“Yeah. What about it?”
“What year did your dad and Uncle Joseph go to look for the gold?”
“Let me think. I was seven. That would have been 1984. Why?”
“Something happened when your dad and Uncle Joseph went back to Barnesville. Whatever it was tore the family apart. Was Clay old enough to remember? How old would he have been? Ten?”
“Why do you think something happened?” She looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Nothing was ever mentioned.”
“Think about our family, Mel. When your folks or Donnie’s would visit my family it would always be separate. Grandpa never came at the same time either. We are all bits and pieces of a large document. We have our own stories that fit into one big history, but no one would piece it back together.”
“You sound like you should go back to work. Piecing things back together? Nothing ever came apart.”
“I think that’s what our parents wanted us to believe. Something happened and it happened after the trip to Barnesville.”
“I might know who has the answers.” Her face showed the revelation she finally knew what I meant.
“Who?” I jumped up off the couch.
“Clay. He has Dad’s journal. We never read it. It seemed too private. I’ll call him and ask him to bring it with him tomorrow. If the answers are anywhere, they’ll be in the journal. Dad wrote about everything.”
“Are you sure you want to read it now?” I didn’t want to break any pact she’d made with Clay and Susan.
Mel’s eyes were wide with curiosity. “Yes. We need to know.”
“Call him. I want to make sure he brings it.”
Mel didn’t reach Clay, but left a message on his machine. She assured me he’d pick it up and we would talk with him before he and Susan left. I brought Mel up to speed on my plans for the day.
“I wanted to go to the library today so you could talk with the old Jumano Chief. Since he isn’t going to be there, let’s ride down to Cleburne. We’ll pick up the documents they have for me there.” I reached for my purse and held the car keys in my hand.
“Are you worried about those guys following us?” Mel displayed that same raised eyebrow look.
“They’re just trying to scare us. I’m sure Donnie doesn’t know about the cave. Once Clay and Susan get here, we’re looking for the cemetery as quickly as possible. That must be where the chest is.”
I called the front desk and asked them to remove the roses while we were gone.
A time to cast away?
Or should it have been a time to keep? I wasn’t ever going to see him again. It was over and I could feel the tears sting at the back of my eyes. But even though the little voice centered somewhere near my heart told me to trust him, the gray matter in my skull told me not to. He’d hurt me, crushed everything I thought I knew about him. Mel and I headed to the parking garage.
Chapter Twenty-Two
We ate a light lunch at a small roadside cafe and started out for Cleburne about one. We headed through the Fort Worth area and under a labyrinth of a pretzel shaped overpass. I was glad I didn’t have to get on any of the crossing freeways; I would have been circling the loop for days.
Soon the Dallas-Fort Worth area was behind us. I was amazed at the countryside which I’d envisioned to be dirt and an occasional oak tree. When the lush greenery and wide open blue skies reached out for miles in front of us, I realized I’d seen far too many Hollywood cowboy movies. We drove past well-developed farmland that showed signs of harvest preparations. At the library, I’d picked up a brochure on the area and I could see by the dark stained soil why they called it the Blackland Prairie.
When our ancestors arrived from Georgia, this land would have been tall grassland. The hills slightly rolled and I could only imagine how beautiful it must have been. The Barnes family owned a cotton gin and the same crops grew in the open fields that flanked the highway. With the sun high in the sky and only a wisp or two of clouds, the fifty-one miles glided by as Mel and I tried to figure out what happened that long ago summer in 1984. We both avoided any further mention of Gary.
“The best I can figure, we have to get on US 67 North.” Mel had her nose in some papers she’d printed from the Internet.
“North? We’re headed south. Turn the map over, dummy. For someone who’s so smart at other things you’re sure directionally impaired. How do you ever find the properties you sell?”
“The directions read north, Addie, see?” She waved the papers at me.
“Okay. You’re right. Throw those out and use the map in the glove box”. The last time I used Internet directions I was at a conference in San Luis. We wound up thirty minutes late, lost on some narrow country road. “You ever wonder if the person who puts out those directions lives in China or something?”
“You’ve made your point. US 67 South. We’re going to be close to Alvarado, too. Wasn’t there something in an Alvarado newspaper about my dad and Uncle Joseph looking for the gold?”
“Yeah. We’ll stop in and ask at the library on the way back. There’s supposed to be a BLM office in Alvarado, too.”
“How do you know all that? You’ve sure looked into this more than any of the rest of us.”
“I had some help.” I didn’t want to tell her Gary’s mother lived in Alvarado. From his church-plotting project, he knew the area very well. I’d bet money he’d planned to stay with his parents that weekend. I just couldn’t find the words to discuss my feelings with Mel. I hadn’t even secured the opportunity to tell her Gary and I’d shared our first kiss before things blew apart.
I thought, now, she tried to play the devil’s advocate. She seemed to be on Gary’s side all of a sudden. She’d done that when I broke it off with Jim, too. She never knew how I felt knowing he betrayed me. I thought we’d shared the same dreams but he ignored mine. When it came right down to it, there was an issue of him controlling more of my life than I was willing to let go. I started dating him when Mom became ill. He knew I felt cornered but I did what I thought was right. The summer after she died, he asked me to marry him. When I mentioned going to Egypt, he flatly stated it was out of the question. His construction business came first and he wouldn’t even consider moving to San Francisco so I could work at the museum. He said the time was ripe for builders in San Jose. If he was to make a decent living, he had to stay put. I spent a few months at Docurestore, threw in the towel, and showed Jim out of my life.
Mel always thought I should have compromised and worked things out. I kept my eyes on a different goal and knew someday the right guy would come along to share it with me. I may have just lost him, too but as always, I didn’t listen to anyone but myself. As much as I wanted to forget about Gary, stow him away in the corner of my mind, he was still there wearing that stupid yellow shirt with a twinkle in those violet-blue eyes.
