Secrets 3: The Road to the Future

It was nice to get back home after our vacation with my parents, but there was a lot to do before Devin and I left for college.  And since we’d returned a day later than we’d originally planned, it put a whole lot of pressure on my parents so they would be ready for work the next day.  First of all, other than the things in the freezer, there was hardly any other food in the house, especially perishable items, so they realized they’d have to go shopping. 

After we brought the things we’d taken with us on vacation into the house, my parents got back in the SUV and drove to the grocery store.  As soon as they were gone, Devin and I headed upstairs to make love, and when we finished, we took a shower before heading downstairs.  We’d barely gotten to the living room when we heard Mom and Dad return, so we went outside to help them carry things into the house. 

“Damn, did you buy out the whole store?” I teased after I saw how much they’d purchased. 

“We were out of nearly everything and needed a lot, so we bought what we needed.  Maybe we did go a little overboard, but I didn’t want to have to do this again right away.  Besides, you boys aren’t leaving until Thursday, so we’ll need more food than usual while you’re here.”

“Ok, I guess that makes sense.”

“But I don’t want your mom cooking tonight, seeing she has to get our things ready for work, so I hope you boys are ok with pizza.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Devin confirmed.  

“Just pizza?” I asked. 

“No,” Mom responded, “we bought containers of potato salad and creamy cole slaw to go with it when we were at the grocery store.”

“And we bought some ice tea that I’ll whip up while your father is on his way to get the pizza, since he doesn’t like tipping the person who delivers the pizza.”

“Ok, sounds good.”

After we ate, Mom was doing some laundry and Dad was outside cleaning and washing the SUV, so we went out to help him.  We let dad vacuum the interior of the SUV while Devin and I washed the exterior, and when we finished, we went inside and watched a movie together before we went to bed. 

After Devin and I woke up in the morning, my parents had already left for work, so we fixed something to eat first, and then we gathered up the clothes we’d taken on vacation and started doing laundry.  We’d be taking those same things with us when we returned to Fort Collins, since it would still be warm enough to wear them there for a while.   Seeing the first load was in the washer, Devin decided to call Gramps to see how he was doing with the things we brought back from the cave.  As soon as he answered, Devin put his phone on speaker so I could hear too.

“Did you two have a good time on vacation with Mac’s parents?” Gramps asked. 

“Yes, we had a great time,” Devin replied.  “We spent most of the week on the water, either in Kayaks or rafts, plus we went to a couple of different types of amusement parks.”

“And the second one wasn’t a typical amusement park,” I added, “but it was still a lot of fun.”

“I’m glad you had a good time.”

“How are you doing with grading the coins that we brought back with us from the Ozarks?” Devin asked. 

“Are you preparing the brochures at the same time?” I followed.   

“My dad and I have made some interesting discoveries about the bags we were working on.  First of all, they don’t exactly contain the coins we thought they did.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” I gasped.  I was worried that he’d discovered the coins were all counterfeit and were created by the Confederacy to crash the Union’s economy. 

“It’s just that the bag I was working on doesn’t just contain $20.00 double eagle gold pieces and the bag my dad was working on didn’t only contain silver dollars.

“Ok, then what do they contain?”

“The bag I was working on had a total of 354 coins and there was a mixture of $20.00 double eagles, $10.00 eagles, $5.00 half eagles, and $2.50 quarter eagles.  There were also some other items stored beneath the coins, but we haven’t checked any of those items out yet, since we’re concentrating on the coins first.”

“So, the bags don’t just contain coins?” Devin asked. 

“No, the coins were on top and the other items were stored beneath them.”

“What about Pops bag then?”

“His bag had a total of 377 coins and they weren’t all silver dollars like we first thought.  In addition to the silver dollars, there are some gold dollars, half dollars, and a few $3.00 gold pieces, and my dad says there are other items stored beneath the coins as well.”

“What about the third bag?”

“We haven’t gotten to that bag yet, because we’ve been busy grading and taking photos of the coins in the other two bags first, before we place them in the acrylic coin slab holders.  As we have mentioned before, this is going to take time, and we believe there are other items underneath the coins and paper bills in that bag as well.”

“Ok, that’s fine,” I told him.  “Do you think the coins are going to be worth a lot of money?”  

