Panning for Trouble: Part Three

            We’re back!

            Here’s the conclusion of our wild adventure in Grizzly.

            To say that we ran until we couldn’t run anymore is an understatement. A more proper statement would be “we ran until our legs became jell-o packs”. That describes Trevor and I much more accurately than the first sentence. We were tired.

            And scared. It’s one thing to spend a night on our own private island in a cave, we’re familiar with the territory and know that any animals on the island are ones we brought with us. It’s quite another to spend it in a cave on a slope in rural California, when you don’t know if the sound outside was a bear or a crazy Deputy who wants to take your gold claim and time machine.

The cave in daylight.

            Needless to say, as tired as we were we had a hard time getting to sleep.

            “This is probably one of the longest nights of my life,” I complained. The cave was dark and we didn’t dare light a fire, we’d worked so hard to escape the Deputy that we didn’t want to signal him to find us.

            “I thought you said the night in Yellowstone was the longest.”

            Trevor sat five feet away from me and I couldn’t even see his figure, let alone his face. But I could tell just from his tone he had that grumpy fish look again. Poor guy, he’d been so fired up to go and strike a claim just like real miners. He was sure we’d strike it rich and then we could buy more material for his latest invention, some sort of portal contraption. Then that mean Deputy had to crash our party and ruin it for us.

            “Yeah, the night in Yellowstone was pretty scary,” I admitted. “It would have helped if you hadn’t told me Yellowstone is basically a super volcano just waiting to explode.”

            “Hey, I was just warning you not to go poking holes in the ground. That’s how I caused it to explode two thousand years earlier.”

            I had to giggle at that. “Ah, but remember, you weren’t just poking holes in the ground, you were sticking charges of dynamite in to see if you could alter Ol’ Faithful's water spout.”

            “At least that was more successful then this gold trip.”

            There it was. He’d said it. Like I’d guessed, he was disappointed. I didn’t help it much, what with my complaints and all. I cringed with guilt, and then cleared my throat. “Look Trevor, it’s not all over. We don’t go home until tomorrow, perhaps we can find a new place to look for gold.”

            Silence. Then a grunt. “And let our Deputy friend take it from us? Not likely.”

            I could tell he wasn’t in the mood for discussing this tonight, so I settled back against the wall and sighed. “Well, I guess we can talk about it tomorrow?” My question rang dead in the cave as no answer came from my friend. “Good night, Trevor.”

            We had a long day ahead of us. I had to try to sleep.

~oOo~

            I’d tossed and turned most of the night. Every twenty minutes or so I’d jolt awake and sit up, then lay back down and fall into another restless sleep.

            That kinda left me in the mood Trevor found me in the morning. In other words, you don’t stick beetles in girl’s faces when they’re waking up, no matter how cool and amazing they look. Trevor being Trevor of course didn’t know that, and found out a little too soon that was not to my liking. I screamed.

            “Augh!” Trevor groaned, dropping the beetle to cover his ears. “Lassie, you scream like a banshee!” We heard some rocks fall farther back in the cave and Trevor added, “Plus you almost caused the cave to fall in on itself.”

            “That wasn’t funny, Trevor!” I growled. Light was streaming into the cave and I caught sight of the giant pine beetle crawling towards me. I squished it with my foot.

            “Hey!” Trevor leapt up, his green eyes flashing. “What’s the big idea? You just killed my really awesome beetle!”

            I opened my mouth to reply but Trevor whirled around and stomped farther into the cave. Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t have squished his bug. But he shouldn’t have stuck it in my face, either.

            I can’t wait until we go back to Hawaii. I yawned and stretched my arms, then wondered what time it was. Hopefully we’ll be leaving soon.

            I then remembered we hadn’t found any gold. A streak of guilt passed through me and I shook my head to clear my thoughts. You really haven’t been that nice to Trevor, Marin. I chided myself. After all, he did step in front of you when that Deputy aimed his gun. That was a noble thing to do- Trevor isn’t a naturally brave sort of man and to be so bold was rare. And I just killed his beetle. Yeah, I could see why he was mad at me. Guess I should go make up with him.

