The Old Way

The whole court case became a he said, she said circumstantial case. In the end Harold was acquitted of any crime against the Connors. He was sentenced to time served for resisting arrest. As soon as the court case was over Harold, Patrice and her friends began spreading rumors about Seth and his deviant sexual practices. Finally Seth had enough. He had been arrested twice for brawling when he took exception to comments people made to him about his alleged desire to become a cuckold. One evening Seth entered his parent's part of the house and said, "Mom, Dad I've had enough of this crap. It's been almost seven months since Harold and Patrice tried to mess with us and things are just getting worse. I'm leaving town. I don't have a great job here anyway. I think I'll just go out to that little place grandpa left me in Colorado and stay a while. I'll try to find some kind of work out there to get by on at least until this crap blows over. If I stay here I'm going to end up in serious trouble when I take one of the assholes out."

Seth went to work the next day and gave his two week notice. His employer didn't even try to talk him into staying. In fact, his supervisor, when told Seth had quit, said, "Good riddance. We really didn't need your kind working here anyway. The employer told Seth to not bother coming back the next day. He offered to pay him through the end of the week if he would just leave and not bother them any longer. It took Seth three days to get ready to leave town. Early on a Saturday morning Seth sorrowfully hugged his mother and father good bye and departed headed for his new life on his little 640 acre plot of ground in Colorado. His old truck was loaded with his bed a comfortable chair, his clothes and a few pots, pans and other dishes. He just hoped one of the old buildings on the place was still in good enough shape he could stay in it. It had been almost six years since he or his parent's had been there so he really didn't expect too much.

Seth's land was located between Silverton and Telluride Colorado back in the mountains. It had a small mining settlement and an abandoned gold mine on it. No one lived in the little settlement and it showed on the maps as a ghost town. Seth had loved the place when he and his parents visited during his childhood. He was looking forward to rebuilding his life there. It was early enough in the spring he hoped he could plant a small garden to supplement his food supply. He also planned to hunt and fish for much of his meat.

After collecting his final pay, paying his final bills and selling the possessions he wasn't taking with him he had almost $2700.00 in cash. That would have to last him until he found work.

When Seth arrived at the narrow trail up to his place he stopped his truck. He was shocked at the mess he saw. The trail was washed out and almost impassable. There were rocks and deep ditches through it as far as he could see. Nothing but a 4 wheel drive vehicle could possibly make it up the trail. It was in such bad shape he worried about his truck making it. One of the first jobs he would have to do was improve the trail somewhat. He didn't want it to look too inviting however. He could do without company.

Seth walked almost a half mile up the trail throwing sticks and down trees out of the trail and putting rocks in the worst of the ditches. He was finally within sight of his little ghost town. He hoped he had improved the trail enough he could get his truck to his new home. He returned to his truck and began the nearly three quarter mile drive up into the mountains to his land. The town was almost exactly in the middle of his section of land but the trail twisted enough it was almost three fourths of a mile drive. Seth placed the gearbox in 4X4 LO range and took off in low gear. He was moving so slowly the speedometer barely moved off the zero mark. The old truck was bouncing and rocking almost enough to throw him out. Every so often he would stop and work again on the worst of the ditches to make the road marginally passable so he could move on.

Finally Seth arrived at the mine site. He stopped his truck and surveyed his new home. Most of the buildings had fallen down or the roof had collapsed. The shelter over the mine shaft was still standing. The machine shop and mine office appeared to be standing still and to his surprise their roofs appeared to be in place. He wouldn't assume they were watertight however. A couple of the other smaller buildings seemed to be more or less in one piece also.

Seth pulled his truck up as close to the covered mine shaft as he could and stopped. He was about 25 feet from the mine office. It was almost noon so he quickly fixed himself a sandwich. Seth began walking around the area while he ate his sandwich and drank a bottle of water. No, he didn't waste money on store bought water. He had several old milk jugs he filled with water to bring with him. He had no idea if the water coming from the stream beside the mine was safe to drink. One of the things he had to do was get it tested or buy filters to filter his drinking water. Until he did that he would have to boil it for safety.

