At something less than half a pound, Nate was not sure if it was bigger than the Patricia Emerald or the Gachala, both from Colombia, but it was in that league.
He had called the girls up to the mine shaft to hold more flashlights on the spot. He became the mining equivalent of an oral surgeon careful to make his final yank on his patient's unnecessary wisdom tooth both precise and bloodless; a professional extraction that would take all of the green mineral, partially embedded in ore, out in one piece.At first he used several different sizes of chisels at a great distance from the prize to break it away from the surrounding ore. Then made a parallel hole to determine the depth of the beryl with a water infused drill. He spent a long time looking into that hole and picking at pieces of stone that the drill left loose but did not flush out.
He drilled another hole and another until holes radiated around the beryl locked since eternity with the ore that had molded its fate to perhaps one of the most valuable gems ever discovered.
Finally, he inserted what looked like a common crowbar behind the mass and popped it out catching it at the edge of the hole and dropping the crowbar, taking it gingerly with both hands.
They sat by the bank of the stream, the four of them, creating adorations for the stone as washing it brought forth its true magnitude and left no one jaded.
"This is the baby Jesus of gems,"he told them softly, and made a cradle for it in his hands.
He chronicled the Gachala and the Princess for them and about how much larger emeralds- one weighing several tons had been found but not of gem quality.Then he noticed the trapiche, the sugar cane spokes beginning to fire their way to the surface and he pointed them out to Dolores and he only laughed.
Of course, the girls understood and Dory surprised herself saying:"and who gets the money for this one?"
"This one is priceless."
"Everything has a price."
"Yes ,"he said, with tired ecstasy, "everything has a price. Believe me when I tell you that there is more money here than any of us could spend in our lifetimes."
"And how do you know how much money I can spend in my lifetime?"
"You can start a foundation and have money for many worthwhile causes for the rest of your lives. In fact there is so much here... I don't have any details but after I make sure Dolores is comfortable,and after we all buy everything we could ever dream of then we could set up my a foundation if we want too. And while we'll all live like a fat cats- won't it be infinitely more interesting to give this money away than buying more things than we need."
"And you just thought this up?"
"It's the heat of the moment," he said tearing up and beginning to cry openly,"Maybe it will pass. Sure I'll have the best of everything but if we let this stuff out so that we don't flood the world market we may have... we may have...
a billion dollars here. Now what am I going to do with a billion dollars ? Or more for christ sake? " He was crying openly now and Dolores was signing calmly and he signed back to her and she began to rub his back so overtaken was he with this flood of emotions that he brought the four of them down with him and they all began to cry at the outlandish fate they had been presented with. Fate and responsibility and the turn their lives must now take when a cracking sound pervaded the jungle and threw them all onto their backs.
Trees snapped everywhere. Another c-rack! And great giants of trees wobbled in every direction.
"I think," shouted Nate, I think it is an earthquake! Head for the cabin for the clearing. The land continued to roll with each successive aftershock and they made whoozy, drunken strides with equilibrium lost as if on a wild carnival ride finally arriving at the center of the garden and the CAMPARI table . None of the plants were damaged and as the after shocks continued trees swayed and branches fell. The forest was the last place anyone wanted to be.
"I'm going to try to get the radio," said Nate and staggered like a drunk man against the aftershocks that seemed to be occurring at one or two minute intervals.
He returned with the radio on to HCJV, they are talking about Apartment buildings falling down in the capital and telling people to go to Parque Carolina which held a million people when the Pope visited. The announcer is hysterical. Now he is saying that the Epicenter was Reventador, that their were two earthquakes of of 6.9 and one of 6.1 and that it caused the Volcano to blow. The Napo region - us - is not reporting and it is feared that all is lost."
He signed all this to Dolores who calmed down rather than panicked.
"What about Gustavo ?" asked Nina.
"These announcers are hysterical. I have plenty of batteries but I'm going to turn this thing off for awhile to conserve our sanity. How could they be getting these reports so fast. Maybe by divine intervention?"
What about Gustavo," she repeated.
"We'll have to wait and see.I believe that he made it. He's out there scared shitless somewhere and if he doesn't show up by sundown. I...We will go look for him. Tomorrow morning. We''ll do a portage with the canal canoe. No problem.
Let's move down to the dock.
"Here's what you got to think about now," he said after everyone sat. "There will be shortages of food and water everywhere else in Ecuador and thanks to our Black Dirt that will never be an issue for us. The cabin is safe because it is built on pillars that only shifted about six inched and broke a couple of plates. So we will have a roof over our heads for as long as we need it. I'm pretty sure I stored in enough beer and rum.Sorry much for the trivial but I like a few creature comforts. We have fish in our lake and as near as I can tell because of the circuitous and lengthy route our yacu takes to get up here whatever is going on in the outside world will not affect us- at least not for a long time.(I'm guessing here.) But the biggest deal of all, if it's true what the guy said that the Salado- Lago agrio section of the Trans-Ecuadorian highway, about 75 miles was totally wiped out in a mud slide from Reventador which means that Benecio will be stuck in his Gringo Chili - his restaurant serving American road workers- for the next three months or so. I don't know that for sure but that's exactly where he lives.
Now I'm thinking that this information could be accurate because there are oil pumping stations all along that road and right now my guess is that they are spewing amazon crude like fire hoses befouling land , man and beast with black ooze, but they have sophisticated communications and would be the only ones who would have instant information like that. So Ding Dong The witch is Dead ! The Wicked Witch is Dead ! I'll bet my fortune we don't have to worry about Benecio anymore.We really don't have to worry about anything anymore. Look, I've even socked in a pretty elaborate first aide kit should we need it.
Dory muttered something in Dutch.
"What was that?" he asked
"If you know how to deliver babies," said Nina softly.
"I'm not sure what to make of that remark."
"Make nothing," said Nina, "Make nothing."
Ok, so I, m throwing an earthquake party, C'mon Dory make lemonade out of your lemons. Nothing to be done.So we can sit out until sunset and I'll get the folding chairs and the radio and a bottle of rum and groove to the aftershocks and wait for Gustavo.
Nate was smiling broadly when he returned to the dock carrying folding chairs and glasses and a bottle of Jose Cuervo deciding it to be a better choice than the rum for such an ocassion and some limes in his pants pockets, a shaker of salt in his shirt pocket, a knife between his teeth and of course the radio which he had retrieved from the garden table. He sat out each chair playing the fool as a maitre d' and with a slight stumble kicked the radio into the water along with the third chair. He jumped in after it and after several dives brought it up tannic water draining from every orifice in the device.
Disgusted with himself, he gave the radio a good shake and still more water came out. Then he tried to turn it on. A blurt of calming music came out-
Then all was quiet.
"Always Strauss," said Dory,"In times of trouble they feed Strauss to the masses to calm them down."
"Fucking hell,"said Nate.
"Fucking hell is right , "said Dory, "Now we are just as well in the silent world of Dolores. And just as well in prison...And we are some of the richest people on earth.We could just as well only know sign language for what we will hear of the world...maybe the radio will dry out. And what would we do with the information anyway ?Ah,gotfadamma! Cmon Nate, put your chair next to mine."
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