..."

"So it is time to go through the old house from top to bottom.. I have always wanted to but it is such a huge task, I never had the time. And also I wanted other member of the family involved."

"Well now you have your wish. When would you like to start?"

"No time like the present. Attic or basement?"

"Let's take a look at the attic."

Cosmole's House

""Knowing what a phase change would be like for Time? It would have to be a guess. All energy becoming matter, no light no plasma, just physical matter in a nonradiating state spread evenly throughout an ever accelerating Universe. So that dark energy has turned Time into several courses. And yet ‘progress" is made.""

"Remember I was on my way to the cosmologist’s house. I went and have now returned with what came before this explantion and whats comes afterward."

""I propose in my ignorance that the group, phase changes be placed in category called a cycle.

I pimi, that gravity does not radiate therfore to look for gravitons is look in vain. It is an attraction.

Ipimi, that the magnetic monopole is the part of light that isn’t there. The point is not a sphere it is one dimension and can only be ‘pointed’, or sent in one direction, you can not see light from the backside.""

"I got these pieces from the cosmologist’s house. It is an odd place, there is the sound of bubbles moving through water, but I haven’t seen any tanks. Then into the den where the cosmole looks up at the peaks which look up at the Sky and on the far wall there are bubbles like behind L Welk; I can smell soap and see the pink and green window on each bubble. Yes, that is right we call him Cosmole, yes, short for cosmolgist. I wouldn’t go over all this but you are new to town."

"And he says light has only one side?"

"Yes, he has some rather unorthodox views.."

"Is he really a cosmologist?"

"You mean is he a professor, got a lot of degrees? No., but he makes some interesting arguments."

"Sounds crazy to me, I took an astronomy course in college and they didn’t mention any of those theories.."

"It is one of those you gotta be there sort of things.. He says one side light is essential to his version of the inflation theory.. You know what his real name is?.. Crates."

"So this guy says that a magnetic monopole is the ‘nonexistant side’ of light’? I got to meet this guy..."

Nicholas and Rose Marie

Just about now he was worried about the end. But this line applies to a number of guys in the story.

First Prince Nicholas. Several episodes of his life ran through his mind. One was the angry interruption of Violet Marie’s funeral. His family gathered about him, his wife, Andromeda and three daughters all weeping were distracted by a growing noise of people in the cemetery. Besides themselves there were the two grave diggers further down the hill. Their small group, besides the family was the Anglican sexton and a Russian Orthodox priest, a very large young man. Her casket was already in the crypt wall. The noise grew as the crowd rounded the corner and came full on, shouting and gesturing. Andromeda grew fainter and three daughters held on. Nicholas stood before the crowd shouting at him, they demanding their gold. The sexton stepped forward as well as the priest, to no avail as all three men were shoved aside and Nicholas caught fast by the arms of two large men.

Two men seized the end of the casket and began dragging it out of its niche and two more came to help. The women were horror stricken as the coffin came free and was dashed to the ground. It cracked and an man with a sledge hammer stepped close to finish opening it up. Then several men turned it over on its side and pushed away the lid. Just the tiny emaciated body further dried by the mortician rolled out stiffly now there was a hush, Andromeda sobbed and fainted, looking at riot and wreck.

At that moment two uniformed police and two detectives came running up, no doubt cued and expecting to arrest Nicholas for fraud and finding this rudeness and desecration as Nicholas began to roar and struggle. The two uniformed men went over to help restrain the frothing Nicholas hammering out curses in Russian on the mob and several men in particular. The two detectives ordered the crowd to disperse and then gathered one of the men close and started asking very pointed questions.

By that time the two grave diggers from down the hill had run up to assist the sexton, who had a bloody nose stopped by his kerchief. Violet’s doll and bush her mirror broken on flagstones.... .:.
That was a bad moment but this was worse, the Denver Police wanted to question him about his son in laws death. But the treasure was hid, so he forced himself to take a deep breath and then went down the stairs. .:.:.

"I want my little girl here, I want you to go get her and bring her back. And I don’t want any of your shenanigans along with it. And I want to rebury her on the anniversary of her death.", Andromeda. She was prepared for the anger of Nicholas and was very surprised by his meekness and prompt acceptance of this burden.

Now Andromeda was immediately suspicious. He had indeed been a changed man this last year outwardly, but was it sincere. Immediately she thought to add Rose Marie to the quest and said the young lady would be accompanying her father to England.
And so the unforseen bond, not because she couldn’t see it but because he couldn’t, between Nicholas and his eldest daughter was to be formed, on a mission to recover some of the family’s honor. .:.:.:.

