The Pond

It was a blustery night in the mountains. The snow was blowing sideways through the thick forest. The figure of a man struggling to stand against the wind outlined the scene. His hat was frozen to his head. He approached the small cabin hopeful of a warm smile and relief. He could see a light on.

Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.

He paused.

The blistering blizzard was causing the hair on his knuckles to curl.

Finally, the door opened. A grizzled, scruffy bearded old man met him. "Can I help ya?"

The stranger nodded. "I'm Rufus McGill from Abilene, Texas. I need some help."

The old man took him by the left shoulder. "Well get in here before we both freeze to death."

"Thanks." He shut the door behind him. The fire on the stone hearth illuminated the small living room. The old man had a rocking chair which he offered to his new friend.

"Much obliged."

"I don't have any feed for your animal."

"My horse was killed in the earthquake a couple of days ago." He kicked his boots together to knock off some of the caked in snow. He reached down to pry them off.

"I forgot my manners." He walked out from a bedroom with a red and black checkered quilt. "Dilbert Jones: Carson City, Nevada." He handed Rufus the quilt.

He took off his hat and placed it on a small wood table between the couch and the fireplace.

"I got plenty of deer soup and crackers," Dilbert said proudly.

"You are too kind, my friend." He managed to slip off the right boot. He grabbed the left boot. "Whiskey?"

"A half bottle... for medical purposes only. Plenty of Apple cider and water."

Rufus took off the other boot. "What kind of prospector buys only one bottle of whiskey?"

Dilbert spoke up from the kitchen. "The kind that wants to survive Alaska in the winter. I studied up on the whole experience before I came up to the peninsula." He walked into the living room carrying a tray with a clay wood bowl and glass.

"Did you know," he set the tray on a table. "That 90% of prospectors fail in their first year?"

Rufus walked up to the table. "Is that a fact?"

"They waste money on drink, gambling and women. Most have a partner who either quits when the going gets tough or steals the gold you panned for and rides back to Ketchikan." He took a seat in the chair opposite the table.

Rufus wiped his mouth with his hand. "Vegetables in the soup?"

"I used my money to buy two years worth of supplies. Salt, vegetables, tonic water, spices, potatoes, beef jerky, anything I could eat to survive the winter, which up here, goes from September to May."

"That doesn't leave much time for prospecting."

"The only thing a man should focus on is studying his time. My days are scheduled. In the summer, I pan for gold and I reinforce this cabin. Double walls. Double roof. It is sturdy. No force of nature can do me harm."

"The forces of nature sure did me harm with that earthquake. The South face of Mount Trevor collapsed. I lost my horse and all of my equipment." He pointed to the back door. "Everything I cared about is in that frozen pond."

Dilbert sighed. "I know that feeling. It's tough to lose everything." He got a distant gaze in his eyes. "Nine years ago I was... I was not the same man that I am today. I neglected my family. Every paycheck I got from the logging company went to the saloon. Only later did I hear from my boss that he was actually holding back part of my pay so my wife and daughters wouldn't starve to death."

He picked at the hair in his chin. "One night I came home from the saloon to find my house burned to the ground. The chimney had gotten full. I had never cleaned it. They all died a most miserable death. My daughter's were four and seven. They never had the chance to know me as anything more than an occasional semi-sober visitor to the house."

He shook his head. "After that.... I stopped caring about anyone or anything. One day, I just up and walked out of Carson City. I never turned back. My ma and pa had passed. No kin. No need to stay."

"Where'd ya go."

He shrugged. "Not sure. I spent weeks camping out on my own in the woods around Lake Tahoe. I wanted to get as far as possible away from people and especially alcohol."

Rufus finished his soup.

Dilbert continued. "I ended up in Seattle working at a warehouse. Good job. A comfortable bed. No liquor. I noticed we kept getting bulk shipments of canned goods heading to Alaska. I asked around and found out about the Klondike rush. America was growing. The country needed gold. I scrounged up all the money I could find and I bought a ticket due north."

Rufus put his bowl and glass on the tray. Dilbert picked carried it to the kitchen.

"I spent a year in Ketchikan reading books on wilderness survival and medicine and land rights. President William McKinley was generous to give us parcels in the mountains that nobody wanted. I moved here last June. That was..." He stared to the ceiling. "15 months. For a year and a half I have lived here. Poor. Alone. Happy." He pointed around the cabin. "It's not a mansion but I own it."

