Chapter 5 – Off the Grid (Part 1) V2.0

Johnny and Kimi spent the first part of the day getting settled in at the cabin. They did some cleaning and swept the place out.  She aired the sheets and blankets out on the clothesline for a couple of hours and then they made the bed together. Their first meal consisted of some canned stew and homemade biscuits.  While munching on a biscuit, Kimi commented to Johnny. "This might be the best meal I've ever had."

"Thanks, it's my Grandfather's recipe.  He taught me how to make it on that woodstove.  The secret is getting the fire just right.  I'll show you how to make'em later."

Later that afternoon, Johnny got a couple of flashlights from the pantry and checked the batteries.  They were pretty dim, but Gramps had an ample supply; just in case.  Johnny reloaded the flashlights, checked them one more time and handed one to Kimi and said. "Babe put on your riding jacket, it's pretty cold in the mine."

"We're going there now?" she asked.

"Yeah."  He answered solemnly.

"I want to make sure you know the main tunnel and the side tunnel. Who knows, we might have to hide out in there...also we'll check the first couple places we and might find a pot of gold or least a small bag!"

The two lovers held hands and walked up the rutted trail to the old mine. The entrance was square and only about five feet high. Johnny shined the light in and they both saw some tools and an old mine cart. Everything was neatly stored off to one side of the entrance...almost like it had been abandoned 100 years ago. Johnny grabbed a small shovel from the rack. They ducked their heads and entered the dark, cold and to Kimi, very creepy mine. To alleviate her fears, Johnny said. "My family started this mine in the Colorado gold rush of 1859. It's been in the family ever since. No one bothered with it until Gramps came back from Korea. He never, I mean never spoke of the war, but I know that he saw some serious shit. He was at Chosin reservoir...Once in a while when someone complained about the cold, I'd hear him say under his breath, "I've been colder..."

"Wow. I remember reading a little about that in history class."

"Anyway," Johnny continued. "He started coming up here in 54 or 55. I think it was his way of dealing with PTSD or whatever they called back then."

Kimi shook her head. "They didn't call it anything! A lot of those guys just came back, went back to work and never talked about what happened to them."

"After his combat tour was over, he still owed the Army another year.  They brought him back to the states and taught him to be a mechanic.  When he got home, he started the bike shop.  First just Harleys and then BMWs and by the 70's they worked on all the Japanese bikes that were so popular back then.  My dad learned OJT and started working full-time when he graduated from High School.  The shop did great in the summer, but slowed way down in the winter."

"Makes sense. Too cold to ride around here about six months a year."

Johnny went on, "anyway, it was my dad's idea to start fixin' snow machines too.  Once they started working on snowmobiles, Arctic Cats and the like, things really took off."

"So," Johnny went on. "Here it is. Gramp's tools and equipment. It's all old as hell but it works fine. What he mostly did was to rework old parts of the mine. He basically spent 15 years running tailings through the shaker table and it paid off okay. In the last couple of years of his life, he told me that he had found a couple of good hard rock veins."

Kimi looked around a bit and asked. "He did this all by hand?"

"The original part of the mine was dug in the 1860s.  They used dynamite back then.  But when he started it back up, Gramps just went old school pick and shovel, and mostly by himself. Dad and I helped him out now and again with grunt work. He kept his secrets to himself more or less."

The two friends walked slowly a few dozen yards into the tunnel; it got darker, colder and the ceiling got much lower. Johnny said to his cute friend.  "Kinda' creepy isn't it?"

"Yeah, like a Nancy Drew story."

At the junction of the second tunnel, Johnny pointed down the smaller side tunnel and said. "Okay, babe this is important. The side tunnel is the only other exit. It goes about 75 yards and gets pretty tight, but eventually exits through a small vent on the side of the hill overlooking the creek. If we ever have to use this as a hideout, that's how we will get out."

"Shit!"

"Yeah, exactly...and probably deep."

They kept going down the main tunnel for a few more yards. Johnny was shining his light on the middle of the tunnel wall on the left side. Finally, he spotted an old-style railroad spike.

"See that?"

"What?" she asked.

"That iron spike?"

"Yeah."

He laughed. "Just like Nancy Drew, X marks the spot."

He then pointed the light to the right side of the tunnel directly opposite the spike.  He handed the black aluminum light to Kimi. "Here, hold the light on this spot."

He took the shovel that he had picked up at the entrance and started to clear some rocks, dirt, and debris. In a couple of minutes, it's obvious that a couple of flat granite stones were covering a hole in the wall. He finished clearing the gravel and said. "This is it. Kiss me for luck."

She did, happily.

He removed the flat stones and she saw an old dirty wooden box. She asked half-heartedly. "Is that our treasure chest?"