In the salon of the steamer, she sipped anisette and he brandy and he having because of proximity over the last few weeks, he had picked up on her shrewdness. When he had pictured his daughter before she was always just behind Alexandre in a supporting role. She was about to surprise him again.

"So father,", she paused as he looked up, "What was it they were looking for when they made a travesty of Violet’s internment?"

"They say I robbed them and had their gold. They had their vulagr thoughts and acted upon them." The roll of the ship swirled their drinks.

"Where did you have the gold, father?" She took a demure sip of her glass.

He rose and said, "I am going on deck to have a cigar."

She stood quickly saying, "Excellant, then I can have a cigarette."

He was shocked but only half a second and offered her his arm and carrying their glasses, they went across the nearly empty salon and out the door onto the deck.

It was high summer but the Moon was new so only the stars lit the sky. They could hear the paddles digging into the water and the friction of the hull’s passage through the low waves as they strolled further forward.

You are a Princess

They were on the bow of the steamer as he, her father explained who he was.

"My father is Alexander, Tsar of all the Russias... but I have been disowned and declared dead, was buried and consider myself fortunate to be outcast, because I still have my life. This was my mother's doing, or it would have been me in that casket, instead of a convenient serf. The agreement is that I never go back, nor contact any of my family, which is really quite large..."

She has watched her father as he spoke watching the the dark sea. She, "And mother knows all of this, does she?"

"Most of it. She is a strong good woman and a lady, some of it she does not want to know."

Rose Marie continues her study, saying, "How do you know that?"

"You are the one closest to her, you love her, you know this..."

The pause brightens the cigarette on the end of the ivory holder. She blows out the smoke so that it arches over her tilted head and hands the holder to her father. He pulls out the cigarette and flicks it over the side, handing the holder back to her. She looks at her father then raises her foot to the rail, bends to raise her long dress to past the knee, she is wearing riding boots and spurs and slips the holder into her boot top, she says, "It does not stnk up my purse this way."

"But the boots?"

She looks directly at him and says, " I love my mother dearly, but I intend to be stronger than her."

"Good girl!"

"It will be Rose Marie from now on. Not cupid or any of those other, meaningless endearments.. Where did you come up with cupid anyway?"

He goes back to staring over the rail for a long moment and then said, "Before you I had all of her attentions and affections, you put a new arrow in her heart.. So I called you cupid, you are the first to ask why."

Closing In

Ever really consider what memorization is? Generally it seems that we think in terms of words, memorize a poem or a speech, a string of dates or rules, oaths.

Next a map, the symbols for contours and features, then we go out in the field and with the concepts retained, able to know where and what without having to ask. Find the ridge, then the adit and go on in. Ropes enough, harnesses, all the hardware, helmets and lamps; a tripod frame, with block and tackle and eyebolts,

"Be very careful about kicking or knocking loose any debris especially rocks, that’s the most dangerous part of this. The ropes and harness are all good. Three hundred feet sitting in a swing really... Remember our training, trust your gear." .:.:.

"Do you really think they are up here?"

"I’ve met the one named Electra. Yeah she’s up here and she’s good enough. It is the two others we’re most worried about..." Sheriff.

"How long you figure before it rains?"

"About fifteen minutes. Saddle up!" Sheriff.

Seven, three women, four men, all got up, still conversing, and put on their packs and went on up the trail, towards the dark grey clouds playing grab ass with the peaks...

Nineveh

Nineveh, City of Ishtar, by moonlight. Silver lines, sharp edges and all the spectra of the shadows, the purple and blue inevitability of death. And now again, there is a shrill yipping that is tied by the neck; the piping of an unhappy dog tearing the peace of old rest.

A moment, a day, a month, we had one year. But there in that blue flame of moonlight, in Nineveh, that is the memory where I send my heart to rest.

I used to think of Jericho as up the Jordan, "but it is not, it is hard by the Dead Sea..!" I learned so much from you. When we listened to Harry in the tent. Love slow as a rich dig, brushes, chamois and silk.

You told me of my gullibility, laughed at my naivete. Telling me we were no longer in the US, here people played for lives over pride, "Watch your tongue, at first you will amaze them with your innocence, then they will eat the little lamb all gone." I remember they salted a green peach.

The river abandoned Babylon, Ashur and Ur. I know their desolation. I still feel it, twenty years hence. The difference? Now I look down on Nineveh.
You found me Donovan’s Atlantis. I miss you so much...
HGM [Hurdy Gurdy Man]

Synopsis

Greetings. Thanks for looking at this blog. Next, I would like to explain a few things.