            I stood up and walked deeper into the cave, the dark closing in on me as I left the light behind. Scary. I wasn’t sure how far Trevor had gone in, so I called, “Trevor, where are you?”

            My voice echoed off the walls and some more rocks showered down. I covered my head to protect myself, and looked down on the ground. It can’t be. I blinked, sure my eyes were playing tricks on me. Among the rocks my voice had shaken loose, something shined brighter than the others. I reached down to pick it up and gulped as I turned the golden rock in my hands. It is! 

            “Trevor!” I cried. “Get over here! I found something!” No response, but I could hear him shuffling towards me. “Hurry up, you’re gonna love this!” More rocks fell and I looked up at the ceiling of the cave. I caught my breath as my eyes noted there was a vein of shining gold.
My shouts must’ve loosened the rocks covering it! “Come on Trevor!”

            “I’m coming, I’m coming,” the Scotsman grumbled, immerging into the dim light to where I was. “What is it?”

            I shoved the precious metal into his hand and grinned. “Oh, just a little something to say I’m sorry.”

            At first Trevor glanced it over without much interest. He opened his mouth to say something, then his eyes widened and he looked down at it again. “Wait a second,” he gasped, “this, this is-”

            “Gold.”

            The voice of the adversary we were sure we’d left behind caused both of us to jump and face the Deputy. He had his gun drawn and that nasty smirk on again as he stepped towards us.

            “You two gave me a good chase all night,” he said, cocking the gun, “and I was ready to give up. Now I’m glad I didn’t, looks like you two found the mother lode!”

            “And you aren’t getting it from us!” Trevor snarled, shoving the piece of gold into his pocket. “Future self, remember to come here earlier!”

            I froze and stared at Trevor. “Trevor!” I cried. How could he say that in front of the Deputy?

            Like magic, the vein above us disappeared and hundreds of rocks appeared on the ground. The Deputy stumbled back, his eyes wide and his mouth open as he surveyed the phenomenon that had just happened.

            I face palmed and glanced at my mentor, who winked and let a grin plaster his face.

            “How, what, how,” the Deputy stammered. He continued to stare at the ground, then he jerked his head up and glared at Trevor. “You!”

            “Okay, let’s not get too hasty.” Trevor chuckled nervously, grabbing my hand and stepping back.

            “I don’t know how you did it, but I’m gonna make you pay!”

            I screeched as the Deputy pulled back the hammer on the gun and aimed at Trevor. I didn’t dare look, I closed my eyes and squeezed Trevor’s hand as the gun went off. Oh dear God, please help us! I prayed.

            I expected to feel Trevor fall next to me, but nothing happened.

            This is weird… I chanced a peak and then stared. The cave had given way to a beautiful, lush green landscape. The ocean lay about a mile away and a mountain loomed above us. It took me a second to realize where we were, then I squealed and hugged Trevor.

            “You didn’t tell me 4T was set to return us so fast!” I exclaimed.

            Trevor grinned again and switched the subject. "Future self did a great job getting right to work on the gold vein."

             “I cannot believe how bad you are,” I scolded. “You talked about your future self right in front of the Deputy. What if he’d figured it out?”

            He laughed and sat down in the grass, sighing. “So good to be back. And we found gold!” he smiled and ran his fingers through his hair. “As to your questions, I’d set 4T to take us back at eight in the morning. I’d figured we would have had enough time to find gold and be ready to go by then.” He paused and looked towards the mountain. “I must say, our island beats a gold town any day.”

            “I agree.” I sat down next to my friend and gazed up at the mountain. “I thought for sure that Deputy shot you.”

            Trevor waved it off. “Nah, I knew we didn’t have but a minute left on the time machine, so I took advantage of it and figured that lawman would be so confused when the gold disappeared right in front of him that he wouldn’t fire right away.” He winced and muttered, “But that kinda was cutting it close.”

            “I’ll say!”

            He smirked and stood up, checking his watch. “Well, no time like the present,” he said, his green eyes twinkling. “Time for me to go back to tomorrow and get the gold from the cave. Otherwise that shot might just kill me after all. Did you want to come?”

            I shook my head. “No, I think I’ve panned for enough trouble already without having to mine for it, too.”

            Trevor just laughed.

The End