"With any luck." He removed the box and tested its heft. His arm motions indicated that the box was pretty heavy.

"Okay babe, have you had enough of the Batcave for today?"

"Absolutely, I'm more of a sunny day halter top kind of girl, not so much this cave of doom crap."

The two of them left the mine and went back to the little cabin. Before he opened the box, he handed it to Kimi.

She said with a wide-eyed look. "Holy shit, you weren't kidding this is heavy."

Johnny fiddled with the rusty latches on the box and opened it. They both simultaneously said."Wow!"

The box had two ziplock bags full of gold dust and another filled with small gold nuggets. On top of that was a bag of good old-fashioned cash money; American and Canadian.

Kimi again said to her friend. "Holy shit, how much cash is there?"

Johnny unrolled the three spools of 20s, 50s, and 100s and started to count. When he was finally done he shook his head, looked to the sky and thought to himself, thanks, Gramps. He then said to Kimi. "Well babe, it looks like twenty bucks short of $20 grand. I told you that Gramps wanted to help pay for State. This cash will make life way easier for us. We won't have to try and sell any gold for a while. That should help us keep a low profile."

She was awestruck. "Okay, you got me going. How much gold is there?"

Johnny took the first bag of gold dust and passed it back and forth between his hands and made a mental estimate and handed it to Kimi. He asked her. "What do you think?"

"I don't know, I'm guessing to maybe a pound and a half?" He knit his brow. "Yeah, I agree." He picked up the smaller bag which was filled with small and medium-size nuggets. He said. "This one is more like a pound."

She took the bag from his hand, sighed and said. "Yeah."

Johnny then did some mental math and went on. "So, the total is like two and a half pounds, so if I do the mathology right that is like 36 Troy ounces....gold is just over a thousand bucks an ounce..."

Her eyes widened as she did the numbers in her head. "So at least thirty-six grand?"

He smiled and answered. "Yeah, so no work-study for us!"

She shook her head and smiled. Johnny laughed and said. "Oh and babe, there are two more stash spots; but we'll look for those another day."

"Why?"

"Well, this and the cash are more than we need for phase one of our plan and I would rather keep the other two hidden for now."  He wrinkled his nose. "One of them is in the outhouse, I'd rather not have to start digging there right now."

She laughed. "No shit!"

"Exactly."

"Where is the other stash? You know, just in case..."

He pointed at the bookcase. "Behind there. Just remove the Bible and the Call of the Wild. There are a couple of pegs and a false wall leading to a little cubby."

"Your Gramps really was paranoid wasn't he?"

Johnny raised his arms in an open hands gesture.

"So what now?" She asked.

He answered confidently. "First, I'll go and put the box of gold back in the mine. Just where we found it..."

"Yeah, I know, just in case."

"What about the cash?"

"We'll keep some in our jackets and I'll hide some in the battery compartment of the bike.  The rest we hide in the cabin for now.  Get me that book right there, the one that says 1871 on the spine."

Kimi removed the book from the middle shelf and said. "Hey, this isn't a real book, it's hollow."

"Open it up, babe."

She opened the fake book, raised her brows a bit and said.  "Johnny, there's more cash in here, and a gun..."

Kimi carefully handed Johnny the Colt 45 Government Model.  Johnny took the pistol and pointed it in a safe direction.  He removed the clip and racked the slide which ejected one round.  He shook his head. "Loaded as always."  He then looked at the stack of cash Kimi was holding. "How much?"

"Looks like a couple hundred, almost all in small bills."

"Perfect," he said.  "We'll take the small stuff and put the big bills in the book.  Be easier to spend it without calling attention to ourselves.  Poor college students like us don't have 50s and 100s."

Kimi put the stack of cash back in the book and carefully placed it back on the shelf.  "I love you, and I love your late grandfather more and more as the day goes on."

"Me too!"

Kimi looked puzzled for a second.  "Hon, if you knew that your grandfather had stashed away this gold and money, why didn't you come up here before?"

Johnny gave her a distant look.  "Well for starters, I had no idea that there was anywhere near that much or trust me, I would have made a trip up here months ago.  Anyway, when he was pretty sick; it took a lot of time to take care of him.  It was near the end that he told me of the stash, I'm not sure I really believed him.  So after he passed we had to make all of the arrangements and then winter came.  My dad and I planned a trip up here a couple of times since then and then the shop got too busy, so here we are..."

As he was telling the story, he put the ejected round from the 45 back into the clip and put the clip back into the 45, but did not rack the slide.  He then placed the gun in the drawer by the bed.  "I'll have to teach you how to use that later..."

