Chapter 2: A Real Bargain

Linda looked outside and said, "Honey, let's go back through Nevada and take the northern route home. I want to stop in Las Vegas and win some money. Wouldn't it be fun to gamble a little?" She had an expectant smile on her face.

Charley said in a patient voice, "Honey, I know you know very well, people don't win all the time in Las Vegas. They don't even win much of the time. If they did, the casinos would all go broke."

Brian's Dad was a practical man, not given to dreaming. He wasn't about to give his money away to just anybody, especially to a bunch of gangsters like he heard owned things in Las Vegas and had funny sounding names that didn't sound Irish or Scandinavian like normal people. He'd rather just keep his money in the bank for old age.

"Ask your father to go back to where we first met." the growly gruff thought came into Brian's head. "If you dig a small hole between the two cactus plants growing right next to each other on the south side near the top, you will find two gold coins. Quick now, ask him."

"Uh, Dad?" Brian asked.

"Yes, Son, what is it?" His dad was glad for anything to get the conversation away from those guys in Las Vegas who waited like vultures to get at your money if you ever stopped in their town.

"Uh Dad, in all the excitement we been having, well, I guess you could say we been having some exciting times." Brian hemmed and hawed because he couldn't quite figure out how to tell his dad about the two gold coins without he sounded like he was nuts.

"Yes, Brian, we have been through some sort of interesting times here. Now what is it you want to tell me and you don't want to tell me?" No matter how slick Brian tried to be, his dad seemed to be just a little slicker usually.

"Well, I sort of left some coins behind up on that hill where we met Dog and I think they might be worth something."

He hesitated. Brian preferred not to lie to his parents or anybody else for that matter. The problem was that sometimes it was hard to tell all the truth. He decided it's the kind of problem most young people face every now and then, especially the guys.

Brian was aware that if you say too much you're going to have trouble and if you don't say enough, you might be lying by omission because you didn't say enough. Brian decided it was real hard to be a guy nowadays. He thought someone ought to do something about it. Girls never seemed to have that problem. They just yapped and nobody paid them any attention anyway.

"What are those coins? Were they quarters, or dimes or what?" His dad still wasn't biting.

"No, Dad, they were more like gold." There, now he ought to get interested. His dad didn't bite, "Oh you mean those dollar c coins with the gold coloring on them. Right?" Now his dad was smiling at him in the way adults do when they are making fun of a kid. Brian hated to be patronized, even by his parents, especially by his parents.

Brian sent the mental plea to his new friend, "Help me out here." He got a perfect mental picture of a Roman

Emperor looking guy with some real strange writing stamped on the face of the coin and a picture of a man riding on a big lizard on the other side. Brian decided to omit the lizard rider or his dad would think he had found breakfast food prizes.

"Well, they are about the size of that old half dollar I got in my collection at home. Then they both got a picture of this guy and he looks like one of those old Roman guys on it. I haven't really looked very close at them, though they are real heavy." There, Now Dad ought to show some interest.

"I don't know, Brian. It would be close to forty miles out of our way to go back there. You should have taken them when we were there, son. I mean, people like us never find gold. Other guys find the gold and all people like us ever find is the place where the treasure was before we got there.

"Dad. It's real gold I just know it. Please? I'll do the dishes for a month without griping if you'll turn around and go back and if they aren't real gold. I'll smile when I do them, too." To Dog he thought, "There better be gold there. I just traded my life away. A whole month of doing dishes and not even able to gripe about it, yuck." (Mental image of Brian as he stuck his finger down his throat and threw up.)

Brian's mom had a big, evil grin on her face. "This I got to see. Brian does the dishes without one gripe or grump? And he promises to smile the whole time he's doing them? Go ahead Honey we got the time. I want to see Brian do dishes for a month and act like he's happy to do 'em."

"Well, okay," his father said, still doubtful. "We better get going, then." As soon as everything was ready, they took off and retraced their way back to where the had rested before they rescued Ralph Milton.

Once they were on the freeway, the big motor home purred down the road at seventy miles an hour. When they came to the state road, they covered the other couple of miles at a slower pace. Brian tried to hide his excitement.

As soon as the big coach stopped, Brian opened the door and hopped out. Dog came flashing out behind him.

"Wait, Brian, I want to go up there with you." His dad got out and said, "Lead the way."

Hoo boy, Brian realized this could become a problem. If his dad saw him dig where nobody had ever dug before and then come up with the two coins, somebody was going to ask questions somebody else didn't want to try to answer. (Mental picture sent to Dog of two guys with "Funny Farm" written on their hats chasing Brian with butterfly nets while Dog laughs his dumb head off.)

"Not to worry." Dog threw the thought at Brian as he ran on ahead up the hill and started to dig hard between the two fat barrel cactuses. His big, black paws were a blur as they plowed through the sandy desert soil.

As soon as he reached Dog, Brian rummaged through the fresh turned up dirt and found the two coins "Here they are, Brian shouted and grabbed them up as soon as dog clawed them loose and ran ahead of his father. They were heavy, much heavier than he anticipated. He held them up in the air, one in each hand, like trophies.

