Story--Page #2

Written by: Jon Haeber

br>"What's yer name, son?"
"Jason. Why do you want to know?"
"Let me tell you something, son." The old man walked towards the window of his cabin, he turned back towards Jason, "Sometimes the richest men in the world git lost. They don't know what their purpose is in life, and they frantically search for the answer by gaining more wealth. Even though, I may have the chance of being the richest man in the world, I know that I'll still be lost. The only ones that are never lost, are the ones who live life to the fullest. It's not the gold that intrigues me, it's the feeling that yeh git when yeh see the yeller speckle in the bottom of the pan; the excitement of finding something that nobody has ever seen before."
Jason stared at the face of the famous James Marshall for a moment, He looked into his eyes. Under the shabby gray hair of his thick brows and the dark wrinkles in his cheeks, he saw the face of a child that was excited at the prospect of living for much longer.
"Ahem! Ahem!" The old man now let out a series of loud hacking coughs.
Jason knew in reality though, that the old man could not live much longer, "What day is it today, Mr. Marshall?"
"You could call me James. As for the day, it is August 9th."
"August 9th of what year?" Jason now looked at James, who was somewhat bewildered by this question.
"You don't know what year it is? You must really be lost." James let out a series of loud comical laughs. "It is 1885, son. You need me to tell me whether it is AD or BC?"
Jason now thought of what he would do tomorrow, the 10th of August. There was something about that date that made Jason think. He knew it was something important. Something that he had discovered days before in his attempts to find out what Mr. Borner was doing. He remembers repeating it over and over again, but why? He remembers learning this date from Mrs. Horrel, when he was trying to find out when James Marshall Died........ Jason now realized what this date meant. He realized that James Marshall died on the 10th of August, 1885; and tomorrow was that day. "He's going to die!" Jason whispered to himself.
"Who's going to die?" James said to Jason as he turned around from his staring match with the window confused.
"Oh, ummmm..." Jason knew that he couldn't tell James that he would die tomorrow, it would change history forever; besides, James wouldn't believe him, "I was just thinking about that frog that I stepped on today."
"Well, yeh best be gittin t'bed. I'm proud of yeh son, you worked awful hard t'day. Yeh deserve rest. Sleep well, an' I'll see ya in the morn'" The man looked at Jason as if he was his own son; Jason returned a look as if James was his own father.
As Jason jumped into the soft covers of his bed, he knew that tomorrow would be a long day. He wished there was some way of stopping James' death, but there was no stopping fate. He felt a close binding to this man that he had only met the day before. He was afraid of losing such a special friendship; and for once in his life, Jason felt a tear drip from his cheek. The tear now forced him to feel even more pity for his friend, and Jason cried himself to sleep.
Rays of bright sun flowed through the dusty blinds that Jason had seen when he first entered this strange world. He could feel the heat penetrating his cold arm. The sun rays now reached his eyelids, and a bright red color replaced the black that was so familiar to sleep. Jason now struggled to free himself from the covers of his bed. He looked with fear at the bed next to him; it was empty. He jumped from the bed in anticipation of finding his friend; nothing. Jason now ran out the doors in fear of finding the body of his friend sitting on the front porch; nothing. On his way back to his bed, he noticed a small note pinned on the table in the middle of the cabin.

Without eating, Jason now jumped into his work clothes and left the cabin eager to spend the quickly dwindling time that he had with the single most influential discoverer of the west: His best friend, James Marshall.
"James! James! Mr. Marshall, are you there?" Jason frantically ran up and down the banks of the river.
"Sure I'm here." The old man said as Jason jumped with fear from the strange voice that originated behind him.
"What's wrong James? You sound different."
"Oh, jest the dern cough I have. Been acting up more than usually hard t'day." Although he seemed to feel very ill, Jason couldn't help but notice that James had an unusual happy and excited behavior about him, "Come see what I jest found over'n here, son." James now guided him to a small hole in the ground.
"Looks like an ordinary hole to me." Jason said as he examined the muddy water seeping into it.