I am adding pieces of the story six days a week, as well as images. However in a blog the very first postings, the beginning, is at the end. I will say that the Profile of the blogger, was at the end, pointed to by the first two entries; The Body and Here it is. I was hoping to establish a hunt for clues on the the blog postings, but I can't make links out the way I'd like to without learning some HTML, so I am learning some. Also at this point I know people are posting comments, they tell me so, but they are not making it onto the blog, I am checking on that as well.

At this point the treasure is still place and the map and clues genuine, within the story. use the link to Older Portions at the end of texts, it goes back a couple of layers.

I hate to bother you with this but, Pastoral says the Saguache Sasquatch, has been reported seen downtown again. [Saguache, the county is pronounced: Saw - watch]

Right now I am going over to the cosmologist's house...

Explain this Russian guy to me.

The history of the czars is a big subject. The connection we are focused on is a prince Nicholas, eldest son of Alexander III, who according to their history is listed as deceased in 1865. However, our family history has him being disowned by his family for looting the treasury. He fled to England. Within several years he had married an English Lady in 1861, they had four daughters born in England and a fifth daughter born at sea as the family 'relocated' to America.

It seems that Prince Nicky as he called himself was quite the speculator, losing money for his clients, his one steady feature. He had already visited America before his marriage and found it easy to return there, probably since there was no other place he was welcome. Eventually they settled in Denver, circa 1880. At that time there was a great deal of wealth in the form of precious metals being extracted from the mountains.

There was a number of scandals involving Nicky, the greatest being the murder of his son in law married to Rose Marie his oldest daughter, all of which Nicky was able to elude. There is the terrible tale of Violet Marie, a middle daughter that died of Scarlett fever in England, was buried but her funeral disrupted and finally her exhumation and relocation to the family plot in Denver.

How many we got out?

"There are six going going up now as the hasty team. In about two hours I hope to be sending eight more in the strong team." Sheriff.

"Is there anyway to get a helicopter?"

"Right now it would be a waste of time since we are not sure where they are at... Are you sure you have told everything you know about this?" Sheriff.

"I have. She's my sister, one is my niece and the other is my friend. The clues, I can go over those again if you'd like. But we were all convinced the old mine was the site of the cache."

"I hope you are right. I'll be going up with the next team. And the weather says storms. Do you think these ladies are prepared? Food, weather gear, shelter?" Sheriff.

"Electra knows what she is doing, so I imagine they are ready."

"Besides general worries why did you call us?" Sheriff.

"Well..."

The Russian Connection

Gold ingots jewels and coins. It was a small start on a horde. No worked pieces of any kind, those would be missed soonest. Any of it could be missed. Why any would understand. That is why it is kept locked up. But he had a theory that value draws value, as well as all the other things it calls too. And his firmly held conviction that treasure is for those who can hold on to it. It had been stolen in the first place and what followed was the history of its ‘acquisition’.

There was a hunting party going to America. He was going. He also held the conviction that treasure in proximity to its last owner was in greater jeopardy than was usually the case with treasure. Nikki was thinking back to the first expedition to the ‘West’. He had been fourteen and had reveled in the rigors of camp life. He gathered and chopped wood though it was not necessary for himself to do so. He went with the scouts fo locate the game, while the rest of his party stayed soft in camp. Soon enough the he had the respect of the scouts and the ‘Major’ for his ability to hike and ride and do so skillfully. His shooting and hunting ability rose steadily. He was tanned and sad when they broke the last camp and rode to the train. The end of the season returned them to blue winter and long nights.

Research in Denver

"To really know where the treasure came from, we’ll will need to return to Denver, it’s not a bad place if you don’t mind looking at the mountains through power lines.", Liz.

"I like Denver."

"I do too. There is this one bar aging gracefully, has a drink called the the ‘Cowtown Cufflink’, mellow, carmel, without a doubt the smoothest skinned knee you’ll ever have..."

"What’s in it?"

"I don’t know.. Anyway, back to the Western reading room, DP library. .:.

"Is there any history to indicate a Masonic treasure trove anywhere locally or statewide for that matter?.. Is it just me, or does it smell a little like a tack shop in here?", Liz.

"Yes, a lot of our older books have leather bindings, so you got that right. And yes there are some indications..The Masonic connection to the forefathers is generally well known. But there was a time in the nineteenth century that they were rather reviled and persecuted in some places, instances of attacks on Masonic Halls some burnt down. I have seen some references to caches being made, lodges bringing their ‘instruments to a place so they could be safeguarded." Clark, librarian.

