Chapter 15

William took to riding a horse as if he had been born on the back of one. By the third day of their trip, William and Dale seldom left Ed’s side. William had learned an incredible amount of information about the desert. Dale discovered a wealth of information about rocks. The transferal of knowledge was occurring in the old fashioned manner, from the elder to the younger through demonstration and practice.

Ed knelt by the outcropping and pointed to the four-inch wide layer of rock. As his hand traced the vein, he said, “If you follow this back, you’ll find that it disappears into the ground about thirty yards over there.”

“How deep does it go?” asked Dale.

“Hard to say. You see how it’s getting narrower across this ten-foot section. It could continue that way and disappear after another hundred feet. On the other hand, it could get thicker. We’d have to study the rest of the geology and take some core samples to know more,” answered Ed with a smile.

“So this wouldn’t be worth mining even if the rock were of some value?”

“Estimate the dimensions of the vein and do the calculation. For it to be worth mining, you need to know if it will make money. The total amount the vein is worth, less the costs of getting it out of the ground, will tell you how much money a mine will generate,” answered Ed.

“Is that it?” asked Dale wondering if he had missed something. It sounded too simple.

“Basically.”

“It sounds like anyone can do it,” said Dale wondering how Ed had made so much money performing surveys.

“After we return from this trip, I’ll introduce you to Terry. If he agrees that you have potential, he’ll take you on one of the surveys. He runs my consulting company and oversees the mine,” said Ed thinking that it would be a good introduction to the business side of rocks.

“You own a mine? I thought you cared about the environment,” grunted Dale. He’d seen more than a few mines in the area and had observed the damage to the environment that resulted. He looked at Ed with disgust before turning away.

“Withhold your judgment until you see it,” said Ed with a grin. His mine had recently won an environmental award from a very aggressive anti-industrial environmental group. The comment from the award committee was that they had driven past it four times before realizing where it was.

“Or don’t see it as the case might be,” said William.

“Don’t see it?”

“Most people can’t find it because the environmental impact is so low,” explained William.

Dale grunted and then turned to watch Nathan trying to ride one of the horses. The soldier was having problems getting a feel for the horse beneath him and the boot on his artificial leg kept slipping out of the stirrup. Dan was busy keeping the horse under control.

Frowning when Nathan slid off the back of the horse after Dan had led it forward five steps, Dale said, “Nathan sure is uncoordinated when it comes to riding a horse. What’s his problem?”

“You didn’t notice that he has an artificial leg?” asked William with an amused smile.

Dale turned to look at William in disbelief. He hadn’t noticed Nathan limping along like a man with an artificial leg. He said, “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope. Lost his leg about eight months ago,” answered Ed as he looked over the face of the outcropping. There were a few little crystals embedded in an unusual matrix that had attracted his attention.

“Better get him off that horse before he kills himself,” said Dale watching the man stubbornly remount the horse.

“He’ll either quit or master riding the horse. Right now, I’m not sure which one it will be,” replied Ed without turning to look at the action behind him.

Dale watched Nathan guide his feet into the stirrups. Once he knew what to look for, it was easy to see which leg was missing. It was the one that he had the most difficulty getting into the stirrup. Concerned, he said, “Maybe I should try to help him.”

Distracted by the crystals, Ed replied, “Nope. Dan is helping him. You need to get back here and look at this rather interesting sample.”

“Aren’t you concerned?”

“No,” replied Ed looking over his shoulder in time to see Nathan slip off the horse. It looked painful, but the look on the soldier’s face was grim and determined.

“Why not?” asked Dale.

“Because, I’ll stop them when they try something stupid,” answered William.

“Like what?”

“Like when they try to tie his boot into the stirrup,” said William turning to face Dale with a grin.

“They wouldn’t?”

“Neither one of them knows better,” said William. He turned away to watch a hawk floating across the sky. He’d been seeing hawks flying in their general direction all afternoon.

“They are coming to see you,” said Dale shaking his head in wonder. The trip had been a continuous visitation by desert animals. On the first night of the trip, coyotes had visited them. Smaller desert animals had gathered along their path. Birds of all kinds had visited them. Each time, there had been a very short acknowledgement of William given by the animal before disappearing.

“They are coming to see us,” corrected William turning to look at Dale.

“I have been here eighteen years and know them all. They are coming to meet you,” said Dale wondering when the snakes were going to make their appearance.

Making his voice loud enough to carry the fifty yards to where Dan was helping Nathan learn to ride, William shouted, “Dan, don’t even consider it!”

The engineer turned to look up at William and shouted, “I was only going to suggest that we tie his boot in the thingy.”

“It’s called a stirrup! You’ll break his neck if you tie his boot in the stirrup,” shouted William.

Nathan and Dan exchanged a few words. Dan looked up at where William was seated and shook his head wondering how the boy knew what he had been about to suggest to Nathan. He muttered, “First, it’s a dynamo on legs and now a mind reader.”

“The kids are something else,” agreed Nathan knowing exactly what Dan meant, “but he doesn’t read minds.”

“What does he do?”

“He sees the future,” answered Nathan, “and talks to animals.”

“Even better,” groaned Dan wondering when the kid was going to tell him how he was going to die. A shiver when through his body at the idea of knowing the future with some certainty.

“Have you met the other two kids?” asked Nathan.

“No.”

“All of them are brilliant,” said Nathan.

“Think one of them would come up with a way for you ride?”

