Chapter 4

We sat astride our horses as they drank from the river and looked at the flat rock wall and the split from where the river was running.

“Opal Anne, I don’t know about you, but this is the way I want to go,” I said pointing towards the wall.

“Me too, husband,” She still called me husband.

We dismounted and waded into the river right up to the rock wall. After examining it, we returned to where the two rivers joined and panned in the other river for a several minutes. The riverbed before the split was composed of a different sort of rock than after the split. There was no lead mud in the open river way and no quartz sand or rock.

“Opal Anne, I think the gold and silver must be coming from the other river.”

“I think you’re right. This could be the way to the source. If it is, we need to talk.”

“About?”

“If we share it with your brothers,” She looked at me with great concern.

“Opal Anne, I’m not sure that I like the way my brothers are living their lives with Betty Mae and Raylene. Me and you are forever. I would just as soon file this claim in our names and then share the wealth with them, until they split up, which I’m sure they will. If this is the source, I want it for our family for all time.”

“I agree, Paul. I won’t share you, but I don’t mind sharing the wealth. If they split up, we can talk again, but this claim stays with us. It’s ours.”

“So, how are we going to find out about the river?”

“I’ll go look at it!” Opal Anne said with a lot of enthusiasm.

Being much smaller than me, Opal Anne tried to see how far into the split she could crawl. The water was about a foot and a half deep, the flow wasn’t extremely fast, so I felt safe in agreeing to her idea. Opal Anne crawled into the split and stopped with her feet just past the threshold of the rock face.

“The area beyond is wide open, Paul. I can’t go any further because the split closes to a tight flat opening. I think we can ride around this wall. The other side isn’t a cave. I can see bright sunlight beyond the wall,” She was getting excited.

She crawled backwards, a wonderful sight, by the by, and soon was back in my arms, shivering.

“Paul, the water is freezing. This must run straight down from the mountains. That means that it might run through gold and silver deposits.”

“If you feel up to it, we can ride around and see where the wall ends and see if we can find the other side.”

“Let’s build a fire first and let me warm up. We can dry my clothes before I freeze to death,” Opal Anne said as she began to strip off her clothes.

“Would you like a blanket, or would you just like to sit there naked and be admired?”

“Admired, Paul?”

“Oh yes, Wife. I tell you that I love you all the time, but Opal Anne, I admire you so much. I admire your heart and your body. I admire your red hair, top and bottom, and I admire the way the cold water hardens your nipples.”

“Do you think the cold water will harden you?”

“Uhm, no. I think not. Past experience with cold water has had the opposite effect.”

I wrapped Opal Anne in a blanket and rubbed her back, warming her. I gave my hands a treat and let them wander under the blanket and all over my wife’s soft skin. She shivered several times and cuddled close.

“This is how I want it to always be between us,” Opal Anne said softly. “I know that Betty Mae and Raylene are married to your brothers, but I don’t feel like they have this,” she cuddled close again, “between them. I’ve known women who could fall in love with two men, but I don’t get the sense that they are in love with each other or their husbands.”

We cuddled together as the fire burned stronger, warming our outsides but not quite as warm as our hearts.

“Would you like to hear something naughty?” she asked with her neck nuzzled into my chest.

“I’m sitting in front of a hot campfire, holding a naked woman, how naughty could it be?”

“You and your brothers are built larger than most men. When I say built, I mean the size of your cocks. My father had a huge cock. I used to sneak in and watch him put it to my mother. I was amazed anything that big could fit into a woman until I learned where the baby comes out. I think that between my daddy’s legacy and you, our sons will be in big demand by any women they get to know.”

“Planning our sons already? What if we have daughters?”

“Then I think that you should be their first like my daddy was mine, and show them what a loving man is like and how to deal with a big dick.”

I stopped rubbing Opal Anne’s back and leaned back a little.

“Your daddy was your first?”

“Yes. When I was thirteen, I was sneaking a look at my mama and daddy, when my mama saw me. She brought me into the bed with them and had my daddy take me. He was strong and gentle and loving. And really big.”

“Opal Anne, maybe that’s why you became a whore.”

“I don’t think so. I mean it’s not like after the one time with my daddy that I went out looking for every cock I could find. I wasn’t with another man until I was almost sixteen. He said that he wanted to marry me, and we ran away together to Wichita. Then after he fucked me a few times, he left me in the hotel room. I found that the hotel was actually a brothel.”

“The woman running the brothel said he skipped out on the room rent and demanded that I pay for the room. I only had one way to do that. So, I let a man take me that day. I gave her the money and she took a portion and gave me a portion. She said her portion was for renting the bed while I fucked the man and as soon as my portion was big enough to pay for the room I had before, I was free to go. It never worked out that I made enough and so I stayed, met Betty Mae and Raylene, and one day we took off and you know the rest.”

I held her tight and returned to stroking her back. I wasn’t sure if I felt sorry for her or that I just plain old loved her to death. Having sex with my own child wasn’t something I had ever thought about. Well to be honest, I never thought about having children at all. When I went off to war I was too young to think that way, and when I was in the war, I never thought I would live through it to plan for a future.

Now I had a wife. Actually, the more I thought about it, I was had by her. She had me. I wouldn’t think of leaving her. I was hers. She had me! A child. I could have a child. A son! A daughter!

“Paul?”

“Oh ... I’m sorry ... what did you say?”

“You were looking off into the air. What were you thinking about?”

“Opal Anne, it just occurred to me. In all my years, I never thought about being married and having children.”

Opal Anne looked at me with her gentle eyes and kissed the tip of my nose.

“Well my dear husband, you need to think about it because it looks like I’ve missed my monthly.”

“You’re what?”

“Paul, you really know nothing of women, do you? Every month a woman bleeds from her pussy. It means that she just lost an egg and that her body is making another, and she will soon be ready to breed. My monthly is as regular as the sun. It should have started last week and didn’t. If it doesn’t start, then it means that I’m with child.”

It was a clear blue-sky day, so I have no idea where that bolt of lightning came from. But come it did, and it hit me square in my heart.

“A child? Me? Us?”

“Yes husband, so if I have to do any more squeezing onto tight places, it better be soon.”

I held her in loving silence for a long time, mostly because I had no idea what to say. Finally, she looked at me and roused me from my thoughts.

“Paul, if we’re gonna try to ride around the rock, we should get started or we won’t get back to camp until after dark.”

“OK. I’ll get the horses ready; you stay naked.”

“What?”

“What?

“Paul O’Dell did you just tell me to stay naked?”

“No, must have been one of these mockingbirds.”

Opal Anne stood and dropped her blanket and held out her arms. I wrapped her in my arms and kissed her.

“Get dressed, Wife. Let’s go see if we can get rich.”

Opal Anne pulled on her under things, britches, and shirt. Then she rolled up the blanket and tied it onto her horse. When I was done with the horses, I doused the fire with water from the river and spread the ashes. A wildfire out here would travel fast and kill us all. When it was truly out, we mounted up and headed to the right side of the rock wall.

The trees and brush were thick and very soon we found it easier to dismount and lead the horses. After about a hundred yards of scrapes and tree limbs to the face the wall ended. We turned left and followed the rock wall as the brush cleared and the ground rose up before us.

We remounted and our sure-footed horses soon found the way around the rock and into a large open area with a large pool of water fed by a waterfall. The waterfall! The top of it was a good three hundred feet up and the crown of it shone gold in the late afternoon sunlight.