"Let's get it into the barn, 'migos," Kit said. Maria picked up the lantern, Julian
and Julio opened up the barn doors, then Kit showed them where to push - the wings'
leading edges - after he got the nosewheel steering brace out of the baggage
compartment, and they pushed Juliet backward into the barn, Ri and Essy watching
the wingtips and tailfeathers for the guys. Kit got everything out of his ship as the
others stood behind the right wing, offering to carry whatever and asking him questions
about the plane and the flight, admiringly in awe of it all while they heard the engine "tinking"
as it cooled.
        "Why so...daring, Kit?" Ria asked last.
        "O....it's a long story, love. The short one, though, Ri, is I just don't want anyone
to know it's up here," Kit answered as he got a rag shirt off the workbench and ripped
it into pieces as he walked around Juliet putting those pieces into her intake holes "to keep
dirt and bugs out," answering Es.
        "Kino, children? No telling anyone," Mari told the kids.
        "Si, Mama...si, Kit," they both answered.
        "Very muy bueno, guys," Kit thanked them, then turned to Jul and smiled, "you
sure had the weather right, migo," as he picked up his flightcase.
        Jul laughed and answered, "you sure had the flying right, 'keemo sobby'" as
they smiled at each other and slapped their right hands together in front of their hearts
for a shake. Then they all walked out of the barn, closed the doors and headed toward
Kit's cabin.
        "Night vision goggles, Kit?" Julio asked on the way, holding up that part of his
cargo. "Can I try 'm?"
        "Sure, Huli...but they're secret too, kino?" winking a smile over to Julian, then
putting an arm around Essy after she did around him.
        "Kino, Kit....Woowww...Coooll!" Juli joyed in his look-see around the ranch
with the gogs on.
         They dropped Kit's stuff off in his cabin, then all walked across the yard to Ri and
Jul's and in moments Kit had a Tree Frog in his hand from Jul and a dinner on the table
in front of him from Ria. "Kept it warm for you," she beamed.
        "Awww gracias so much, bella....I am soooo hungry....how was your day?"
plowing the fork Essy had gotten for him into the chimichongas, beans and corn.
        Julian laughed sublimely as he looked around at Maria and the kids. "He flies in
at noche with no lights in the nieve and asks how was our day! Carumba!"
        "HEY," Ri corrected, "he was asking me about my day," smiling demurely at
her husband.
        "Si, si, sorry, mi dulzura..." Jul came back with a smile, "...but may I tell him,
love?" he added, looking like a student with the answer, "...por favor...?" Ri nodded
with the same smile and Jul proceeded, "well...Sky King...since you asked--"
        "YEAH! He's Sky King!" Juli interrupted wildly. "No! no...he's Waldo Peppers!"
laughing away in one of those "eureka" moments that everyone most certainly has at
one time or another. Es gave her brother a shove as they all chuckled at the boy's
veritable revelation.
        Jul checked his son to see if he was done, then went on, "...since you asked...
Waldo..."
        "Mm-hm," Kit acknowledged, chewing happily away.
        "We got the fence and supplies...looked at animals...ordered 5oo pounds of
quinoa seed, started on the fenceposts - IN the frozen ground, as you might have
noticed from your birdseat up there..."
        They all snickered with Kit's, "I'm sorry I wasn't here to help, guys," attached to
his cute smile.
        Jul continued, "...and dug more in the mina, no?..." as Kit nodded, "and found
some more pedazos...." Jul looked around at his family again, who were all grinning
very big time at what was coming, "...and we think we found some Silver," feigning
nonchalance extremely well.
        "Silver?!" Kit garbled with a mouth full of dinner, and felt the news hit his adrenal
gland or something inside there.
        "PLA-TA!" Es added jubilantly, "a VETA, Kit!...a grande VEIN! hugging
him effusively.
        "HOLE....EEEE...DIOS!" Kit's mouth hung open and they enjoyed his rush as
he looked around at them all and realized they were dead serious. "Santa Madre!..."
he kept going, "you guys sure don't know how to hold anything back, do you!" then
turned to Julian, "or WHAT!...Do you think we've found it?!" meaning the legend,
the others knew.
        "Not sure, 'migo," his partner smiled with a wondrous look, "but...we just may
have!" spending a Godly amount of time on 'have', it seemed, and they all looked
around at each other in their awe of it.
        "Ho...lee...shhhh...." Kit's mind adding the "itt", though he was oblivious if he
had said it aloud or not, the others nodding in their sanguine sharing of his disbelief
that they had been going through themselves since the discovery (Es's, of course,
they filled him in on).
