Dead Man's Gold

         While looking over headstones at the old family cemetery, Shannon was surprised that there were so many. She finally came to the conclusion that her ancestors must have married half the town. There were names on those stones that she had never heard of before. A few of them, she recognized as having a lot of notoriety.

         It was almost autumn, and the leaves had already begun to fall, covering up the graves. Before she snapped each photo, she reached down to clean all of the debris from the stone. The inscriptions needed to be visible on the pictures. When she had almost completed the task, she came across an older stone that had a very beautiful design. Looking at the details, she saw the name “Burgess Hubbard”. The man had been born in the late eighteen hundreds, and had died in the early nineteen hundreds.

         Deciding to take a photo of this one, Shannon began to wipe off the leaves, but realized that a fuzzy caterpillar was lying on the top. Looking carefully, she picked it up, and sat it back in the grass.

         “There you go little fellow.” she said out loud.

         As she held the camera back up and began to focus the lens, she realized that a little green lizard was lying over some of the words. It blended in almost perfectly, changing its color to match closely to that of the tombstone. She stopped to think to herself, and realized that out of all of the stones that she had taken a picture of, none of them had living creatures on them, but when she got to this stone, it had two.

         She chuckled under her breath, wondering what kind of person was buried here, quickly making a note of the name, so she could ask her father about this man, later. Hopefully, he might know something interesting about him, but she wondered if her father had even heard of him. He had died long before the birth of her dad, so chances were probably slim.

         These pictures would be a great addition to her family genealogy scrapbook. She had been planning this for years, but had never taken the time to complete the task. It would be nice for her children to have, in case they ever had questions about their ancestral lines.

         The ride home was long and winding, over roads that looked like a roller coaster, but eventually she reached her father's house and pulled into the driveway. He was getting up in years, and Shannon looked forward to spending some time with him.

         “Dad, are you home?…Dad?”

         “Yes, I’m here. Hold your horses. I’ll be right there. Let me get my specks.”

         Shannon was excited that the pictures had turned out so well. They would make a nice addition to the scrapbook.

         As soon as her father made it into the room, she smiled and said, “Look what I’ve been doing today?”

         His eyes got big, and he gave her a quick look saying, “Why are you taking pictures of graves? Can't you find something more interesting to spend your time on?”

         “No dad, that’s not it. I’ve been taking pictures to add to my genealogy scrapbook. It’s for the family.

         “Hmmm…”

         “The reason I came by, was to show you the pictures, and ask you a question. Have you ever heard of a guy by the name of Burgess Hubbard?”

         “Well, let’s see….Yes, he was my great uncle. A real character.”

         “Why do you say that?”

         “It's a long story. He married into money. His wife was an heiress to an old goldmine, and he was nothing but an old scoundrel. An old tightwad is what he was. He swore to my dad that nobody would ever find his gold, because he put it somewhere that nobody could get their hands on it. My dad always thought he was buried with his gold. You see, he was a pallbearer at the funeral, and he said that casket was so heavy that you almost couldn’t carry it, and Burgess wasn’t a heavy man. He built his own casket! Made it out of yellow pine.”

         “You’re kidding me! Why would he do a thing like that?”

         “I don’t know, but I’ve thought about getting a metal detector and taking it up to the cemetery. Do you know how much money that would be worth at today’s prices?!”

         “Oh dad, you couldn’t do that!”

         “I don’t know why not! The man’s dead! He can’t take it with him! I’ll bet you my boots that it’s there! It’s just sitting there in the special compartment that he built to hide it in.”

         “Dad, please don’t do that. You’ll go to jail, digging up somebody’s grave.”

         “Shannon, its our family, and he doesn’t have any descendants. He was such an old scoundrel that he didn’t even have children to leave his fortune to. It might as well be me!”

         Taking a deep breath, Shannon was a little concerned. She knew that it was her fault that her dad remembered the gold, and now because of her, he would probably go to prison. Maybe if she changed the subject and quickly made a retreat home, his mind would wander enough that he would forget all about it.

         “I just wanted to show you my pictures. I’ll let you see the scrapbook when I get it finished. Maybe we should just forget about old Burgess Hubbard. He’s not worth going to jail over.”

         “Okay, butl I don’t think I would go to jail, since I am his great nephew.”

         “Promise me that you won’t try to go dig up that gold. Please!”

         Giving her a deceiving eye, he quickly said, “Okay, I won’t.”

         She didn’t like that look, but gave him a kiss on the cheek, and with a quick hug was quickly on her way home. Every now an then she had a twinge of concern about what her dad might have planned. Eventually, she told herself that she had nothing to worry about. Besides, his short-term memory was so bad that he probably had already forgotten about it.

         Weeks went by as Shannon built her scrapbook. She looked over it proudly, showing it to her children and husband. It was such a great sense of satisfaction to know that it was now finished.

         Sunday rolled around, and the family got up early, eating breakfast and dressing for church. As they pulled into the church parking lot, Shannon saw her father getting out of a new car, but figured that he was probably with a friend.

         When they walked up to the front of the church, and shook hands with the pastor, Shannon noticed that he seemed to be much happier than usual. He was usually smiling, but today, his smile seemed syrupy sweet.

         “God bless you, sister, and God bless your father, as well! I’m sure your father’s contribution to the church will do great work in the eyes of the Lord.”

         Shannon’s heart began to pound out of her chest. “What do you mean, pastor?”

         “Oh, he didn’t tell you? Well, the Lord says he loves a cheerful giver, and I’m sure a giver who keeps his contributions a secret, without receiving his blessing now, will have a bigger blessing in heaven.”

         Nodding her head and smiling, she walked past the preacher. With a look of the devil in her eyes, she made her way to the church pew, where her father was now sitting.

         Whispering as quietly as she possibly could, without busting the blood vessels in her forehead, she said, “DAD! What is going on?!”

         “Hi sweetheart. What do you mean?”

         “You know what I mean, dad. Did you go dig up that gold in old man Hubbard’s grave?!”

         “Yeah, I did. Look at my new boots. Don’t you think they go nicely with this new suit?”

         “Yeah dad, they look great, but they won’t do you much good when you’re wearing stripes in jail.”

         “Oh honey, that’s our family cemetery. He’s buried at the old part, and nobody will even see it until next spring at cemetery cleaning. By then the grass will have covered it back over. It will be fine. Trust me.”

         By the end of the church service, Shannon proceeded to the alter, where she cried her eyes out, in secret prayers to God.

         “Please father, don’t allow my dad to go to prison for his thievery. He is an old man, Lord, and honestly didn’t know any better.

         The months went by, with no calls from the law, and she soon discovered that her father was right. With the spring rains and God’s blessed warm sun, the grass soon covered the grave, with no signs of tampering.

         Shannon thought it all over to herself, and shaking her head, she chuckled softly, but knew that she would never ask her dad any more questions about his ancestors, again.

Word Count: 1,549