Chapter 6

A bell sounded.

"Trunk? What trunk? Seph? Do you see a trunk?" Ed asked.

"Nope ... not me." Persephone countered.

Violet was looking perturbed, to say the least. "All right you two ... there's two trunks. The one we took the Ritual gear in and the other one."

"Ok ... show me," Ed suggested.

"The one you and Persephone are carrying." Violet pointed at it.

"Trunk? This isn't a trunk ... well ... maybe ... it's a carrying implement used to house things." Seph said. Ed nodded like a water glass bird on a Michigan tavern backbar.

"Ok ... what's in it?" Enquiring minds want to know.

"Eleven occupied chests and one empty of occupation." Ed grinned.

"Nope," said Seph, "the twelfth chest isn't empty."

"What's in it?" asked Ed.

"Seventy five coins," said Seph.

"You didn't!?" asked Ed.

"I did," said Seph.

"You brought them?" asked Ed.

"Yup ... one full set," said Seph.

"I'm going to have to sit up with the shotgun," complained Ed.

"Nope, Mina has a safe," explained Seph.

"Ok ... were you going to inform me?" asked Ed.

"Yup."

"When?"

"I just did."

"I guess."

Seph laughed.

"Where's the rest of the '33's?" asked Ed.

"Switzerland," said Seph.

Ed laid a finger aside his nose. "Auction?" asked Ed.

"Yes sir," said Seph.

"What kind?" asked Ed.

"Present participants only ... no online or proxy, no lawyers or corner cutouts." said Seph.

"Ooo. That's going to piss off the IRS," declared Ed.

"I don't see why ... they have to submit to fingerprint and retina verification just like everybody else. Interpol has them on file ... just like the Federal Alphabet soup has Interpol in theirs," said Seph.

Watching Violet watch Ed and Seph is like watching an Olympic Championship match in ping pong. Ed-Seph-Ed-Seph-Ed-Seph-Ed-Seph. Finally, she held up a hand, "What's in the eleven other boxes?"

"Excuse me?" Ed and Seph aren't twins but they turned on Violet like a berry patched momma bear defending her cubs.

"I don't know," said Sephone (pronounced Sefah'ne.)

"Not a clue," confessed Ed.

And that startled Seph. "You should know what's in your six."

Ed had an indignant look. "And just what makes you say that?"

"When I came up the stairs after talking to Mr. Smith, you had that map," Seph argued.

"The map was in the bottom of the trunk. I never..."

"Trunk!! I heard you say trunk!!" exclaimed Violet. "Guilty, guilty, guilty." She stuck her tongue out and gave Ed the raspberry!!

"Before I was so rudely interrupted," Ed looked down his nose at Violet...

It was Persephone's turn to interrupt, "you did it, you did it, you did it! You did the 'mother look.' It was perfect."

"All right ... I'm not going away," confessed Violet. "Now I really, really want to know," she unlimbered her wand, "and you are going to tell me, come hell or high water!"

"We have no clue ... wanna look?"

Having walked out of the woods, they were at the door of the tipi.

"Sure," she said, "it'll save a spell."

They carried both trunks inside.

"I'll be right back," said Ed, as he ducked out the door.

They heard the backdoor on the BillyBuilt open and a scraping of wood on metal as the plywood was convinced to come out. The side of the tipi gained the shadow of a square cut sheet of plywood.

THUD

THUD

THUD

"THUMP* "OW!!SOMBITCHMOTHERFUCKAH!"

Violet broke into gales of laughter..."That was the first word I learned in your language, OWSUMBITCHMOTHERFUCKAH. I had to run tell the mommies. I was so proud. I had no idea it was actually seven words ... or what it meant."

"You're kidding ... how old were you?"

"I had five winters." Violet got a look, then she said, "That was a long time ago. For a great while, I thought it was the Shaman who saved me ... but it was Daddy David and momma Wendy-Rachael-Kim that killed my father after my father killed my mother. They saved me. You know ... no you don't ... you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

A concrete block sailed in the door, then a three more. Ed came in with the plywood ... the tipi door was just tall enough.

"Wouldn't believe what?" asked Ed, as he moved things around.

"You wouldn't believe how old I am."

He stood the blocks on end and laid the plywood on top of them. "Oh ... I don't know ... I might."

"The tribe had no horses ... but they had bows ... the points found on the plain above the long valley were side notched but smaller than Pelican Lake points. Avonlea possibly, they had the longer side notch with the dip. Somewhere between 1440 BCE and 500 BCE. I could be 500 years old." That seemed to make her quite sad. "I'm a Time Traveler."