Komatke Gold. Benjamin Vance
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eyes, his words were measured and extremely Indian accented. I suppressed an autonomic shudder. The officer bid Preston a goodnight without as much as a glance at me. Preston was quiet for a spell, but finally said, “What a nice young feller, even if he is courtin’ Lew Lew.” My respect for him skyrocketed, but my apprehension couldn’t be denied.
When we arrived at the print shop there was one light on, but no car around. It was 8:00 p.m. on the dot by my Post Exchange watch. Preston opened his door and I followed his lead. He knocked and I heard a shuffle, and then light. We greeted the manager whose name I finally found out was Stephan, not Stephen … go figure. He took us back to a very large layout table and I tenderly spread the map out a bit. He asked, almost reverently, if he could take the map. He put on blue nitrile gloves and carefully took the map from me. He started slowly spreading the map. In the quiet of the shop we could all hear the tiny popping sounds of the old leather splitting.
Without the slightest Native American accent, he apologized, “I have no compound here that will soften the leather sufficiently. Since time is of the essence, I think it’ll be all right. We’ll be able to digitally correct any tears or cracks in the leather that separate letters or symbols. Preston looked at me questioningly; I looked at the manager in the same way and said, “Okay, go ahead. Do what you have to.” Stephan slowly put pressure on the rolled map and gingerly pinned it to a piece of thick paper which was itself connected to the layout table in some way I couldn’t determine. He then rolled over a digital camera and lights and lenses of all descriptions that were attached to tracks above the table.
He took a few exposures under different lighting angles and spectra. Then he said, “That’s it!” He took the pins from the leather and it slowly rolled up as if alive. I said, “What if you need some more exposures?”
He said simply, “I won’t.”
Preston offered, “Stephan knows his work. He was with the Company”.
“It’s called the Corporation, Taha,” said Stephan, without noticeable emotion or concern.
Preston corrected himself, “Oh yeah, I get that stuff mixed up sometimes.”
No one else said a word while Stephan took his place at his computer desk. He pulled up the deep ultra violet and infra-red exposures first to see if there were any symbols hidden. There weren’t, but a few needed enhancement, and enhance he did. I almost pissed myself with delight, or coffee, when I saw the old map begin to take shape like it was penned yesterday. He expertly brought all the overlays together digitally and within twenty minutes had it completed to his satisfaction. He made a hard copy for me and copied it to a digital RAM travel file, which I hung around my neck like a necklace. I thanked him profusely and started to leave, but Preston wanted to have another word with Stephan privately.
I waited in the fragrant desert air for about five minutes before Preston came out and commented on what a beautiful night it was. He handed me another travel file and said everything in the copy shop computer had been erased. So, I had the map, the paper hard copy and two RAM travel files. The plan then was to put the map in the safety deposit box the next morning, first thing.
On the way to Preston’s bungalow he said I should cut the map in half and give half to Myra. I smelled a rat and stopped the car to tell him so. He explained timidly that cutting the map in half amounted to destroying a possibly ancient document, but would do two other things: it would keep the entire map out of Lew Lew’s paws and possibly anyone else who wanted to check its authenticity, and it would create a smoke screen with regard to the map’s purpose while we found out what it was really about; before Lew Lew did. Even though it initially sounded cliché, I told him I’d think about it. He seemed confident I’d understand, so I dropped the subject and dropped him at his place declining coffee in the face of his knowing grin and sped with due diligence to my apartment where there was someone soft and warm and smiling waiting.
When I finally got my apartment key to work and set my eyes on her, her eyes were red and swollen. My heart sank. It was her son that time. Raymond had been sniping at her for seeing me. Like many teenagers he was trying to find fault with the person who loved him most. Maybe it’s a form of vulnerability denial. You know what they say … “You’re never so vulnerable as when you’re in love.” And no one loves like a mother.
I think that’s why so many kids are spoiled rotten. Mothers and fathers give them too much, and the kids think they want more. In Raymond’s opinion he wasn’t getting enough attention, and since he was entering puberty he thought he was the man of the house. He needed to be shown he wasn’t. Of course, when there isn’t a father figure around it can really confuse a kid. I’d understood his plight from the start, especially since his mother and I were sleeping together, but I hadn’t been ready to take on Myra’s kids … until that moment.
Chapter 14.
Myra and I talked and worked into the night at my place and slept until about 7:00 a.m. She called Rainbo and Raymond and told them we’d be by Cristal’s to pick them up for breakfast at about 9:30. She forcefully told them to be ready. We would drop by the bank just after it opened to put one-half of the map back in the safety deposit box.
Of course the kids still weren’t ready at 9:30. Rainbo looked pretty in her low wranglers and short “T”, but was still without shoes because she couldn’t find the right pink socks. I was so happy she had her mother’s genes. Raymond didn’t want to go at all. However, he was readily coerced by Cristal and good-to-go in about fifteen minutes! Myra and I talked the previous night about where the best place to be seen together was, so we went to I-HOP. It was very important to be seen in a family setting, since it was time people in town knew our intentions. Everyone but Raymond ordered. He wasn’t hungry!
Mom ordered him some milk and buckwheat pancakes. She said they were his favorite with peanut butter and honey, but he refused to eat. We ignored him, and he pretended to ignore us until a deputy walked in to present me with a subpoena. He marched straight to me, served me with a genuinely nice smile that said, “Sorry, just doing my job.” He then sat down at the counter and ordered.
Wow, someone else knew me by sight. That served several purposes in my mind; everyone in the place knew us then and Raymond was so embarrassed to be in the spotlight that he ate all his pancakes and drank his milk after ice was added. Also, I then knew the map was worth something to someone. At least ... half the map was. ‘Talk about the nick of time; Myra and I carefully sliced the old map in half the night before and deposited the worthless half in the deposit box shortly after 9:00 a.m. We hid one travel file in a safe place at Myra’s; the other half of the map and one travel file went to Cristal who was babysitting for Myra, and we also hid the hard copy in a book of tribal history at Myra’s house. All this was done the night before without waking the kids.
After breakfast we stuck to our plan and went to The Mart, where half the Native Americans in town were at that time of day. We did some minor shopping and Myra did a hell of a lot of introductions, to the total chagrin of Raymond. However, Rainbo was all grins most of the time, especially when there were girls her age involved. To the astonishment of both kids we stopped by the jewelry department where we picked out an engagement ring for Myra. I’d also asked her to marry me the night before, and she’d accepted. I wasn’t about to miss her again.
The kids were speechless until we got in the Jeep. As soon as we were underway Myra asked the kids what they thought of her new ring. Rainbo burst into tears and was hugging her mother’s neck from the back seat. They talked in broken Hopi, while inter-mingling some English, one crying outright and the other streaming tears. I looked in the mirror at Raymond. He put on his best “Chief Joseph” face, but couldn’t hold back sympathetic tears. Then … I knew I had him.
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