Seth walked up the stream to where the penstock came out heading toward the mine. He saw it was blocked off and moved the mechanism to see if he could still open it. He finally managed to break the gears loose and watched as water flowed into the diversion. This had been the water used to clean the ore years ago and also to run a small generator for what electricity the mine used. To his surprise there were minimal leaks in the pipe. He closed the gate once again and followed the pipe toward the mine.

When he came to the small generator he tried to turn the water wheel to turn it. It appeared to be frozen. Seth didn't know if the metal was just rusted together or if the generator itself was seized up. Either way he had some work to do before he had power. If the generator itself was bad he probably didn't have enough money to repair it.

Seth moved on down the hill to the outlaying buildings. As he suspected most of them were beyond repair. One building, the old general store and bar was still in marginal shape. To his surprise he could even see some shelves and other items inside it. He didn't try to open the door when he found it to be locked. That could come later. Seth moved on to the machine shop next. It was located beside the flume and generator building.

When Seth came to the machine shop he did force it open. It was a large building, perhaps the size of a basketball court. To Seth's surprise it was filled with machines. There were lathes, welders, torches and other metal working tools. In the rear of the building was something almost priceless to Seth. There was a D3 Cat dozer sitting just inside a garage bay. There were some other pieces equipment but he didn't know what they might be. Oh, some of them were obviously mining gear. There were winches, buckets, ore carts and so forth. There was a huge amount of steel beams, pipes and girders as well as some steel plate stacked inside too.

After Seth's quick journey of exploration he decided he could obtain some quick cash from selling scrap steel if he absolutely had to. Of course that assumed he could clean up the road enough to get it out. Next Seth moved on to the one remaining building—the office. To his surprise he found it to be in excellent shape. Of course it had been the building his family had used when they came on their last trip. It had been kept in better repair because they used it when they visited the site. Seth backed his truck up to the small porch and unloaded his bed and other possessions. He would live it this building for a while.

Seth next turned his attention to the old mine. He hoped there would be something in it that would be saleable. Of course, like many, he had gold fever. He dreamed of finding gold inside but he knew there were only two chances of that--slim and none. Seth had done some research on the internet before he left home. He knew the mining technology used in the fifties and sixties when the mine was closed were not as good as today's. Most mines left recoverable amounts of gold in the tailings during those days. He had done some research on recovering that gold. As far as he could tell he could not afford the technology to reprocess the tailings even if he had the knowledge to do it.

Seth opened the gate to the mine shaft and carefully began exploring. He was careful, very careful. This was an old shaft and weak in many places therefore very dangerous. Just inside the mine Seth found more ore carts and hand tools. There were even several kerosene lanterns and helmets. He put on one of the helmets and shook several of the lamps. Some of them even had some kerosene in them. He poured the kerosene together into one lamp and found a good wick. He lit the lamp and had light. Off he moved to see what he could discover.

After almost two hours Seth exited the mine. The sun was going down and he was tired. He got his soap and went to the stream for a quick COLD bath. When he returned to the office he made another sandwich had some chips and a can of pork and beans for supper. Seth sat on the porch relaxing and making plans for the next few days. He decided his first priority was to patch the holes in the penstock and flume then try to get the generator running. He had an old small apartment size refrigerator he could use if he could get power. After that he would try and get the dozer working so he could plow a spot for a garden then he would clean up his road somewhat so he could get out easier.

The next five days were long and hard. Seth worked from sunrise to sunset. He tore the generator apart and cleaned it, greased it and inspected everything he could. He worked almost a whole day getting the metal gears unfrozen so the water wheel would turn the generator. He repaired the wiring from the generator to the office building. Early the sixth morning Seth walked up the mountain to the gate on the penstock. He opened the gate and watched the water from the stream flow down the sluice and into the penstock. There were still a few small leaks but he was pleased with the job he had done on it.

Next Seth moved to the waterwheel. He opened the diversion and watched as the water fell on the wheel. It began to turn and the generator turned with it. Revolutions built up, there was a slight hum. The lights in the office flickered to a dim orange glow. Seth smiled and yelled pumping his fist in the air. He had power. He rapidly moved to the office and picked up an ancient volt meter to test the voltage he had. Seth hissed yes once again when the meter showed about 113 volts. He was in business. Seth plugged his refrigerator in and let it begin cooling down. He sat and rested for a moment then moved to the shop and his next project—the dozer.

