Chapter 4

The next evening, after supper, I approached Mr. Holmes in the living room. "Sir, I would appreciate some advice from you, if you don't mind."

"Sure, Derek, go ahead. What can I do for you?"

"Well, Sir, I have a problem with this." I handed him the chunk of gold. "I have a number of those which I would like to sell, but I don't know the best way to go about getting what they are worth. I was hoping that you could advise me."

"What the hell!?! Is this what I think it is? It looks like a crudely cast chunk of gold."

"Yes, Sir, that's what it is. I have 40 of those weighing approximately 30 grams, each. I estimate them to be worth $21 per gram, but the few I have sold so far have only netted me $12.50 per gram at a pawn shop. That's a lot of money, but I would like to get more nearly the full value. Do you have any contacts that could help me out? By the way, the gold was acquired quite legally."

"Well, Derek, I don't have an answer for you right off the top of my head. Let me take this into the bank tomorrow, and I might be able to come up with an answer for you."

"Certainly, Sir. Jenny and I would appreciate whatever you can do for us. Thank you. Keep it as long as you like, and please let me know if you need more samples. I can always get more."

"Get more? Do you have a gold mine near Auburn that I don't know about?"

"Sort of. Please don't press me for details at this point."

That ended the conversation on gold. We talked of other things for a little while, then Jenny and I went to talk to ET. He was quite excited. "I talked to some construction people today, and they are fascinated by the concept of the nail and hammer. We normally build things with adhesives, but they have to have time to make a firm bond, so construction is always quite slow. These nails could really speed up the process. Do you have any suggestions for materials we might use for the hammer and nails?"

Jenny and I looked at each other, and we both shook our heads. "We are very sorry, ET, but we just don't know enough about your world and the materials there to know what to say. You will just have to experiment until you find something that will work. We do have other construction methods which we use along with the nails. Screws, bolts, and rivets immediately come to mind. Tomorrow, I'll get some samples to show you."

"OK, thank you. By the way, one of my co-husbands has been working with the paint concept and thinks that he has a workable system. He has found a plant sap that changes on exposure to our atmosphere to form a very hard, transparent film. It seems to resemble the properties of your linseed oil. Anyway, he is having some pigments powdered very fine to try suspending in the sap. It takes an hour or so for a thin film of the sap to harden, so that might make a good matrix for our paint."

"Yes, that does sound very promising. Have you applied for a patent on it, yet?"

"No, but a lawyer is working on that phase of the business for us. If we can find the right vehicle for the paint, we should be on easy street in a very short time. Any more ideas like that would be greatly appreciated."

"Speaking of that, do you have any more transmutation procedures that we might try?"

"I'm afraid not. Anything else I know of requires massive investment in industrial-size processing equipment. However, I'll keep an eye out for something."

I said, "I want to remind you that we will be building a new workshop in a few days. How long before you can change your equipment to follow us?"

"I have been thinking about that. I believe that it would be worthwhile to add the equipment that would allow me to move freely around your planet. That will take about a week, once I get the stuff together. Suppose I start work in three days? That means that I will try to get back to you 10 days from now. Will that be OK?"

"Yes, that will be fine. We'll wait 10 days before we look again for you." We talked about various things for another hour or so, then closed down for 10 days.

The next evening when Mr. Holmes got home from work, he was very excited and anxious to talk to Jenny and me. "We, that is, y'all hit the jackpot! I found a broker who will take all of the gold you can produce at 6.25% under the prevailing market price. I recommend that you go with this, since there is no limit on how much gold you sell, and you will still make $750 per ounce. He will even do the pickup of the gold, so you don't have to worry about a secure way of transporting it. My bank will act as intermediary for you, and not charge you a fee, providing you maintain an account with us, paying all of those nominal fees, yourself. As a banker, as a friend, and as a father, I can't think of anything else I would recommend over this deal. What do you think?"

Both of us agreed wholeheartedly, and I said that I would give him what gold I had to take in tomorrow to get the ball rolling. I said that we would come around tomorrow during regular business hours to officially open a joint account. We were all smiles at that, and Mrs. Holmes joined us when she was told the reason for our happiness. To celebrate, we went out for bar-b-qued ribs that night, and all of us ate literally all we could hold. Man, those ribs were gooood!

When we got home, I gathered all of the gold I had and put it into a paper sack. We all had a good laugh about transporting over $30,000 worth of gold in a paper sack. At least, it looked like a bag lunch, so nobody was likely to steal it!

That day, after classes, Jenny and I started collecting the materials we needed to renovate the shed. One thing I wanted was plenty of electricity out there, because I was toying with the idea of putting in my own small plant to make liquid nitrogen. In principle, all we had to do was to compress air, and let the unwanted gases vent. Practically, only ice, frozen carbon dioxide, and liquid nitrogen would be left. We could decant the liquid nitrogen and throw the rest of the stuff out where it could harmlessly rejoin the atmosphere.

It took a lot of searching to find a machine of the appropriate size. We finally settled on one used for classroom demonstrations, since it would make about a gallon of liquid nitrogen in a day, which would keep up with our needs, for now, as far as I could see. With some fancy talking, but no actual lying, I was able to order it through the Chemistry Dept. supply room and save a few dollars. I simply said it was for a private lab at home that I wanted to set up for a hobby. This kind of thing, though not strictly kosher, was winked at by all concerned, especially since I was not the only person to do this sort of thing. As long as it was not equipment to make bombs, nobody cared or inquired too closely.

Mr. Holmes helped us with the construction and said that he had a ball. It was a great change from his usual desk job, but not so strenuous that he was in any physical danger. Jenny and I needled him enough about his incipient flab that he promised to get some regular exercise.

Jenny suggested that we put in a swimming pool and enclose it so that we could use it year round, the weather was certainly warm enough for that most of the time. Only a few months would be cold enough to require heating. Mr. and Mrs. Holmes agreed when Jenny said that she would pay for it with her share of the gold profits.

The Holmes still didn't know exactly where the gold came from, though it was obvious that we were not mining it. They were curious, but not too pushy. Jenny and I had decided to let them in on the secret as soon as ET was in business in the new workshop.

I contracted with a professional to install the electricity in the shed, and had the electric company install a separate meter. There was no point in running up the Holmes' domestic electric bill unnecessarily. The shed was no longer just a shed, since it had been insulated and a small heat pump installed to keep it comfortable inside, no matter what the external conditions were. We did spend a lot more money on the new workshop than I had originally planned, but we could afford it, so why not?

By the time the workshop opened for business, Jenny and I had converted almost 20 pounds of iron into gold, so we had no trouble paying for it. However, I am sure that some of the neighbors wondered what was going on. Once the few heavy trucks from the electric company, etc. had left, there was no more unusual traffic in the neighborhood, and things pretty much settled back to normal.

ET was now connected to our workshop, so there was no longer any need to keep up the facade of the garage workshop. I thanked my landlords for all their kindnesses and courtesies during the time I had lived in their apartment and moved out with good feelings all around.

The Holmes/Hawkins household was operating smoothly, and we were all in better physical condition than we had been in some time, if ever. The swimming pool was used religiously: Jenny and me for swimming and Mr. and Mrs. Holmes for water aerobics exercises. Jenny even found a friend she was able to hire as an instructor, so all four of us eventually joined the class. The next thing we knew, most of the neighborhood was joining in the aerobics class. In effect, there was sort of an hour long exercise party in the Holmes back yard three afternoons a week. Mr. Holmes made a point of leaving work early to make the exercise classes.