Chapter 19

As Hawk would say later, “The rest of the afternoon went surprisingly easy. Well, I guess when you’re moving almost eight tons of gold, easy is a relative term.”

Zed returned with the lumber and stuff, and the frame was quickly built as Dan had envisioned it. While Dan and the women helped with the frame Jason found the easiest way to get to the canyon and the slope of the wall was ideal for what they planned to do. The other men took the hand truck into the mine and started moving the items to be extracted to the shaft that held the hoist.

When Jason looked at the overall setup he called Andy and Maria. They already had the truck and the boxes, and at that moment they were shopping at the thrift store. Jason told them to purchase what they’d already selected and return to where they had been parked that morning. While waiting for them it was decided to go ahead and move some of the boxes to the canyon.

At first they used the winch to bring a box up. That box would be stacked to the side of the shaft. When the stack got big enough they’d stop the winch and disconnect everything. They’d then move the ATV around, backing the trailer up to the boxes. The boxes would be placed on the trailer until it was as heavy as the ATV or the trailer could handle. Then the ATV would be driven over to the top of the canyon wall. The boxes were lowered to the canyon floor and stacked there. They expected to load them in the truck when it arrived. It only took two cycles before Dan said, “Stop. This arrangement is for the birds. We’ve got to make this easier, or we’ll still be doing this on Christmas.”

After thinking a minute he said, “The real problem is we only have one ATV and one winch. My thinking is we use the pulleys like we did with the stone and lift the boxes out by hand. Then we can swing the box onto the trailer without setting it on the ground to stack, un-stack and re-stack. We need two people below attaching the boxes, and two up here working the block and tackle, The driver can swing the box into the trailer and unfasten it from the pulley. We need to use two people to lower the boxes to the pull-out ramp of the truck. A third person at the truck could then use the hand truck to move the box into the truck. Not only would this be smoother, but the people on the shaft end could rest when the truck was being loaded. Conversely, the people at the canyon end could rest while another load was being lifted out of the mine. Does that make sense?”

Dan looked around, and everyone’s eyes appeared glazed over. He’d done it again. Sometimes it was hard when you can see something so easily in your head, but have such difficulty in translating what you see so others can visual it. Jason placed his hands on Dan’s shoulders, and said, “Son, it’s obvious to me you understand what needs to be done here. Just put our feet and hands in the right spots and tell us what to do.”

So Dan started at the mine end of the operation and modified the hoist to use the block and tackle, rather than a single pulley and the winch. By the time they’d started off loading directly onto the trailer Andy arrived with the truck. Dan got the rest of the crew to ride with someone around to the canyon. They off loaded the furniture and the boxes. When that was complete, two of the men held the ramp above the level of the truck while Jason backed the truck toward the canyon wall. He continued backing until the ramp was firmly buried into the side of the canyon. They left Julian and Brenda behind to load the truck and to assemble boxes. The rest rode back to the forestry service road where they’d parked earlier.

There was a little modification needed, but Dan’s idea worked like a charm. In less than three hours all the gold was loaded on the big truck while all the other boxes and the steamer trunks were loaded in Zed’s trailer. The hoist frame was partially disassembled and the pieces were lowered into the tunnel. Finally, the big rock was moved back into place and the smaller rocks were placed on and around it. After checking for anything left behind they loaded up and headed for Phoenix.

Since he had to be taken back to the airport in Flagstaff, Dan rode with Hawk and Maria.

While they rode Dan made a strange observation, “Though it was a mild sunny day we didn’t see any snakes, not even among the rocks.” They all agreed it was unusual, but no one could imagine why. When they dropped Dan off he advised them he’d see them later in the week. He also made a suggestion they just lease the truck on a month to month rental basis until they were ready to do something with the gold.

On the way back everyone stopped and ate at the same place where Jason and Hawk had stopped on the way up. The short ribs had been added to the menu, and the group ate all the short ribs they had in the building. While they ate Maria told them of Dan’s suggestion, and everyone agreed it was an excellent idea. Also, they thought everything in Zed’s trailer should go to his barn for storage, but that was revised when Hawk said he wanted to continue looking through the trunks. Because of their decisions, they determined it made no sense for everyone to go to the reservation, so they’d be splitting up when they got to Phoenix. The two trunks were moved to Jason’s pickup, and everyone got back on the road. The rest of the trip was uneventful until Hawk and Maria arrived back at the apartment. Andy had wanted to spend the night with Jason, so it was just the two of them.

When they walked toward the apartment door Maria saw something stuck in the edge of the door. She ran to see what it was, and then started crying. Hawk got the door open, got her to the sofa, and pulled her close to comfort her. He slowly took the paper from her hand and read it. It was from the apartment complex, advising her that, because of all the extra people and the complaints of loud noises early that morning, her lease was being terminated. She was given ten days to move. Hawk pulled her closer and rubbed her back, letting her cry out her emotions.

Finally she said, “I haven’t even had my new mom and my new sister for even forty-eight hours, and they get me kicked out of my home. It isn’t fair!”

“Chipmunk, I don’t think they can enforce the ten days, but we’ll get Deke or somebody on it Monday. Besides, yesterday Jason and I decided we needed to find a ranch to buy between here and the Superstitions.”

“But I don’t want to keep bothering them for everything that happens, and why a ranch?”

“First, my little Chipmunk, I’ve guaranteed them a minimum in annual billings of five hundred thousand. Besides our being friends we’re their primary client. At their rate, if we need them to sweep the sidewalk, they’ll do it. As for the ranch, we decided we needed something larger, with fewer neighbors, and still close enough to get broadband Internet. We chose that location as being more in the middle between school and your grandfather’s house.”