        "I wanta SEE it!" the Coder announced. So they grabbed a lantern and their
coats, went outside and piled into Jul's truck, the kids in the bed, went up the mountainside
trail to the mine, fired up Julian's father's ole lantern and followed Kit the 47 feet into
the mountain (they measured later; Silver the 47th element, Kit got to teach the kids
- if he remembered right), walking past the pine-beamed Quartz-filled walls, ceiling
and floor glistening in the flamelight all the way to the end.
        They stopped and stared at the over two-by-three-foot-diameter ellipse (the "oval",
Es called it; the "egg" was Ria's call) of Silver dad blame in the middle of the end wall,
shining along with pieces of Gold at various places, and Kit looked down at the boxes
on the speckled ground already filled with Silver and just started hugging everyone;
then they all began talking and picking away at the precious metal for awhile longer.
        They loaded the full boxes into the truck bed, drove back down the trail and stashed
the boxes in the barn and returned to the cabin, talking like they had found IT. El
Dorado!
        Kit said as they all sat down again around the kitchen table, "hey...we've got
to make sure no one else finds out...not yet, anyway...." They all agreed and
promised each other. He went on, "manana, then, we'll get my truck and stuff in
Santa, work on the fence and spend the rest of the day in El..." and couldn't finish
the name, fearing a jinx or bolt of lightning or something, and added, "...in the mina,
whattaya think?"
        "Sounds pretty darn right on, Code," Jul smiled back with the others, then Es
put Gold nuggets and a huge chunk of Plata on the table in front of Kit, explaining,
"this is how we were going to tell you."
        Kit laughed, saying, "Hayzoos, 'meegs...this is just..." struggling for the words,
"TOO amazin'!" and examined the chunk and nuggets, still searching his axions for
more verbalization as he slowly returned to his re-warmed dinner, though adding
things later like, "I can't believe this!" (duh) and such as they talked excitedly on.
        After some more while he asked, "d' you guys feel like some music?" Well they
surely did. It had been a couple weeks since they had gotten together on their songs.
Es volunteered and went to Kit's cabin for his guitar and little felt bag that had his
pipe and Cannabis. They got out all their other instruments, Es got back, Kit loaded
up the pipe with fresh bud, lit it up and they passed it around - the kids allowed one
toke. (See, bear with this. This is a lot less hungup family than most, at least in this
psycholegal country of ours. Anyway, the smoke was saved for music - the Muse - with
the kids. And it had only been given to them in the last half year or so. It was their
family tradition and pretty much Kit's as well, they had discovered a while back.
Now I myself am not recommending this for children. But I am not going to judge
Kit, or the family either. So, suspend paranoia or judgement, if you must, and just,
well, imagine. 'Magin. You know, the Magi. This is only a novel, for Lord's sake.
Relax. Enjoy it.)
        They played into the night, making up some new songs and playing parts or
all of some others, some theirs, some not. They made some beautiful music, Essy
having become especially talented over the years with her folks' and Kit's tutoring.
They were all good, though.

        Up after sunrise, Kit went over to help fix breakfast, kidding the kids that they
had gotten too far behind on schoolwork the night before and asking a reticent
Maria (she didn't want any gifts) what she would like from Santa. After the eats, Kit and
Jul headed for the barn to tend to Juliet, but the kids followed, Ria releasing them
from kitchen duty.
        Kit opened up the cowling, checked the oil, added some, checked and cleaned
the engine, the others helping wherever they saw they safely could, admiring the
machinery, airship and knowledge. Juli and Es climbed into the front seats, with Kit's
permission, to work on cleaning and figuring things out, asking Code one question
after another until he had to interrupt them to give Jul instructions on refueling,
adding fast at the end, "...OK, we should head to town, no?"
        The kids were asking when they could go flying and Kit was trying to explain
it might be a little while. Jul helped too, offering, "it'll help their patience, compadre...
vamanos."
        Juli stayed home with Ria to help with chores and her safety. Essy went to
Santa Fe with the old guys and rode with ole Kit on the way home after the shopping,
something bought for everyone. She asked him about the plane and flying as he
drove and proceeded to tell her some of his patented stories and stuff. Then she
asked what he planned to do with his mina money and he answered kind of vaguely.
Then she asked why didn't he have a woman and family and he answered even
more vagabondly with a "mm-mm", as in 'I don't know', though reminding her of his
son and divorce a long time ago.
        "You're not gay...are ya?" she smiled at him.
        "Jeezuz, Estrell-ee-a..." He turned his head to look in her exotically beautiful
Native American-Chicana face and added, "not as long as there're bellas like you."
        "Right answer. O, I mean..." then, affectating her demeanor, "gracias, Senor
Codee," laughing with him. "But...that's just it...why don't you have a woman?" and
scootered across the truck seat to him. "Unless you've been waiting for me."
