Crazy Uncle Jack

"Do you think Jack's coin collection will be worth anything?" My husband, Brandis, asked as he squeezed my hand.

"I have no idea. I think they once tried to get him to have his coins evaluated, but that's not why he searched for him. It was never about the money, it was about the quest and about finding hidden treasures for him," I replied, thinking about my Great Uncle and his metal detector and all the adventures we had gone on when I was a child.

"You doing okay?" he asked with a sympathetic smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied.

I laid my head back on the airline seat and let out a sigh. I hadn't even thought about my Great Uncle Jack in years, and I think that was the worst part of it all. He had been such an integral part of my youth, and once adulthood hit and I moved away and became more involved with my own life and world, somehow he just faded into the background. Now he was gone, and he had left me his treasured coin collection in his will. The guilt sat at the bottom of my stomach like lead.

"Do you think it was because his family had so much money, that the coins were never about money to him?" asked Brandis.

"Maybe. It was either that, or because he was just a little off. He came from a time when mental illness wasn't medicated or even really investigated properly, his family just accepted that he wasn't normal. My guess was he was autistic and maybe slightly stunted in his emotional growth, but I don't really know. His family catered to him though, and let him be who he was, and that's saying a lot really when many people back then stifled and hid their crazy relatives." I replied with a sad smile.

It had been drilled into my head my whole life that money was evil, by my grandfather and my father, who both seemed to gamble away all of theirs on crazy business schemes and failed projects. But, I could never really wrap my head around that since the most wealthy of my relatives were the kindest, and most generous. Whereas my branch of the family tree, much less well off than them, were just bitter and jealous of their wealth. It was one of those cognitive dissonance things that never made sense in my brain.

"How do you think Jill is holding up?" Brandis asked.

I sighed again, "I'm not really sure."

Jack and Jill were twins, my great aunt and uncle on my father's side. I know, ridiculous names, but that's what they ended up with. Jill was sweet and doting on her brother, who had never married and had always lived with her and her family. I'm sure it broke her heart that her brother was gone.

We took a taxi from the airport to Magnificent Manor, which is what Jack had always called their home. It was the family home, he and Jill had inherited it when their parents died many years ago, and it was the home where we had spent all extended family vacations and holidays.

I was an only child in a sea of cousins, and some of my fondest memories were in that house. While I loved watching the other kids run around and scream in delight, I was so shy and timid and unsure how to interact with them all. I would always find my way into the cozy den with a book, and silence.

Which is where Jack could usually be found, during holidays and family gatherings anyway. This is how we managed to forge such a great friendship over the years. I remember he had this giant wooden checkerboard with all of these metal army men, which he had created his own game with. He taught me how to play when I was probably only four or five. I smiled at the thought of the countless games we played with those army men.

We approached the door and Brandis knocked. It only took a few moments before Jill opened it with a big smile and even bigger hugs.

"Oh it's so good to see you! It's been so long! Come in, come in!" she said, ushering us inside. It was like stepping back in time, nothing had seemed to change over the years, other than Jill had more gray hair and wrinkles and seemed to be hunched over more than I last remember. Suddenly I felt like I was that shy and timid little girl once again, ready to hide from the chaos.

"I'm so glad you guys could make it, how was the flight?" she asked as she took our coats and hung them up on an ancient and sturdy oak coat rack.

"It was fine, smooth and easy," Brandis said.

"I want to hear all about the things in your world. But if you don't mind, I'd really like to get the business side of things, so to speak, out of the way before we settle in to just enjoy each other," Jill said with a soft sigh.

"Of course. I'm just surprised Jack left me his coins, I mean... that seems like such an honor." I replied.

"Jack loved you, dear. You were one of the few people in this family that paid him any attention, much less spent real time with him. You were a constant source of joy in his life, and I really am thankful to you for that," Jill said as she took my hand in hers and gave it a squeeze.

I gave her a faint smile, as that heavy lead nestled deeper inside of my gut.