“Can we get something that quickly? I hear people at school talk about it taking months or even years.”

“It can, Chipmunk, but it doesn’t have to. Especially when you’ve got cash to spend. When that word gets around the real estate people will boil out of their offices like fire ants out of a disturbed anthill.”

“You know, I’m starting to like that.”

“What, the idea of a ranch?”

“No. You calling me Chipmunk.”

“Last night I told your grandfather that instead of fighting like cats and dogs we’d fight like hawks and chipmunks.”

She hit him on the arm, and said, “My advice to you is not to quit your day job.”

Teasingly, Hawk replied, “But, I don’t have a day job.”

“Then don’t get one. It really was cute, in a strange sort of way. As for buying a ranch, I like the idea. What would we raise?”

“How about children, starting with the one presently in your womb?’

“Wow! That was a positive affirmation.”

“My dear wife, naturally I’d prefer it was mine, but, under the circumstances, I’ll raise him, or her, as if they were. Unless they check DNA no one outside of our group will ever know it’s Robert’s child. I just hope being a violent asshole isn’t hereditary.”

“What else will we raise?”

“How about raising hell against everyone that has screwed over the Apache in the past?”

“I definitely like that idea. Anything else?”

“Probably a few horses and some beef cattle, mostly for our own use. We might have a garden and a few chickens. I’d like us to be as self-sustaining a community as we can be. The less folks see of us the better. We may even let people think we’re the hired hands.”

“That makes sense, especially if our biggest crop will be ‘hell.’ Where do you plan on starting, my mighty brave?”

“Research and Education will be first. The research is part of the reason for the Broadband Internet. The education will come from you and Jason. I want to know what it means to be an Apache. Not just intellectually, but in the very core of my being. I want to be everything, Robert Gray Hawk wasn’t.”

“In some ways, you already are.”

“Thank you. I am trying. Not having to choose between you and Brenda helps a lot. Now, back to what we were discussing. We will also be directing the research of others. I want a legal team that can drag every case to the Supreme Court if it has to. I want to find a way to hit them over every wrongful death, every shady deal, and every broken treaty. As I told Jason, we’re going to war against the whites who’ve shown themselves to be our enemy. We will fight as Apache, but in their world and with their weapons, or those of our own making.”

“You are getting fired up, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am. I want to create new, meaningful jobs for our people. Jobs for which they can hold their head up in pride. I want to stimulate that pride, with a lot of propaganda and competition. Along with that will be the converse, spreading indignation and anger among both Apache and whites over the abuses of power that have been used against us. We’ll work, coerce, and even bribe to have quality movies made showing some of the atrocities that have been perpetrated by the whites. I may even want to investigate the possibility that the Indian is a separate race of people, possibly from another planet.”

“Now, my smart and wise husband, isn’t that idea a little far-fetched?”

“Not as much as you might think. Do you know why your grandfather had little worry about my body rejecting his blood?”

“No.”

“It’s because his blood is O negative, meaning it’s absent of all the typing and other blood agents. Virtually anyone can receive O negative blood without a reaction. There are some other areas that are best matched also, but for the most part that’s a sound medical observation.”

“OK, if you say so. I follow what you say, but I don’t understand what this means.”

“Just stay with me, here. World wide the population with O negative blood is around six to seven percent. If you remove the Indians of North and South America from that statistic it drops to less than four percent. On the other hand, the percentage of full-blooded Indians that have O negative blood is so close to one hundred percent it’s statistically irrelevant.”

“So, our blood is different from virtually the entire rest of the world? That is interesting, and it does leave a lot of room for conjecture, if nothing else. But what about that land bridge they keep harping about?”

“Chipmunk, what if there was one, but the migration was in the other direction?”

“But why is the current view the only one that’s taught?”

“Because much of the scientific community today has lost its focus. It’s accepted things like evolution as fact without room for questioning. Now, I’m not saying God, or someone, or something, designed all this. But when an unproven theory becomes the foundation of much of our sciences, accepting its unproven tenets without question and ignoring anything that doesn’t fit the theory, then the whole thing becomes a house of cards. What’s worse is we’re training our researchers not to question.”

“How’s that?”

“First, in schools, anyone who questions anything within the current accepted standards is ridiculed and made to feel stupid. By the time the person graduates he or she has learned to just accept the ‘theory de jour’ as fact. It’s even worse when the only proof that can be offered is based on circular reasoning.”

“‘Theory de jour’? I’ve never heard of it.”

“It means theory of the day or the latest ‘fad’ theory. Think of it as ‘women’s fashion science.’“

She grinned as she said, “Careful! Now, you’ve gone from preaching to meddling.”

Hawk laughed, and continued, “As a result of all this we do very little pure research anymore. At least, when compared to the past. Too much of our research is designed to prove a theory, not to just investigate to see what is really happening. It’s my belief people like Da Vinci would roll over in their graves if they saw the sorry state of scientific research today. The original idea of what they called the scientific method was to try to prove a theory to be incorrect, modifying said theory as they learned more. When they could no longer find an exception, then it became a scientific law.”

“Hawk, I know you’re a genius, and all this is interesting, but what does it have to do with the Apache?”

“Because the Apache is traditionally a guerrilla warrior, he doesn’t sweep in to conquer, but he chips away at the enemy. From what I’ve already learned the entire tribal concept of the Apache way of life is the small group. This is one of the reasons the government was able to take control so easily. We’ve no real sense of union. To change this will take years, maybe even generations. Therefore, we’ll fund research no one else is doing, and get our young people involved. We’ll prove the Apache today and tomorrow is just as much a force to be reckoned with as he was when the Spaniards first tried to capture this country.”

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The Hawk and the Chipmunk

Mike Lowe aka The Scot

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