“Let’s put it this way.  Each coin could be worth between $115.00 to $30,000.00, but there are individual coins that could possibly be worth tens of thousands or even up to a quarter of a million dollars.  Now, if you consider that you have around 1,000 U.S. coins, and even if each coin is only worth the minimum value, that would be a total of $115,000.00.  If the average value of each coin is $1,000.00, and that’s still low, then their total value would be $1,000,000.00, and it could go much higher than that as well, so the total could be worth millions of dollars.  Then, if you invest that money wisely, like we did, who knows how much money you could wind up with, but you’d be wise to discuss that with Aaron, since he’s the financial genius.”

“Wow, that’s amazing, and if Devin and I get the types of jobs we want, then we should be set for a while.”

“Yes, and if you are wise, you’ll also set a percentage of your income aside as well, and then you should be set for a very long time, like we’ve been.”

“That would be awesome!” Devin confirmed, “and thank you.  We just wanted to know how you’re doing, and it sounds like you’re making good progress and being careful at the same time.” 

“We are.  So, when are you two leaving for Fort Colins?”

“We’re going to drive there on Thursday.  Do you know what football games you and Pops want to attend?”

“Yes, we glanced at the schedule and have chosen three games: Colorado, Fresno State, and UNLV.  We would have chosen the Boise State game as well, but that’s an away game.” 

“Ok, Mac’s writing those games down so we don’t forget, and we’ll make sure we get tickets for you and Pops.  And just so you know, unless something happens, we’ll have two others with us for the Colorado game, and possibly others.” 

“Oh?”

“Yes, we met a father and son while we were on vacation and got to know them fairly well.  They went to all the same places that we did for a few days, and we not only spent time with them on the water, the also joined us for meals and other activities as well.  The guy’s wife died a couple of years ago, so he’s a single parent and was taking his son on their first trip since she’d died.  Mac saved the boy from getting bounced out of the raft a couple of times, so the boy kind of imprinted on Mac and thinks he’s a superhero.  They were almost inseparable whenever we were together.” 

“Imprinted?  Do you mean like how a duckling imprints on its mother?”

“Exactly,”

“That’s interesting, and I look forward to meeting them.  How old is the boy?”

“His name is Clint and he turns 13 at the end of the August.  His father’s name is Lonny Fowler and he’s in his mid to late thirties.”  

“I’m sure we’ll get along with them just fine.”

After we ended the call with Gramps, we went back to check on our laundry.  We took the first load out of the washer, and instead of putting them in the dryer, we took them outside and hung them up on the clothesline instead.

When we came back in the house, we decided to get the photos that were taken of us rafting, because now we had time to look at them more closely. 

“Look, this is the photo that was snapped just as I was reaching out to keep Ma from falling out of the raft.”

“Yeah, that is funny and I can’t wait to show it to our kids someday.”

“Oh, fuck.  I didn’t notice that before?”

“Notice what?” I asked.

“Don’t focus on me and your mother this time and look above us and at the opposite shore.  Do you notice anything.”

“Fuck, it’s the evil skinwalker and he’s almost blending in with the trees in the background.  I’m glad Clint didn’t notice that because it would have been difficult to explain.” 

“Didn’t they buy copies of all the same  photos that we did?”

Oh, fuck.  That’s right, they did!  We both bought copies of the same photos.” 

“Yes, we did, so we’re going to have to look more closely at the other photos as well.”

“Yeah, so let’s each take a different photo, and after we look at them for a while we’ll switch and see if we can find anything else.”

I hadn’t been looking at my photo very long before I thought I spotted something, so I handed it to Devin to see if he noticed the same thing.  “Is that what you’re wondering about?” he asked while pointing at something in the photo. 

“Yes, it is.  What does it look like to you?”

“It looks like a wolf that’s been in a shitload of fights.”

“Do you think it might be the evil skinwalker in his animal form?”

“Yeah, that’s very possible, even though we’ve always spotted him in his human form.” 

“Except when he was running alongside Dad’s car when we were heading to the Southern Ute Cultural Center and Museum.”

“That’s right.  I forgot all about that.”

“And we might not have spotted it in its wolf form, because it would have had a lower profile than a person standing.”

“Yeah, it might have been there in its wolf form and we just never picked up on it.  That’s probably how it got around from one site to another so quickly without us noticing.”

“But why would it have transitioned out of its wolf form into its human form again?”

“I have a feeling it wanted us to know it was there.”

“Fuck, that’s creepy.”

“We’re definitely going to have to think of some way to explain those images to Cliff of Lonny, if they notice them and ask us about what they are.”

“Yes, I totally agree with you.”

After we finished that discussion, we continued working on our laundry for most of the day, and then Devin and I fixed supper so Mom wouldn’t have to. 