        "Ooooo Gaawwdd..." Kit let out. Jul was ahead of them up the road, several
cars between them, as a matter of fact; he didn't seem to have a clear eyeview back
to them, relieving some of Kit's immediate trauma. Es pressed her left breast softly
against Kitster's right arm and put her close hand high on his thigh and he felt his
blood going every which way, including even those ole glans of his.
        "Have you thought about me, Kit?" bringing him back to their talking point.
        He took a gulp and plunged onward and upward. 'Fuck YEAH' had raced
first through his brain atoms but, "God...yeah I've thought about you," is what came
out as he turned his head to look at her again. "But...you're my best friends' bestest
young daughter...besides, O, underage," looking in her big dang chestnut irises, then
so close to his own blue irisi.
        "Aw, Cody...who's going to check my age. Heck...some states don't even
call me too young..."
        "What the hell have you been studying...." he flustered as he turned his head
her way again.
        She gave a little smile and added, "anyway, I'm mature for my age. You know
that...and...I...love you...Kit," she finished slowly and seriously. Then quieter, "I
think about you all the time."
        "Wo!" his soul reverberated. "I...love (and had to clear his throat on that word)
you too, Es. And shi...sh-ure you love me. We're family! But...precious...angel...I'm,
a little unfortunately, old enough to be your father...hello," he pled, frustration oozing
out through his pores as he took that road bend with cool aplomb.
        "I talked with Mama once about you..." dropping her face and rubbing her hand
a little on his thigh, "'n you know what she said?..." and they looked at each other
again, Kit not sure at all that he wanted to hear what was coming, "...she said she
wouldn't be able to say no if we were...together."
        "Hole..ly sh..ee did not," unable to hide the cacophony of emotional emissions
showing in his face. Hell yes he wanted her. But he knew he couldn't. It was still life
as it is on Earth, he remembered to be at least one of his thoughts in those moments.
        "Did too," and Es plied her fingers higher on his thigh, then rubbed her hardened left
nipple, under her cotton shirt, into his cotton-shirted bicep and tricep as she desired
the bulge in his jeans. (Now, again, I'm just the reporter here. And Essy is no vixen.
No way. Not close. No how. She was just at that awesome age and alone a lit-tle too
much at the hacienda, Cody's dendrites had been rattling on about inside his busy skull,
as he tells the story.)
        "God, Jesus, Essy!...maybe...you shouldn't be doin' this...hey?" quickly going
from crescendo to diminuendo.
        "Why not?" she whispered evokingly back in her breathy sexy voice.
        "Shi...aww, sweeetheeaart," he answered softly, "...I'm too old...you're too
young...you're their daughter...what? Help me here...." He smiled at her smile as
they loved face to face, inches apart, Kit trying his best to negotiate his composure
and keep his synapses on road traffic. "And he'd KILL me," motioning his head toward
Jul's old Dodge truck traveling just about one 'court-'er' mile up ahead, then with one car
between them.
        "Aw, he wouldn't do that...you're his bestest 'migo," and they chuckled together.
"I know (stretching out "know" very knowingly) you want me, Kit. I see you look at
me. And...you're not too old," and put her head on his shoulder and her other hand
around his upper arm, pulling it more into her swelled mammary. He didn't want to
say they had to get her a boyfriend. That would have, uh, probably hurt her feelings.
        "A la vay, Essy...I do want you...GOD I want you...muy mucho-est!" And he
was dadburned serious. "But, truth is...there's someone I've been in...love with...for
a long while." He didn't like how those words must have sounded to her, but it was
the truth. "...And I'm about to try and find her again...so, it just wouldn't be fair to
you...I mean, not tellin' you." He felt her emotional freefall and added a heartfull,
"I'm sorry, precious...you know I really am, 'Strel....But we should have only truth
between us."
        She sat motionless after turning her head toward the front and closing her
eyes. After moments, she said quietly, "you should be sorry....You just turned down
real love, Kit....You could have had me. I hope you'll be happy with...this one who
was...however long ago," she finished emptily. One thing for sure: Estrella was a
young woman. No girl.
        "I am sorry, Es....I may have just lost the best love there ever is...and I sure didn't
want your feelings hurt...bella," and kissed the side of her head, and kept his lips
there, with his eyes on the road, until she pulled away.
        They didn't talk any more the rest of the way back to the ranch. She moved
back to the other side of the seat right after his kiss and looked out her window,
fighting back tears at first, then wiping some from her cheeks as Kit, a little
misty-eyed himself, caught back up to Jul and their two gray pickups rolled up
the Pecos Valley together to the forest trail.

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