"Come with me, everything is in Jack's room. You know how secretive and a little elaborate he was with his things," Jill said with a little laugh.

We followed her up the stairs and down the winding hall to Jack's room. In the corner of the room, there was definitely an updated section that wasn't there years ago. There were a row of computer monitors and towers.

"Wow, Jack was into computers?" my husband asked, eyeing the machines in awe.

"Well, you know as he got older and his joints hurt too much to move around a lot, he couldn't go hunting for coins like he used to, and he found a way to use computers to do it," Jill said.

"Like searching for them online and purchasing them?" Brandis asked.

"No, it could never be anything that simple with Jack. He discovered some kind of computer coins. I don't know, he tried to explain it to me years ago, I just don't understand much about this whole digital era and everything it entails. But he became obsessed with mining coins, as he called it. He always needed bigger and better computers to mine coins. It kept him happy, and that's all I cared about," Jill said with a shrug.

"Mining computer coins?" Brandis said with eyes wide, looking over at me.

"Yes, and they are all yours. I mean, the real coins are yours too. But he left very specific instructions that you got all his computer coins too, although I don't know that you'll have any use for them. He left a whole package for you about it," Jill said as she took a large manila envelope off of the desk and handed it to me.

I opened it, first I pulled out a handwritten note from Jack. I read it aloud, knowing Brandis was as curious as I was about it all.

"Dear Squatty,"

I let out a laugh, I had forgotten the nickname he had given me when I was ridiculously little, in both age and stature.

"You were always my favorite explorer, so it only seems right that you get my treasures. I hope you enjoy all of my coins as much as I have. Love, Crazy Uncle Jack." I finished.

"Oh, I never did like that he called himself that. It was so mean of the kids to call him crazy when we were little, and I thought it was just as unkind of him to call himself that." Jill said with a little scowl.

But, it made me smile just a little, because he knew he was a little crazy and he embraced it, and that was probably the biggest part of his charm.

Next I pulled out a little black leather journal. Inside were pages and pages of passwords and log in information. I handed it to Brandis, who opened it and flipped through it.

"I don't really know how to make these things work, but I imagine you do," Jill said motioning to the computers.

Brandis went over the the computers and began powering them up, sitting down in the soft and worn computer chair in front of them all. He started with the first page of the black book, getting the computers logged in with the passwords.

I could see the excitement in his face, as it was becoming very clear to us both that the coins Crazy Uncle Jack had left to me were much more than we imagined.

The lead in my stomach seemed to magically be replaced with a dozen hyperactive moths.

Several minutes passed in almost pure silence, with just the sounds of keys clacking away, as Jill and I watched in wonder as Brandis opened different sites and logged them in, going faster and faster with each discovery. He flipped through several pages using the log in information found on them.

"Holy cow, this is incredible," Brandis said as he turned to look at me, his face almost white.

"What is it?" Jill asked.

"Jack has more cryptocurrency than I have ever seen before, and he's had it for years. I think he was probably one of the first people to buy Bitcoin, and he has quite a bit. I can't even imagine what this is all worth. I don't know enough about it all," Brandis said, turning back to the computers.

"Crypto what?" Jill asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"Cryptocurrency, it's a digital money," I said, as I tried to fully understand exactly what was happening here.

"Well, like I said, I don't understand all this digital computer stuff. Whatever it is, whatever it is worth, Jack wanted you to have it. So, it's all yours. I wouldn't know what to do with it anyway, " Jill said with a shrug as she patted my arm.

Crazy Uncle Jack.

All those years I spent going on adventures, using metal detectors to find coins in the dirt. The hours spent cleaning and shining them and putting them into his special coin books. Never in a million years would I have imagined he would have learned about cryptocurrency and digital coins. Never in a million years would I have imagined he would have left it all to me.

Maybe it took a certain level of crazy to believe in digital coins and buying them. I wonder if he even knew really what he had.

Crazy Uncle Jack was my family treasure, in more ways than one.