“Oh, thank you so much!” she said when she smelled the food.  “You don’t know how much this means to me.  I was hoping you’d do this, because I’m exhausted from trying to catch up today and I didn’t think I’d have enough strength left to fix anything to eat.  Before I left on vacation, my boss told me he had others that were going to be covering for me.  They didn’t do all of my job, though, so I had to tie up all the loose ends from the past week, and there were a lot of them.”

After we finished eating, Devin and I went out to see if the clothes on the clothesline were dry, and when we discovered they were, we took them down and carried them inside.  After we folded each item, we placed them with the other clothes that we’d be taking with us to Fort Collins. 

On Tuesday, we packed all the clothes we were taking with us into our duffle bags, and then we took everything outside and loaded them into Devin’s SUV.  As soon as they were packed with the other items in the SUV, we decided to wash the exterior before we drove there on Thursday.  Later, we fixed dinner again, which of course made my mom very happy. 

On Wednesday, Devin and I decided to take a chance, seeing we hadn’t had a good run for a while.  Devin transitioned into Bear inside the house, and after I let him out, I stepped outside, closed the door, and then I transitioned into Buck, my Siberian husky, and then we went for a long run. 

We raced to the back of the yard, and then we ran past the trees that marked the rear of our property line.  Once we were on the other side, we raced across the field that abutted our property and into the woods that were on the other side.  We must have run for three hours all together and covered seven or eight miles (11-13 km) in the process, and it felt good. 

As we were on the way back to the house, we kept looking around to see if we could spot anyone else in the immediate vicinity.  The only people we saw were the neighbor’s kids, but they were busy playing and weren’t paying attention to our yard as we made our way to the house.  When we reached the back door, I transition first and opened the door so Bear could go inside, and then I followed him and closed the door behind me. 

As soon as we were inside, we grabbed our clothes and headed upstairs to take a shower, which was very refreshing after such a long run.  “Damn, I really needed that,” Devn said as the spray was hitting our bodies.

“The run or the shower?”

“Both!  We haven’t had a run like that in ages, except when we did some running around as deer when we were waiting to kill the evil skinwalker with the shaman and his son.  You at least got to do some flying, but I wasn’t able to do it with you, because of the fucking hardware in my shoulder.  That’s why I really needed that run.”

“I don’t think I’ve run for that long or covered that much ground before.  We usually only run around for an hour, or maybe a little longer, but today we were out there for about three hours, maybe a little more.”

“Yeah, labs and huskies are built for endurance, so they can get away with doing that.  There are some other breeds, like French bulldogs, that could never handle running that far for that long.”

“Yeah, I’m glad we picked breeds that are capable of doing those things.”

After we took our shower and dried off, we got dressed and headed down to the living room, and then we found a movie to watch while we chillaxed.  Later, after the movie ended and we’d found something else to watch for a while, we went out to the kitchen to make supper again, since this would be our last night here with my parents.

Of course, Mom made a big fuss over what we’d done, and then while we were eating, she made another comment.  “I’m really going to miss both of you, now that you’re going back to college.  It was nice coming home after work and not having to fix something for us to eat, since supper was already taken care of.”

“Is that the only reason you’re going to miss us?” I teased.

“No, it was also nice being able to spend time with you and just having you around.  You’ll both be graduating from college soon, getting jobs, and maybe moving away, so it’s nice to have this time with you now.”

“Yeah, we enjoyed it too, especially the vacation.”

“Yes, that was fun and we may have to try it again when you come back in May, after you graduate.  While we were at Glenwood Springs, I was told that the time of year for whitewater rafting is during the end of April and May.  That’s when the snow is melting in the mountains and filling the streams that flow into the Colorado and Roaring Fork Rivers.  I was told the rapids often get up to class four at those times, due to the excess water from the melting snow.”

“Do you think we’re ready for class four rapids?” Mom asked.  “I mean, I would have fallen out when we were on the class three rapids, if Devin hadn’t pulled me back into the raft, so won’t I be worse off in class four rapids.” 

“I think we’ve all had enough experience now so we can do it,” Dad confirmed. 

“And Mac and I will be there to save you, if you do get into difficulty again.”

“Ok, as long as you boys are doing it with us,” Mom agreed. 

“We’ll have to call Lonny and see if he and Clint can get away that week to join us,” Devin suggested. 

“Yes, they were really nice,” Mom concurred, “and your father got along very well with Lonny and Clint really seem to enjoy hanging out with the two of you.”

“He liked being with Mac the most, since he was Clint’s superhero for keeping him from falling out of the raft two different times.”

“Will you stop making those superhero comments!” I snapped.