How could I ever forget the Technicolor memory he’d etched in my mind?
Mel chatted away like she wanted to sell me half of Texas, “Hey look. There’s the turnoff for Alvarado. It’s a small place, population 7,506, and only twelve miles northwest from Cleburne.”
“Okay. Remember that for when we come back.” I really wasn’t listening to her, but the lay of the land engaged my interest. Barnesville was somewhere, twelve miles east. If you drew lines, the towns made a small, narrow triangle, interesting. I tried to figure out if it meant something to this puzzle. The gold was buried long after the land had been settled but the layout fascinated me. I’d have to ask someone. Gary would know. There he was again, back in my head.
Maybe I did need to talk this thing out with Mel. She was the closest thing I had to a sister and, with Mom gone, the only real female input in my life. That evening, we’d order pizza and stay in. I just didn’t want her to think I’d made a mess of things. I’d always felt she looked up to me. I hadn’t muddled up my life the way she did hanging onto her first husband thinking she could fix the jerk once he started abusing her. I could never understand, nor did I try to. We’d fought over it once and we’d pretty well left each other’s relationships alone after that. However, I needed her help on this one; I needed a sounding board and I prayed she was willing to listen. She’d opened the door enough times to talk about Gary. I just never took the bait.
****
We drove up to One Town Square. One-way streets surrounded the courthouse and I had to make a perfect square turning at all four corners before I could park in front of the old building. The Johnson County Courthouse, built in 1913, the focal point at the center of town, an old, red brick building with a clock tower, stood in front of us. Most of these old Texas towns were built on a square. The area, that was probably once open space, was crowded with paved lots for the government employees. Everyone was extremely friendly. The men tipped their hats and the women waved as if they’d known us all their lives. A green and white sign planted squarely in front of the courthouse proclaimed the population at 28,862, five elementary schools, one intermediate school, one high school, fifty-five policemen and an airport among other things in their community profile.
The rest of the area filled with antique shops and specialty stores occasionally sharing space with a restaurant or a museum. Buffalo Creek ran through downtown and the tall bushy trees shaded park benches on the street corners. I wished we had more time. History seeped from the mortar of the buildings. I could have stayed for days soaking up the legends and local stories. This would have been the town where our great-great-great-grandfather came to file the papers on the land. That was what we were here for; unfortunately, any further investigation would have to wait.
We walked up the steps of the courthouse and looked for the deputy clerk’s office. “Let’s try over there.” I pointed to a row of frosted glass office doors. Painted neatly in gold on one of the doors was Iris McCall, Deputy Clerk. “This is it. I talked to her on the phone. She said the documents were ready.”
We walked into the cramped, dark office. Behind a large, mahogany desk sat a small, blonde woman. The desk made her seem even more diminutive. “Hello, I’m Addie Brown. I believe I have some papers to pick up.”
“Yes. I’m Iris. I have several documents available. I copied the first four but I believe the one on the top will be of special interest to you.” She took out a stack of items copied on legal size paper. She lifted the first page. Before her fingers could reach the place where he signed, I spotted it–John Barnes.
“Mel. Look.” I spoke slightly above a whisper. I turned my back to the desk and took a deep breath. “With my hand this 24th day of January, Eighteen Hundred and Sixty Five. John Barnes.” I read out loud. It amazed me how much his handwriting looked like my mother’s. The B’s were made exactly the same.
“If you’ll look up here in the text of the document, it describes the sale of some land on Chambers Creek. From what you told me, I believe this is where Barnesville may have been. There are some markers mentioned, too.”
I hesitated to turn the pages. Mel stood there and waited for me to make a move. Could we dare hope the coordinates would be the same as the ones I’d found in the small chest? They were hidden back at the hotel room but I’d memorized them long ago, 32.21.5N, -97.9.11W.
I glanced through the document until I found the sentence, “In the County of Johnson and the State of Texas to wit eleven acres of land lying on the north side of the north point of Chambers Creek. To a stake between the property of Sesums and James McGhee a young oak ten inches in diameter marked with an X. Then to a post oak sapplin marked with an X at the west boundary line of Ballows.” This was a lot of help. It was marked off in trees, oak trees. How were we supposed to find trees that were probably dead a hundred years ago?
“Do you know how we can figure out where this is? Why did you think this might pinpoint the land? I have some general ideas, but this doesn’t match anything I have.” I hoped she could be more help. A phone rang at her desk but she ignored it.
“Oh, not that one. I wanted you to see his signature. That one is a land sale. This one underneath. One hundred and sixty acres plus an additional ten purchased in 1864.” Her slender finger moved halfway down the page to 32.21.5N, -97.9.11W.
“Mel. A match.” I knew the woman behind the desk didn’t understand what I whispered. Mel winked.
“There are some maps over on the wall. Find Chambers Creek and use the coordinates on the side.” The clerk pointed us in the direction of the relief maps.
I brushed my fingers along the area where the coordinates met. Close to where they intersected, a tiny cross. “Does this cross mean there’s a church here?”
“No. A cemetery. A lot of those old towns had their own cemeteries.”
Perfect. It was exactly what we were looking for. The cave had to be near there somewhere. I needed to ask her one more thing before we left. “Has anyone else been asking about these documents?”
“No. Just you. What are you two looking for? Ya’ll could go back and look for more if you’d like. You’re free to help yourself.”
“We’re just researching our family. Could you do me a favor?”
The clerk looked apprehensive, “I’ll help you in any way I can.”
“If anyone else comes looking for these papers, don’t tell them we were here. We’re playing this treasure hunt game for a family reunion.”
“Okay, then. You know these records are public.”