I hadn't been to the gym in a while, so it felt good to just do a simple workout. In the locker room I ran into a former workout buddy who I hadn't seen in quite a while. Tom and I exchanged a few "Whatcha been up tos" and got caught up some, and he noticed my arm. "New Ink? Looks great. I don't think I have seen that one before. A knockout of a vintage pinup. Vargas?" It was only a month or so old. But the story goes back a lot further. "I said yeah, I guess it might be his, but it is one of a kind, for sure."
The image was a mostly black and white nude of a 1940's era blonde with what best could be described as a wistful look. "Haunting" was what some had commented when they first saw it. They probably didn't know how close they were to the truth!
Tom continued looking "Wow. I bet there is a story behind it, and from the look on your face, I'm guessing it's something. C'mon, let's go grab a drink and you can fill me in." I could fill him in, but I wasn't sure he'd believe me, or that anyone would. But hey, I was thirsty.
Tom and I went to a bar and got a couple of beers and sat in a booth. "We might need a pitcher, this could be a bit of a story." and I started.
I do a little metal detecting. Just here and there, nothing serious, but have found a few things, coins, buckles, run of the mill things. Not many people know it, I'm not in a club or anything like that. So, this one day I am looking out back of my house. I live outside of town, have a couple acres and in the back there is an old foundation. Probably an old garage or shed, whatever, but it dates to the 1920's or so. The previous owners used it to burn trash and compost leaves. As I said, I'm looking out there and I thought I saw some movement. Too big for squirrels, I thought. Maybe a deer. Eating the rest of my bushes. I watched and it wasn't a dear, but an old lady. Must have been 80. Right away I'm thinking "Silver Alert". Probably wandered away from the senior place a mile or so down the road. Checked the phone and there was nothing.
It was around June, so I didn't need to grab a coat or anything, I just went out to see what she was doing. She had her back to me as I approached and it startled me a bit when she said "Hello. Maybe you can help me." without turning around. I may not be the lightest thing on my feet, but I wasn't making a lot of noise. It creeped me out a little. Maybe a little more than a little.
"Well, sure, maybe I can. What do you need? I'm Dave, by the way. This is my land." She turned, and was definitely 80, but must have been pretty back in the day. Good bones as they say. "Oh, I know, my family lived her a long time ago! I believe I lost something here. Just came back to see if it was still here. By the looks of it, probably not." Her voice trailed off. "Do you need me to call someone for you? Some help getting back to..." I left it open for her to finish. She just looked at me, smiled and said "No, I am fine. I'll be going now. I'm Laurie. Thanks for coming out to check, I just wanted to see." She began walking away. Quite well. I hoped I could get around like that at 80. Hell I hope I can do that at 60! I watched which way she walked and went back inside and called the Township police. No missing persons, no silver alerts, but they would have their patrols check the direction she was heading "just in case".
I didn't think much more about the incident for a while. But one Saturday I had an idea. She had "lost" something in the area of the shed. Maybe it was metal. So I grabbed the detector, a shovel, some water and went to the back. A few hours later I had found a small mountain of tinfoil, some metal bands from a barrel, an old road sign, beer cans and a couple of pennies that you couldn't make out the details. Nice haul. I was filthy and a little tired. But I figured a few more passes wouldn't hurt. It was a nice summer's day and I could consider it exercise.
I got a large 'beep' a little bit away from where I had been digging and dug down. I dug a bit and finally got a "clunk" as I hit something, at least it wasn't tinfoil. A little more digging and I found a metal box! About a foot long and maybe 5 inches wide it appeared to have been in the ground a while. And it was locked. The lock was part of the box, and the hole was completely filled with dirt. I figured this was a good time to stop, so I carried the box, my tools and the pennies back to the house. The tinfoil could stay, maybe the deer would take it.
I took the box in and cleaned it up some. It was a little rusted, but not bad considering it had been in the ground for quite a while. It was locked, but it was a classic old tin box. In my subtle manner I pried it open with a 'whack' from a screwdriver. Visions of gold coins or stock certificates rolled through my mind. But what was inside might actually have been better.
I looked at Tom over our empty beers. He was still awake and actually listening! I told him to get that pitcher of beer. I had a bit more to tell.
Tom returned with the pitcher. So much for the workout benefits. But I had been wanting to tell someone this story for a while. Maybe I would leave a few parts out. Oh hell, Tom knew me well enough.
"Thanks." I said as he poured us another round, and I continued.