“Yeah, it’s different when the shoe is on the other foot, isn’t it?” Devin responded.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dad asked. 

“Before he became a skinwalker, I’d saved a couple of people from some dangerous situations as well, either on the way to college or while we were there, and Mac kept calling me a superhero.  I let him know I didn’t like him doing that, but he still did it, so now the shoe is on the other foot.”

“Ah, now I understand,” Dad stated and then chuckled.  “Payback is a bitch, isn’t it Mickey?”

“Mike, watch your language and don’t talk like that in front of the boys,” Mom chastised Dad.

“Dear, they’re adults now and they use language far worse than what I just did, so it’s too late to worry about teaching them bad habits,” Dad pointed out. 

“Well, you still don’t need to talk like that,” she replied, unwilling to relent.     

We spent a nice quiet evening with my parents watching TV, and then we turned in early.  We did this because we’d be getting up earlier than normal in the morning, so we could go out for breakfast with them before they went to work, and before we drove back to Fort Collins. 

We took two vehicles when we went out to breakfast in the morning, since Mom and Dad will be leaving from here for work and Devin and I will be driving to Fort Collins.   And after we ordered, I mentioned something to Mom and Dad that they weren’t aware of.

 “I forgot to mention this earlier, but this year we’ll be home for a full week at Thanksgiving.”

“And I’ll probably spend the first half of that time with my parents, but I believe we’ll be coming to join the rest of you for Thanksgiving, and then I’ll stay with you until Mac and I leave on Saturday to go back to college.”

“Yes, you and your parents will be joining us for Thanksgiving,” Mom confirmed, “and I’m hoping they’ll stay and leave after you boys go back to college, because we enjoy having you all here.”

“Yeah, I’m sure they’ll do that again, and I’ll remind them that you’re planning on them doing that when I’m spending time with them.”

After we finished our meal, we went outside and we said goodbye to my parents in the parking lot, before they left for work.  “We’ll see you again either the Friday or Saturday before Thanksgiving,” I said, and then I gave Mom a hug and a kiss on the cheek and gave Dad a fist bump. 

“Yeah, and I’ll stop in for a short time then as well, before I go to the cabin,” Devin added.  “If we come back on Friday night, then I’ll probably spend the night here and leave in the morning, because I don’t want to make that trip in the dark.”

“That will be fine,” Dad agreed.  He and Devin then bumped fists as well and Devin gave my mom a hug and a kiss on the cheek before they got into their SUV and drove away. 

 As soon as they left, we got in Devin’s SUV, but I was behind the wheel for the first leg of the trip to Fort Collins.  It actually felt good to be on our way back to CSU again.  This was going to be our final year there and we’ll be seniors, so academically this wasn’t going to be easy year for either of us.  However, I hoped that we could still manage to take off enough time from our studies so we can go to the hunting camp on the weekends, even if it’s only for one of those days.   

The journey back was uneventful, unlike some of our previous trips when we were returning to campus.  Once we reached Fort Collins, we discovered that the caretaker had the house ready for our arrival and everything looked great.  The lawn was freshly mowed, the hedges trimmed, and the house had been painted while we were away.  The interior had also been aired out, but unfortunately the only thing the caretaker couldn’t do for us was to get rid of the old biddy that lived next door. 

As we expected she might do, she came over to see what was going on as we were unloading the SUV, and greeted us in her typically unique way. 

“Oh, it’s the two of you again.  I was hoping you’d graduated.” 

“Not yet, and we were hoping that you had either passed away or been relocated to a nursing home or retirement center,” Devin quipped in response. 

“Of all the nerve,” she spat out as she turned around and walked back to her place in a huff. 

“Great, now she’ll probably be a bigger pain in our asses due to your wisecrack,” I told Devin once we were alone. 

“She was going to do that anyway, and I couldn’t let her get away with the snide comment she’d made to us.”

“You’re a big help, but I have to admit that was a good one.  I wish I had the guts to say things like that to her.” 

“I knew you were being nice and biting your tongue, but you really wanted to say something like that to her, so I did it for you.”

“Yeah, I did, but I didn’t want to make the situation any worse than it already is with her.”

“Come on, Mac.  Explain to me how it could get any worse?” Devin spat back.

“Ok, maybe you’re right, but we don’t need her watching this place whenever she’s home.  It’s going to be tough enough to do the things we want to do as it is.”

“Ok, so maybe I was wrong, but it’s too late to worry about that now.  As Pops likes to say, there’s no use crying over spilled milk.”

“Just try to do better from now on.  Actually, I’m surprised she was home at this time.  I thought she’d be at work.”