"I had no idea. So do think there could be such a cache?"

"Perhaps, but there is one group of women that have what they think are some very good clues to a family treasure that has a connection to Czarist Russia, but is also mixed up with the Masons, I have her number. Let me go and get it." Clark goes back into the offices behind the counter.

How much do you think it could be worth?

"There could be several thousand dollars worth of gold, which could be worth more than the value by weight, depending on the form it is in." Mr Chas

"What sort of forms do you think most likely?", asked Liz as she took a sip of tea.

Mr Chas looked over at Fed?, raised his eyebrows and took a sip of tea. Fed? sighed sipped his tea, paused then spoke, "It is probably mostly in the form of chalices, implements of the rituals, gilded squares, compasses, trowels, maybe some sceptres and orbs. I think that most of the lists we have looked at were fairly accurate, with some 'wishes' in there... This isn't National Treasure, the film, this is Crestone, the blog..."

"The value is in the provenance, the history, it is very unlikey there is any of the treasure of 'the Czars', as it is being called, in the Masonic cache. That I think purely pie in the sky." Mr Chas

Liz sipped her tea...

Everyone was looking for them.

"The Sheriff is on his way, Search and Rescue are over at the Firehouse getting ready, what else can we do?"

"Stay out of the way, we are probably in enough trouble as it is.."

"But you said we weren't going to get in trouble?.."

"You two are always in trouble.."

"What about you? Oh no I tried talking you two out of this. Let's go see if they are up at the coffeshop."

"Might as well."

"I thought you said they were lost up in the mountains."

"Not them, Brassy and her crew."

The Watercolor

It hung in the kitchen and it had greeted every day for a hundred and twenty eight years. It had hung in this spot, in this kitchen, for thirty one years now. She would not tell you she had seen something new in it everyday, but she would say continually, weeks adding to a new mood. Because that was what light was, mood. The joys and contented moments among the Sun warmed woods of her kitchen.

What if a soul were like a tree?. The Spring and the joy where life is in new growth and the seasons run and the dormancy comes. Sleeping in the blue depths, Given a new cycle to go with the older rings? She took another sip of tea...

What is it?

I am calling it a lavalliere. It is a sphere, diameter of 5/8" [16mm], composed of six pyramids, hinged in the standard unfolded cube pattern, so that when it folded point to point the four clasps can be snapped tightly so that to look at it it just a small orb I suppose it could be worn as a pendant or a watch fob, perhaps even as a charm on a bracelet. Unless you saw it up close and examined it carefully, you would not imagine it to be a small group of hidden symbols or messages.

These symbols where scattered in quite a number of places in the journals, drawings of the panels, independantly and as groupings. I hadn't really started connecting them until there was one particular set of drawings...

It was nested in an old dictionary, the onion skin pages had been bored out just enought to close upon the lavalliere in its chamois drawstring sack.

More Info

Downhome at the town pump the pews and aisles were filling ahead of the worship service. The pastor and the deacon made ready. "What’s the special?", Mellow. "#3!", PastorAl.

"It doesn’t bother me to remind people. Otherwise it gets lost or grows stale, neither one a good condition." PastorAl.

"What movie is it gonna be?" For you see on Friday night the music and praise portion of the schedule, the TV at the end of the bar can be on, but the sound is turned down. It is usually the TCM channel, sometimes it is call and response: "You’d be surprised how much old dialogue is stored in the heads gathered there."

"No, no sports come back on the Sabbath, the specials are seven and ten. It’s a good time... We’ve got three TVS going, the one in the bar, but we put two out in the great room, one by the pool and shuffleboard and one by the fire. No, no, billiards.", Mellow.

"I think three TVs is a good idea, healed many a case of ESPN neck.. I mean you can sit on the couch.", one.

"Yeah and it gets some of the more odious fans of repellant teams outta the bar.", another.

Anxious Friday

A large number of the human weaknesses reside here in our little world: Because that's what it is, one way in, one way out, even the Sheriff has to put up with it, an intentional community, I've lost my train of thought., where were we?

Burg!, that was the word I was looking for when I wrote the above paragraph, got world, can't use commune cause that ain't it, per capita we got as many capitalists as anywhere else on Earth, that's another thing, I always capitalize Earth, best way to think about it. I've stepped off the train. I think I am still feverish. Can't rememb, oh yeah now I got it, pictures of the lavalierre, well I better go take them..