Glaring at the horse, Nathan answered, “Probably. In fact, I have no doubt William already knows what I need to do.”

Looking over at the outcropping where Ed was showing some feature to Dale, Dan wondered why William hadn’t come down to show them. Shaking his head, he said, “I doubt it. He’d have told us if he knew what you needed to do.”

“I don’t think so,” replied Nathan as he struggled to get back into the saddle. He looked down and eased his boot into the stirrup. Allowing some of his frustration to show, he said, “They will give hints, but they won’t tell you outright what you need to do. William is the worst at that.”

“Why?”

“They want you to grow. No matter what you’re doing, they want you to grow as a result of trying and succeeding,” explained Nathan. He’d come to that conclusion after some of the strange tasks that Ed had assigned him.

“What if you ask them straight out?” asked Dan as he started to lead the horse forward. He watched as Nathan’s foot slipped out of the stirrup and the soldier started to tumble. Grasping the bridle, he halted the horse and allowed Nathan to recover his balance. He suggested, “Get off the horse for a minute. I don’t think the problem is with the stirrup thingie, but with your prosthetic.”

The suggestion took the soldier by surprise and he dismounted the horse to check his artificial leg. After walking around for a moment and inspecting it, his prosthetic seemed to be functioning perfectly as far as he could tell. Looking over at Dan, he said, “No, it’s fine.”

Looking around, Dan found a flat rock and said, “Stand on that rock with your heels hanging off the edge.”

It was a simple request and Nathan went over to the rock. A look of surprise crossed his face when his foot slipped off the rock. He asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Your prosthetic is designed to support your weight on the heel, rather than the front of your boot,” said Dan.

“This is the one that Catherine designed for me. I guess I’ll have to tell her about that. It’s clearly a design flaw,” said Nathan.

“I see you discovered the problem,” observed William from behind Nathan.

Nathan spun around and looked at the boy. Raising an eyebrow, he asked, “Did you know?”

“Nope. I’m sure that Beth would have spotted it right off, but she understands mechanical things much better than I,” answered William looking down at the boot with curiosity. He was surprised that Catherine had missed such a detail. He wondered if the distribution of forces through the heel was intentional.

Relaxing a little, Nathan said, “Oh.”

“I hate to say this, but that could be rather dangerous when hiking around out here,” said Dan thinking about what would happen if Nathan tried to climb a rocky slope.

Nodding his agreement, William said, “We’ll tell Daddy Ed when he’s done. For now, I wouldn’t do any climbing.”

“I can get by,” said Nathan, his old training that he could overcome any obstacle returning to him. It was just a matter of willpower.

“You’ll break your neck with that attitude,” said Dan. Seeing the look the soldier gave him, he said, “You’re forgetting that it’s your equipment at fault, not you.”

It was a timely reminder and one that Nathan needed to hear. He was trained to think that he could push his body to overcome the environment. Shaking his head, Nathan said, “You’re right.”

A day later, Ed found himself alone at the base of the mesa checking out the rocks. He stopped and turned to look around his surroundings. He was twenty feet above the level of the desert and a hundred yards from the camp. Off to the side, William and Dale had wandered fifty yards from camp and were kneeling next to a scrub brush. He couldn’t tell what animal they were meeting, but he was sure that something had come by for them. Dale had mentioned snakes that morning.

Nathan and Dan were in the camp talking. It was good to see the two men relaxing. Nathan had decided that it was best to stay off the horse and on level ground. For the first time since leaving the hospital, he found that he had nothing to prove. It was a pleasure to just to relax. Dan, not exactly an outdoorsman, was content to sit around camp and enjoy his surroundings.

Ed took a seat and looked out at the desert around him. His thoughts turned to how he had been living his life since the death of John Carter. He’d been drifting along allowing himself to be diverted by one thing or another. It had been a while since he had visited the Phoenix office of the IRS. He hadn’t even called on the University to get his old position back. He wanted to hit himself when he realized that he’d even forgotten to put up the funding for the new parking structure.

Leaning back, he took a deep breath as the realization came over him that he hadn’t been of much service to the Two-Sided One since John’s death. A sinking feeling settled in his stomach at the thought. He was a servant of the truth and self-truth was the hardest of all truths for him to ignore. John had died almost five months ago. Since then, he had been coping with, rather than managing, his troubles.

The death of John had left a huge gap in the family and they had no one to fill that gap. He realized that the family was unbalanced and that he was probably the last one to recognize that fact. No one had mentioned the need for another man to join the family. He thought, ‘They’re avoiding the subject because of me.’

It was a sobering thought that the family was willing to suffer because of how he might react. Looking down at the camp, he knew they had missed an opportunity with Dan. The young man had all the qualities they wanted in a family member. He had risked his life to rescue a young girl and proved himself a hero. He was smart, witty, kind, and gentle.

Looking over at William, he considered how little time was left before the boy went off to the Native American College for two years. They would only have a couple of months together. The same was true for Little John and Beth. He realized it had been ages since he had joined them in playing a game of Hunt the Bug- eyed Monsters. He felt that the kids had been growing up too fast, but he was part of the problem. The death of John had caused him to act like an old man.

Thinking about it reminded him of how much John enjoyed playing with the children. It was more than just the fact that the children had fun. John enjoyed the games with the same exuberance as the children. John had often dragged him into the games despite his protests. Even though he hadn’t admitted it aloud, Ed had enjoyed every minute.