“I think she only came home on her lunch hour, because I saw her drive off while you were chewing me out.”

“I wasn’t chewing you out.  I was just encouraging you to try to do better, but we’ve got to get a move on.  We still have to get to campus and sign in.”

“Yeah, I know, so do you want me to drive there or do you want to walk?”

“Let’s just walk, because there probably won’t be any place to park, since most of the students will be unloading their crap and moving in to the residence halls.” 

“Yeah, you’re probably right about that, so let’s get going.”

It was the same as every other year.  We checked in and had a digital photo taken for our new ID cards, but we also had our fingers sized when we ordered our class rings.  After that, we headed over to our faculty advisor’s office to sign up for a conference, and we were both able to get one right away,  The other students were busy getting settled in, but we didn’t have nearly as much to take care of as they did, so we took advantage of the situation. 

“Michael, it’s nice to see you again,” Professor Lerner, my faculty advisor, greeted me.  “All I want to do is to make certain that you’re on track to graduate and will have all of the credits you’ll need.  I’m positive I don’t have to worry about your grades, since you’re in the Honors Program.”

He then merely looked to see how many credits I’d earned so far and calculated how many more credits I’d need to earn each semester this year in order to graduate.  When he was done, he looked at me and spoke. 

“You’re in great shape and will have even more credits than you actually need.  It’s good that you have a buffer like that, just in case you mess up in one of your courses this year, although I doubt that will happen.”

“Thank you, Professor, and it’s nice to hear you confirm what I’d already figured out.”

 When I met up with Devin again, he told me that his faculty advisor had basically done the same things with him, and then he informed me about something else.  “My advisor met with me early, since he didn’t have another appointment before mine, and then our time together didn’t take very long, so I made a phone call before I met up with you.”

“Who did you call?”

“I called the doctor that operated on me and explained my problem to him.”

“You mean your alleged problem.”

“Ok, I told him about my alleged problem and he scheduled me an MRI a week from Tuesday.  He wants to see how strong the bones are, as well as seeing if there is any inflammation or irritation of the soft tissue in that area.  He feels that will help him determine what’s causing my problems with the hardware he installed.”

“And do you think you’re going to be able to pull off your ruse?”

“I certainly hope so, because I’ve got to get that hardware out of my body, even if I have to dig it out myself.”

“Oh, yeah.  That would be a lovely sight of you cutting into your own shoulder.”

“You could help me.”

“I’m into math and computers, not surgeries, so you’d better hope you can convince the doctor to do what you want.”

“Yeah, I know, so will you go with me that day?”

“Of course, as long as it doesn’t interfere with any of my classes.”

“It’s schedule for 4:30.”

“And that’s on a Tuesday, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then I can go with you, because my last class on Tuesday is over by 3:30.”

“Great!  Thanks a lot.” 

After we finished our discussion, we had time to walk around and see if we could spot anyone we knew.  We realized, of course, that Barry wouldn’t be on campus this year, and we only ran into a few guys we knew from some of the classes we’d taken, although we weren’t very close to any of them.  They were merely acquaintances, not friends.

Once we got tired of doing that, we walked over to check in with a financial aid advisor to make certain we were all set there.  And after we finished taking care of that, we walked back to the house to get the SUV.  We knew the items we were planning to purchase for this  semester’s classes would be heavy, and since it was a long walk between the bookstore and the house, we felt it would be better to drive there instead. 

There were plenty of parking spaces at the bookstore when we arrived, so we parked the SUV and went inside to get the items we needed.  There weren’t a lot of students inside either, since they were either busy moving in to their residence hall or getting reacquainted with their friends.  We took advantage of this lull to get what we needed, and when we finished, we carried it out to the car and then drove back to the house. 

After we lugged all of those things inside, we decided to go out and get something to eat,  and when we returned, we started reading the first chapters of each of our textbooks.  We felt it would be a better use of our time to get a jump on what we needed to do this semester. 

We weren’t required to purchase textbooks, but since we lived off campus, Devin and I preferred to have our own copies to use.  The library had a limited number of copies of each textbook that we could have used, but those books couldn’t be signed out and could only be used while we were there.  This policy was to ensure the textbooks would be available to others who needed them as well, but that didn’t work for us.  However, we always purchased used textbooks instead of new ones, but we’d always make certain there was no difference between the new and used versions first.  And we’d also look for the used copies that were in the best condition and not marked up, since what others thought was important wasn’t always the case. 

When we started to grow weary and our eyes needed a break, we headed over to the dining hall for supper.  We were now officially college students again.