"This hole is far from ordinary, son." James looked into Jason's eyes with a twinkle of excitement, "No this hole is full of gold." The old man now reached into the pockets of his dirty overalls. He pulled out a small metallic object, about the size of a golf ball but not as round, "Look at this here beauty I pulled out a half an hour ago."
Jason could now see that the old man was very happy. He could see that look in his face, the look that reminded him of a young child. Jason began to doubt that today was the day that Mr. Marshall would die, he was too happy to die. Nobody dies happy, or do they?
"Well, it seems to me that we have 'nough gold to put it up for safekeeping, what do you think, Jason?"
Jason now felt bewildered by the man addressing him by his own name. It was the first time that the old man had done that. He could now feel a greater emotional binding to the man, and this small sentence that the man spoke to him could replace a million other sentences in a heart beat. Jason knew that he had never really had the experience of having a father up till today, and this man that he had met just days before had changed his life forever.
As Jason followed the old man up a long path up the mountains he took notice of the many beautiful surroundings. He looked behind him to a winding blue line that was once a white raging river. He looked to the side of him and noticed the oak trees with their green leaves blowing in the wind. Ahead of him was the old man, struggling to make his way up the trail. Jason had never seen in all his life such persistence, and he wondered what the old man was so eager to do. Even farther ahead of the man, he noticed a strange outcropping of rock. The rock was unusually white, and it was very unique in appearance from it's colorful surroundings. Jason now realized that this was what the old man was so eager to reach. As the two made their way around the outcropping, Jason noticed that on the opposite side was an entrance to a mine.
"Come on, son; I want to show you something." James handed Jason a very old and rusty kerosene lamp, he struck a match and inserted into the lamp. A burst of flames surrounded the lamp and a bright white light protruded from the glass.
As he entered the dark shadows of the eerie mine, Jason could hear the echoes of his shoes clattering on the rocky ground and dripping of the water as it finally reached it's destination in the deep pools of a manmade underground waterway.
"Watch where yeh step, son. There's a great many holes in here that could kill a man, I reckon."
Jason now lifted his lamp over his head, he looked up in curiosity at the ceiling of the mine. Strange sounds were coming from the sides of the rotting timbers above him. Small moving black figures were hanging from the other side of the timber. They seemed unaffected by the blinding light that was just shined on them.
"Don't yeh be worrying 'bout 'em bats, Jason. They're more scared of us then we are of them." James said as he walked through the dark passageways of the old mine.
Jason followed James with more persistence, now knowing that there were bats in the tunnel.
As the two neared the end of the tunnel, Jason's anticipation was almost as prevalent as his friends. He noticed that the old man, although knowing what he was looking for, was acting as if he was enjoying a completely new adventure. As the old man neared his goal, the pace of his walking increased; just as the pace of Jason's heart rate grew.
The young boy had never been so excited in his life. He felt as if he was a Spanish conquistador, or a French explorer, or maybe even a real-life forty-niner. He knew that he just experienced history as we know it, and that it was a once in a lifetime memory.
"Son; I want you to promise me something. Yeh must swear to me that you'll never tell anybody where this treasure is."
"What treasure?" Jason now said, perplexed
"This treasure." The old man now reached down to the floor and shined his light on a small strongbox that was adorned with golden nuggets of all shapes and sizes. "This is just my big stuff, I've got the rest at home."
Jason was awestruck by the wealth that he had just seen with his own two eyes. He was surprised to see so much gold in so little of a space. It had to be worth at least a million dollars, "Where did you get all this stuff?"
"Many years of finding holes like the one we found today, and speaking of that hole...."
James pulled out a small bag out of his pocket, he dumped the gold from the bag into the chest. A large nugget, the most beautiful of them was sitting in the bottom of the chest. James now looked at the nugget and then to Jason. He thought for a minute; after careful consideration he handed Jason the nugget.
