Chapter 20

There wasn’t any mining involved. The tunnel was already there. It was like standing inside a massive geode. Besides the gold, the crystals were ... almost ... nearly ... just about ... umh ... fuck it, they were so perfect they made a convincing argument for man-made.

Maybe cow faced made ... how about it? Did you guys set us up? Huh? C’mon ... fess up.

I wasn’t ... not Really ... expecting an answer. And I didn’t get one ... not right away.

Except.

The miner started showing up in the middle of my dreams. What ever the action, he was an island of calm in a sea of turmoil. A pastoral peace in the mountain meadow wild flowers. Never drew attention to himself ... he was just ... there. Almost had me convinced that there was one more Holstein black and white in a herd of 25. Then he would do something outrageous ... like ... ignore a heifer in season ... something no self-respecting bull would do.

He might appear out of nowhere ... sitting in a comfy puffy leather recliner while a dozen ravening wolves circled snarling and snapping at the invisible barrier that surrounded him ... keeping him safe while they set upon the weakest or oldest of their pack, tearing the victim to bloody rags.

For a cow, he was awfully thin. Hell. For a human he was thin. He would bedevil my dream and disappear.

“I had the cow dream last night,” Abby would often say ... on the same night as he interrupted me.

“Say anything?” I asked.

“Nope ... just stood there ... grazing,” Abby said.

“Did you say anything?”

“Nope.”

This went on as Abby turned 14... 15... 16. She might be smart ... but she suffered through teenage angst and hormones ... just like she was a real girl. I suffered tantrums and I hate you scenes just like I was a real Dad.

I knew the day she surrendered her V card. She came home glowing.

“Have fun?”

“Oh, Daddy ... it was awful and wonderful and awful wonderful and I enjoyed every second.” She blinked. “Wait. Why am I telling you this?”

“Probably because I’m your best friend ... no matter what. You could always tell me anything. You just forgot for a while.”

She flung herself into my arms and cried and laughed and cried some more. Slowly, I became aware of certain developmentry changes. Changes I hadn’t noticed before.

I put my hands on her shoulders and pushed ... son of a gun ... tits!

“When did these happen?” I looked directly at them. And there was no doubt where I was looking.

“Umh...” she looked down, “They keep growing.”

“And why haven’t I noticed before?”

“Because I wear baggy clothes?”

That wasn’t a decent response and I gave her the Mom look ... so.