His dad puffed his way uphill to the pair and took the coins from Brian and looked at them. "Hey. These just might be real." He looked at Brian suspiciously, "How did you know these were there?"

(Uh oh. Funny farm here we come.) Brian tried to think up a non-answer. He did not like to lie. On the other hand, well the truth definitely might cause problems. "Uh, well, you see, Dad..." he stammered and then had an inspiration.

"You saw Dog digging right there again. You can thank Dog." There, while not exactly the real truth or even a decent answer, it sounded good and the guys with the butterfly nets wouldn't be coming after him this time. It's getting harder to be a teenage type person now a days, it really is, he decided.

"Nice job of dissembling, my furless little friend." Dog thought at him.

Brian mentally sneered at him. Then remembering his manners, said aloud, "Thanks, Dog."

Dog's big wide grin was hard to tell whether he was happy or just about ready to eat someone. "Don't mention it," Dog growled in Brian's mind.

"Oh sure. Thanks, Dog. Wow, son, wait until we show these to your mom." His dad began to get excited. You could tell because his eyes were twinkling and he was grinning. Usually his dad was so calm laid back and mellow he hardly ever showed much emotion other than an easy going smile, not like the big grin on he now had on his face.

They hurried back to the motor home. Brian's mother was on the phone talking to someone. "Well yes, we'll be there and we'll bring Dog, too." She turned the phone off and turned around in her seat and said, "I was just talking to the wrestler's wife. They want us to visit them at their house outside of Minneapolis and, ... Holy smoke, are those things real? Her already large eyes grew larger as she saw the two gold coins in her husband's hand. "Here, gimme." She reached her hand out and took one. "Holy smoke."

"Hey, wait a minute, those are mine. I found them." Brian protested. "Gee. I found 'em and you guys take them away from me. No fair."

"Life just isn't fair, ever." The voice mocked him in his head. "Poor little pink creature." Dog punctuated his thought with a "Whuf" sound. He continued, "Besides, I knew where they were and told you their location. A thief hid them there a little over a hundred years ago and I saw him. So they're really not yours either. Don't be so greedy. See how happy your father and mother are."

Brian considered his parents happiness for a minute and grudgingly agreed. "Yeah, you're right, Dog. Still I wish I had just one of them."

Dog sent another thought to Brian, "Tell your parents to take the coins to Las Vegas and sell them there. They can get the best price for a quick sale at a small specialty shop that deals mainly in rare and exotic collectibles, including coins."

"How come you know all this?" Brian was curious about how Dog knew.

"Well," Dog growled in his mind, "Just because I was out in the middle of the desert for so long doesn't mean I stayed out of touch with things. Besides, I saw it on the 'Antiques Road Show' on your TV last night. All three of you had already gone to sleep." It irritated Brian how Dog was able to sound so smug about something and never make a sound.

"Dad, it was on Antiques Road Show last night. This collector in Las Vegas goes real ape over coins and stuff." His father wanted to wait till they got back to Minnesota to research how much the coins were worth.

"Don't say ape, Brian," Linda ordered. It was a law of nature that Moms always try to make their kids talk "right," and kids always want to invent their own languages. So what's Brian to do?

"Yes, Mom," he answered in a real polite voice.

"Hey," his dad asked, "How come you know what was on Antiques road show? You never watch that stuff."

Darn. His dad was just too quick to find flaws.

"I guess because it was a rerun." Brian answered with a smile and went back to his game while he was ahead.

Brian's father squinted one eye like Popeye and looked at his son. He wondered if all the excitement wasn't affecting the boy's tender little brain.

"Well, since the plan is to go through Vegas on our way home, okay. We'll stop and listen to what this guy has to say you didn't see on TV last night because it was a rerun, and you know all about anyway. Some times I worry about you Brian."

Brian also knew when to shut up while he was ahead. "Let's play chess," dog interrupted his thoughts.

"I don't play at all very well, so you'd probably beat me," Brian answered. He had begun to get the knack of how to talk with Dog in his head and with the rest of the world with his voice. It was still difficult to do both at the same time yet.

"Well, of course I'd beat you because I have much the superior intellect," Dog answered him. Brian sensed Dog's smugness and got irritated when Dog acted like he was so much better than everybody else.

"Well, if you know you're going to beat me, why play?"

"For one thing playing the game itself is something I find enjoyable." For some reason Dog insisted he wanted to play chess with his new friend.

"What do you think will my parents think if they see you and me playing chess together?" Now he'll shut up, Brian decided.

However, Dog didn't shut up. "Well, to start with, I'll imagine the chess board in my mind and you can look at it there and make your moves by thinking them." Dog had an answer for everything.

"Well, all right, I'll try." Brian was doubtful he would enjoy chess with Dog. He sat down and closed his eyes. All at once right in front of him he saw the fanciest chess set in the world.

The knights looked like real knights in armor on rearing horses. The pawns were little foot soldiers in medieval costume. The rooks were great elephants with riders.

The king and the queen for each side were regal looking people that stood straight and tall, dressed in royal finery. Brian hesitated a moment, then tried to touch them. Real as they appeared to his closed eyes, his hand went right through where they seemed to be.