"Here's yer fair share son, you done more than earned it. That there nugget was the first one I found. It showed up in the bottom of the millrace in the sawmill. I remember that day very vividly. I was very young, full of energy and ready to take on the world, but now I'm growing older by the day. I'm afraid that I will keel over soon, so when I've gone up to the big ol' gold mine in the sky, I'll want yeh to have half of what's in this chest. I want you to give the rest to the Indians who have been my great to me all these years. They are the only ones who are not blinded by the greed for gold, like all the other miners."
"The Indians?"
"Yes, many worked with me when I was partners with Mr. Sutter. They believed that my discovery of gold meant bad news. They thought gold belonged to a jealous demon who lived in a mountain lake with gold-lined shores." James now let out a series of quiet giggles, "They were the only ones who knew it all along."
Jason felt the small nugget. It felt at least a quarter of an ounce and was as big as a piece of chewed bubble gum; Examining it more closely, he noticed that it looked like one too. It was filled with small dark crinkles and creases and felt unusually heavy for its size.
He placed the nugget in his pocket as his friend closed the box and placed it under some timber. Jason followed the old man out of the mine. He blew out the flame of his lamp, and squinted his eyes as he got out of the dark cave. The brightness was overwhelming as he walked into the daylight. He squinted his eyes and rubbed them with his fists closed. As he looked around him, he noticed that the old man was nowhere to be found. He frantically ran around the white outcropping just in time to see his friend walk around the corner of the trail. The old man was breathing rather heavily. He seemed to be violently coughing. As Jason turned the corner, he noticed his friend kneeling to the ground.
"James! James! What's a matter!" Jason ran to his quickly dying friend who was now twisting and spinning on the ground below him, "Don't die James. I don't want you to. I should of told you, I should've warned you."
The old man now looked at him rather bewildered. For a few seconds he stood still and stared into the young boy's eyes. He grabbed the collar of Jason's shirt, and Jason grasped the old mans knarled and twisted hands. Tears were falling from the boy's face and one fell to the man's hand. At that moment, Jason saw the youthful enthusiasm leave the old man's eyes. It was replaced with a stone-cold stillness; one that the boy could never forget. Jason knew that he could not stop the terrible fate of this man's death, but he blamed himself for it. For a few moments the man's grasp on his shirt tightened, and then it fell to the ground.
"Jason..... Jason, wake up. C'mon, you're late for school." A strange figure was pulling on Jason's shirt collar.
"No, I don't want you to die. I should've warned you. You're my best friend. Don't leave me!!!" Jason was now shaking his hands through the covers of his bed. The last thing he saw before he opened his eyes was the eyes of the dying James Marshall. The stone-cold stillness that would forever plague his mind.
"What are you talking about, Hun?"
As the dark shadows of his dream drifted from his mind, and he slowly lifted his eyelids open, Jason noticed that his mom was standing at the foot of his bed. It seemed as if he had not seen her for years. He immediately jumped from his covers.
"Have you been having bad dreams again? I told you not to watch so many of those movies. I don't approve of you watching those movies. The only thing that you will get from them is a bad dream."
"Mom! Mom, I saw Marshall. We found gold, and I went to see his treasure. He was breathing really hard and he died. He died Mom! He told me that I can keep half of his treasure."
"What are you talking about Hun?"
Jason now realized that no one would ever believe him; just like he never believed Mr. Borner. Now it was different though. Now he saw the treasure, he saw it with his own two eyes. He felt so stupid not to believe Mr. Borner.
"Oh nothing, mom. Just a bad dream."
"O.K. You'd better get ready, or you're going to be late for school." Jason's mom now walked out the door, while Jason pondered over the experiences of the last few days; or at least what seemed to be a few days. Was it really a dream? It was so real, though. There was no way that it was a dream, but how else could he explain traveling back in time almost 125 years before.
As Jason jumped off his bed he noticed that he was grasping a strange object in his hand. He now examined the small object in his hand. A shiny golden object, it looked strangely familiar. Jason knew what it was, but he couldn't understand how it got in his hand. It was the gold nugget that Marshall had given him the day he died. It was the gold nugget that started the Gold Rush of 1849. It was proof that his dream was, in fact, no dream.

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