Rufus put his heavy coat on a stand near the fireplace. "You must be proud."

Dilbert sat on the couch next to him. "I am blessed. I got a second chance in life. I am 54 and if the good Lord wills, I got another decade or so in me to find the thing I need most out here. Collect my money. And then... I don't know... retire in Florida."

"Florida?" Rufus chuckled. "That's a big change from Alaska."

"If I go back to Seattle next July I could be there by September."

"You have a good life."

Dilbert agreed with him. He spoke in a somber tone. "If you came to rob me; go ahead and take it. Just, please, spare my life."

"I'm no thief. I am just a soldier following orders. Have you seen any Indians up here?"

"Nope. You are the first visitor I have had since April. Daniel Holt. He worked with me a couple of weeks and then he took off into the woods. I haven't seen him since. This is a tough life, it is especially hard if you are touched in the head."

"Well, I am not a lunatic: I am a soldier." He yawned. "No Indians in the area. I'll head back soon. Tomorrow, can we go out and look at that frozen pond. I want to survey the land. Is there gold out there?"

"Gold? No." He beamed a scheming smile. "I got something better." He stood up and walked to the bedroom. "Goodnight Rufus."

"Goodnight."

The next morning, the men were walking across the frozen pond. The dull gray ceiling of clouds painted the world in sepia tone.

"Hearty breakfast. I am in your debt."

Dilbert shrugged. "I'll add it to your bill."

"Bill? You're an inn keeper?"

"No. I am a prospector. But I am about to get a new partner. You."

"Me? I work for Uncle Sam."

He pointed ahead, "You're about to change professions."

Rufus was confused.

"Before I left Seattle, I purchased maps, a book on medicine, a Bible, some issues of National Geographic magazine and an Encyclopedia Britannica."

"And that helped you find gold?"

"It did. But a couple of days ago; after the earthquake, I found something much more valuable." He pointed to a spot up ahead of them. It was a dark mass underneath the ice.

"I am confused here. What am I looking at?"

He traced this mass with his hand. "Head. Shoulders. Arms. Torso. Legs. From heel to his pointy head... 9 feet, 3 inches."

"That.... That isn't a human being."

"The encyclopedia calls it a 'gorilla,' a giant monkey like you see at a circus. You and me are going in business."

Rufus got down on his knees and touched the ice. He took out a pocket watch. "Dilbert this quite a find."

"We can be partners. Tomorrow morning you and me will head into Ketchikan, buy a team of horses and move it on to a wagon. Folks will pay good money to see..." He held up his hands and shouted, "the Ice Giant of Alaska!"

Rufus spoke to his watch. "I found it." He smacked his lips together. "That sounds exciting. But, let me make you a better offer." He reached in his coat and brought out a roll of money. "$10,000. Take it and disappear."

Dilbert laughed. "$10,000? We'll make that the first week in business. We can stay at fancy hotels in San Francisco and Chicago..."

Rufus focused on the watch. "He doesn't want money."

A woman's voice came through, "Offer more. Captain, we need that machine."

"Who said that?"

"Hey buddy! $100,000 and 100 bars pure gold. You'll be richer than any other human."

Dilbert was bewildered, "Who are you?" As he spoke the sentence there was a loud commotion behind him. A massive, black triangle that was almost the size of the pond hovered a couple of feet above the ice. "What is this?"

A woman and several men dressed in black uniforms stepped out of the craft. She barked, "Why is he still here?"

Rufus pleaded, "Dilbert! Please! Do you want to be younger? Richer? See the world?"

A blue beam came from the ship. It cut out the ice around the hairy thing and lifted it above the frozen water.

Dilbert was confused.

"Take the money. Get lost. We need this machine to continue our monitoring of your planet's environment. Listen to me!" He hung his head. "Idiot." He pulled out a gun and shot Dilbert between the eyes. "What a waste."

"Report, Captain."

"This device was taking air quality and soil acidity reports. It was lost in a landslide. It took me a few hours to calculate its position."

"And the human?"

"A... A friend, commander. I needed him to show me the exact spot where he found the unit. He... He didn't deserve to..."

"Don't get attached, Captain. They're food. Human technology is advancing rapidly. In another hundred years or so they'll be better equipped. Fighting them would be an inconvenience for our colonists. Come on, let's go."

Rufus looked to Dilbert's frozen, open eyes. He turned around and sprinted back to the ship. He got a board and it zipped off into the gray sky.