Johnny then looked around the cabin.  "We can eat from the food in the pantry tonight and tomorrow morning and then we'll take a trip into town. So let's make a shopping list. We have to be efficient 'cause everything has to fit in the saddlebags of the bike or in the two backpacks which are number one on our list. Number two is food. There is no fridge here so it has to be canned or boxed for now."

"What about water?"

"The well water is pure but a few sodas would probably be nice."

Kimi then pulled a mostly used wheel of birth control pills out of her pocket. She said, "I'm good for the rest of this month, and I have one more month's worth in my other pocket. After that, we had better find a way to get a refill or we're going without!"

"Smart girl, they blew up the house around us and you made sure that we would still have safe sex while avoiding mob hitmen!"

"And while we're on that subject," she said. "Someday you and I are going to have lots of babies."

He gulped. "Lots?"

She smiled and answered. "Yeah as in two: one girl and one boy."

"Perfect, but just not right now. So yeah, we'll find a free clinic or something to get you a refill."

She pointed at this month's pill carrier.  "And on your shopping list, I'll need some girl stuff in a few days."

"Yeah, I know. Men aren't very smart, but we can count on our fingers."

She laughed and moved over to kiss him. "I love you," she said.

"Okay, me too you!" He then said, "whilst we are at Walgreens or wherever, what you think about me being a blonde?"

"Huh?"

"As in disguises. We both have dark hair and light eyes.  I think that in a few days from now we're going to be blondes."

"Makes sense and it will just be a part of our new identities." She laughed. "I'll go blonde for you, but I will not pretend to lose IQ points."

"Wow, that's mean!" he said.

"Oh come on," she answered. "You know some of the airheads I went to High School with."

"True enough, I was thinkin' that we could also get some temporary or henna tattoos but the more that I think of it, that would probably make us stand out more than blend in."

She paused for a second. "Yeah, I think that hair and wardrobe are enough for now.  We want to look like the locals."

 "Right. As far as clothes go, we probably want to look more like college students than leather-clad bikers. We can check out some of the smaller places where the students shop in Old Boulder."

"Yeah, we'll just look around and buy what they buy."

"Hilarious irony, don't you think?  You and I never wanted to go with the In Crowd in High School."  With a more serious look, Johnny said. "I really do want to stay off of security and webcams for now as much as possible."

"Makes sense."

"So we'll have to make a couple of trips down the hill. We'll make the first one together and then I'll go solo for the second trip."

She smiled and said sarcastically. "And I'll just be Suzy homemaker in our cozy little cabin in the Hills."

He laughed and said. "Only until you assume your alternate identity of Kimi the hacker and taker-downer of Chicago hitmen and their crooked Congressional bosses."

She gave him a very serious look. "Holy shit, you're right. We gotta' do it or we will end up at the bottom of a lake, sleepin' with the fishes."

They made dinner together on the old wood stove. As it got dark, he lit an old-fashioned kerosene lantern.  Johnny taught Kimi Gramp's recipe for homemade biscuits and once again she commented how good the food tasted. He responded to her.  "Everything always tastes better in the mountains."

She laughed and said. "Yeah, and especially when you don't have to look over your shoulder every second."

After they finished their meal and cleaned up, he stoked the fire in the potbelly stove. Even though it's June, there was a chill in the late night mountain air.  While he was going through the pantry, Johnny found a mostly full bottle of Jack Daniels. The two lovers sat on the two best of the chairs and faced the stove.  Johnny poured them each a couple of fingers of Jack with some cool well water. "I know that neither of us are big drinkers, but I think we have earned this."

They clinked glasses together and Kimi said. "Amen to that."

They held hands and didn't talk much.  They just stared at the small fire.  Johnny noticed that Kimi was absently twirling the gold ring on his finger.  She looked at him and smiled.  "You are my husband now; I think that means you have to do everything I say, right?"

"Right."

After they finished their drinks, Johnny added some small pieces of wood to the fire and adjusted the stove so that it would put out a low heat out for the rest of the night. They undressed together and both admired each other's bodies in the fading orange light. They placed their clothes on the table and got into bed together and held each other close. Kimi started to sob a little and Johnny held her tight and hugged her. After a few minutes, she said: "I'm okay now, I just had to let that out, again." She then reached over and caressed him gently and then kissed him with passion. He responded willingly, and on this night they made love slowly and passionately and enjoyed every second.  Later he said to her.  "You were so quiet tonight..."

"I know, but don't worry.  You hit every spot just right."

Johnny then tried to turn over to go to sleep.  Kimi asked gently. "Hold me, until I fall asleep, okay."

He rolled back over and pressed tightly to her back and put his left arm between her breasts and under her face and gently placed his right hand on the back of her neck.  He then softly kissed her shoulder as she happily dozed off.