Chapter 2: Undetected Metal

Paul pitched the used condom farther into the bushes and leaned down. An area about the size of a quarter, with a mirror-like surface lay exposed in the soft dirt. Paul flipped the switch on the metal detector and passed the head over the object. The needle never moved. He heard no beep in the headphones. After three more passes over the spot of metal he toggled the power switch and removed the headphones. Laying down the metal detector and picking up the spade he carefully cleared the dirt from around the exposed metal.

Careful removal of the dirt exposed the top of a spherical metal object. Paul thought, "Probably and old car bumper." After digging more dirt from around the object Paul could push his fingers under the bottom. A metal ball, about six inches in diameter, popped free from the ground and rolled over to the base of a bush. Paul picked it up and rolled it around in his hands. It wasn't heavy enough to be solid. Paul looked for a seam or some mechanism for opening it, but the surface lacked any imperfection indicating a seam.

Paul thought, "Could something else be buried here?" He started digging around the crater left by the ball. Thirty minutes of digging yielded no other finds. Paul stowed the ball in his backpack, picked up his seemingly worthless metal detector and headed home.

As Paul entered the back door of his home he saw his mother leaning over the stove stirring in a large pot. She looked up at him. "Find anything with your present, Paul?"

He almost said yes, but at the last minute answered her literally.

"No mom, only an old rusty nail." Well, the metal detector didn't find the ball.

"Supper's in thirty minutes."

"OK, I'll be ready, mom." He headed up the stairs to his room passing the open door to his parent's room before heading up the stairs. Going by his younger sister's room, Connie's CD player blaring out Brittany's latest efforts, he opened his door and quickly closed it behind him.

He unzipped the backpack and pulled out the ball. Bouncing it in his hand, he examined it carefully, the polished surface of the ball revealing nothing. His room looked at him in the shiny surface. He stared at his enlarged nose as he turned the ball looking for any break in the surface. It was perfectly smooth.

Two quick raps at his door and Connie popped in.

"Connie, two knocks and coming in is not enough."

"What ya got?" Connie reached out for the ball. She knocked it out of Paul's hand and it rolled under the bed.

"Jez, Connie, can't you slow down for a minute?" He knelt down and looked under the bed. The ball came to rest on top of a rather crusty pair of underwear. "Oh, shit," he thought. He forgot about tossing his cum soaked underwear under the bed last night after jerking off. He grabbed the ball and stood up.

"Well, Paul, what is it?"

"I don't know. I found it buried in the woods just off the path in the back of Simpson Park. I think it's hollow, but I can't see a way to open it. I've twisted and turned it, but it doesn't open?"

She took the ball from him. "Have you tried squeezing it?" She raised her elbows to align her arms and started to push very hard. During Connie's straining Paul couldn't help but notice her lack of a bra. Her nipples popped out her t-shirt as strongly as she squeezed the ball. She suddenly released the pressure expecting the ball to pop open. It didn't.

"Well shit," Connie said and laid the ball on Paul's desk. She leaned over it and shouted, "Well open damn it!"

The ball slowly rose from the tabletop. Paul looked under the ball and saw four small legs had extended and they lifted the ball about two inches off the desk. A dark line appeared around the ball's center, parallel to the floor, and the top of the ball rose above the bottom. As the top rose, it split in the center and the two quarters separated. Opening like a silver flower the top sections stopped exposing the contents.

"Wow!" Connie gasped. Paul stared at the interior of the sphere. Atop a small column lay a gold ring. The column was surrounded by a moat of silver rings. Connie concluded, "It's a jewelry box."

"I don't think so. It's got to be more than that,"

Paul reached in and picked up the gold ring. "I mean, unless you're some kind of mutant with twenty fingers why would you have so many identical rings." He slipped the ring on his finger and looked at it. It was a simple gold band with a faint inscription in what looked like some sort of ancient script.

Connie reached in and picked out two of the silver rings and held them together. "These look just the same." She put one on her finger. She looked at it. "It looks sort of plain, but I like the feel on my finger. Can I keep it?"

"I don't know Connie. I mean these could be valuable."

"So what, it's yours now. You found it, and I promise I won't lose it."

"It's not very attractive. I looks a bit plain."

"I like it, I'm not sure why, but I feels good on my finger."

"Well, I guess. Just try not to lose it."

"Paul, I would never lose something of yours. I will keep in on always," She looked up at him with a smile and a wink. Weird.

"Dinner!" Their mother yelled up the stairs at them.

As Paul was leaving Connie returned to his bed and bent down picking up the cum-stained underwear. "These should be in the hamper. There. Now let's go eat."

Paul walked into the kitchen and his mother said, "Would you set the table?" handing him the silverware

"Here, let me help you," Connie said as she set the last of the glasses on the table.

"Uh, Ok," he said as he handed half the collection to her, and thinking she had never offered to help him set the table before.

He finished laying the last fork and as Connie laid her last knife next to his fork. He noticed she was humming.

"You must have had a good day today."

"Oh, about the same, but I just feel good today," She smiled at him and winked. Paul thought, my sister, who usually has nothing good to say to me just winked at me, again. We're now up to too weird.

"Mom, have you heard from Pam lately," Connie asked her mom.

"She sent me an email this morning. She said that her classes where going well and she was going out on a date Friday night with this young man in her chemistry lab. She said she would leave early Saturday and be here about ten."

"Cool."

As her mother set the spaghetti and meatballs on the table their father came in from outside.

"Greg, put on a dry shirt. Sometimes, I think that the car washes you. Paul's father, Greg Davis, liked his cars clean and shiny. He stopped in his bedroom and put on a dry pullover shirt.

He filled in the last chair, picked up the bowl of spaghetti, and passed it to his wife. He looked at Paul, "So did you get a chance to try out the birthday present?"

"Yes. I went in the woods behind Simpson Park and tried to find something in the grass by the path."

"Find anything."

"Yeah, a rusty old nail."

"May be you could sell it on EBay."

"I could have, if I'd have kept it. I thought I had found some treasure, so when I saw it was a nail I threw it away. I did find something interesting. I found a metal ball half buried in the ground. But the metal detector didn't beep at it. I just happened to spot a shiny spot in the leaves. I brought it home and Connie and I managed to get it open."

"What was in it?" his mother asked.

"A lot of rings, one gold one and maybe twenty silver ones inside." He held up his hand to show the gold ring. Connie showed them the silver one."

His father looked at it and laughed, "It looks like a wedding ring. Make sure you wear it on your right hand. You don't want all the girls at school to think you're married. You'll never get a date.

Their mother said, "Are you sure you should be wearing them? I mean they could have come from anywhere."

"Mom, they were very clean," Connie said, "and it feels very good on my finger. You should try one mom."

Their father looked at them and said, "Paul's might be worth something, some simple gold bands like these are valuable, but Connie's looks like it's made of zinc or aluminum, or something like that. Was there any identifying information on the ball or inside it?"

"This one has some very faint markings, but the silver ones don't have any writing on them," Paul replied.

"Though I think the gold one would look good on Connie. It would match her hair nicely," their mother said.

Connie looked at her mother and rather firmly said, "Mom, Paul deserves the gold ring. I am very happy to wear a silver ring for him."

Her mother took on a puzzled look and said, "Ok," and changed the subject to who had homework tonight.

Paul opened his school backpack, pulled out his books and started working on this homework. He usually had to help clear the table and do the dishes, but had Connie came up and whispered in his ear, "I'll get this. You go up and start your homework." So Paul started working his way through the pile assigned over the weekend. He had worked his way through Algebra, History, and English Lit when he heard a gentle knock on the door.

"Come in."

His mother pushed to door open with a laundry basket. She crossed over to his dresser, and began filing the laundry. After shutting the bottom drawer she came over and sat on Paul's bed. "Where is this ball you found?"

Paul opened the bottom drawer of his desk and handed her the ball. She turned it over and said, "It's so... perfect. How do you open it?"

"I must admit Connie figured this out." He set the ball on the desk, leaned toward it, and barked, "Open!" Down came the little legs. He thought, funny how we always manage to set it down with the legs downward. The top split open and his mother leaned over to look inside.

"Paul this looks like a very expensive. Someone could be looking for this."

"Mom, I don't know how I would start looking for the owner. I can't run an ad in the paper. What would I say I found?"

She reached inside and picked up one of the silver rings. She held it up to the light looking for fine details. She slipped on her finder next to her wedding ring. "Can I have this?"

"Sure mom."

"I think it looks very nice. Well, thank you dear." She stood up, picked up her empty laundry basket, and went to the door. She stopped and said; "I'll come back up and tuck you in later dear." She closed the door.

"Tuck me in?" He thought to himself. It's been years since she tucked him in. Weirdness piled on weirdness.

He went downstairs to watch television before going to bed. His parents and Connie were watching Trading Spaces. Not a show he liked, but he grabbed a Coke and sat down on the other end of the couch from his sister. Just past his sister's end of the couch he could see his father was nodding off.

From the lounger by his end of the couch he heard his mother say, "I would really like to redecorate the Mathews' house."