He opened the large door into the shop and looked around. There were a few electric outlets and a half dozen lights. Seth began checking the wiring in preparation for connecting the shop to the generator. That took a couple of hours but about noon he had power to part of the shop and the lights came on. Now he could work on his dozer.

Seth checked the oil and fuel. The dozer was dry. There was no fuel and no oil in the engine. Whoever had parked it in the building had stored it correctly. The battery had been disconnected also. He drove his truck up to the door and got out his jumper cables. He wanted to see if the engine would turn over before he spent any money on batteries, fuel, oil or parts. Of course since his truck was diesel he could always use the fuel in it.

Seth tried to turn the engine by hand. He thought it moved slightly but he wasn't sure. He hooked up the cables and climbed onto the dozer. He hit the switch. Nothing. He got off and looked around. He found a couple of wires mice or rats had chewed in half. He patched them and inspected the dozer once more. He could see nothing else. He climbed up once more and hit the switch. The engine groaned and cycled. He let the key go and smiled. It wasn't frozen. He began making a list of things he needed from town—parts, lubricants, fuel, groceries and so forth. Tomorrow he would go spend some money.

The rest of the day Seth wandered around his little mine exploring and relaxing. He did a few odd jobs but generally speaking he just enjoyed the beautiful spring day. It was early in the season so nights were still cold. Of course this high in the mountains the nights were pretty cool all summer long. Seth went to bed early and rose early. Already he was feeling better physically. He worked long and hard daily and enjoyed the crisp clean mountain air. All he missed was human companionship.

Early the next morning Seth rose and jumped in his truck for the trip to town. He didn't bother eating breakfast. In fact, food was pretty scarce after the long time he had spent in the mountains already. He decided he would have to go hunting and fishing in a day or two. He knew it wasn't hunting season but he would take his chances. It was either that or cut way back on meat and he was a carnivore at heart.

The drive to Telluride was not long in distance but it was long in time. He once again had to drive slowly to get off his property to the poorly maintained dirt road. From there the drive was slow but easier until he got to a better road that took him to Telluride. The town was small but being a tourist town there were stores for most of what he needed. The most trouble he had was finding the batteries and other parts he needed to repair some of the equipment on his place. By the time his shopping trip was completed Seth had spent $457 and change of his meager cash stash.

Seth made it home late mid afternoon. He spent almost an hour just unloading his purchases. He figured he had purchased enough canned and dry food to last at least three weeks. His intention was to go into town no more often than once a month but he knew that would not be possible until he was done repairing things around the place. He wanted to only repair a minimum amount of equipment but he did have to do some repairs.

By the time everything was unloaded and put away Seth was exhausted. He was as tired as if he had worked the full day on his place. Seth made another trip to the stream for a cold bath and turned in at full dusk that evening. Seth had purchased some meat in town so he put off hunting or fishing for a day or two. The next two days he spent working on the dozer. Finally just after noon on the second day he got it started. As far as he knew he had lubricated everything that needed it. He had changed all the fluids and filters. He was ready to go if it would move. During his work on the machine he found the undercarriage was maybe only 25% worn. Even though the machine was an early 1950's manufacture it was in almost new condition.

Seth was grinning like a Cheshire cat when he moved his machine slowly out of the building into the late afternoon sunlight. Seth moved as quickly as the machine would go toward the road and began working on it, smoothing out the holes and ditches. He worked for almost two hours and had almost half the road in good shape before he decided he needed to quit for the day. The light was becoming poor and he was hungry. When Seth returned to the garage and stopped the dozer he looked it over carefully.

Upon his after operation checks Seth found two hydraulic hoses that were leaking. He had been afraid they were too old and rotten to take the pressure of the work. He decided to keep using the dozer the next day and hope they didn't rupture. He didn't want to lose his hydraulic fluid but he also didn't want to make another trip to town this soon.

Seth was within sight of the main road before he decided he needed to stop using the dozer. He didn't want to rupture the hoses and he wanted to leave the first part of the road in poor shape to discourage people from driving down to his place. He walked to the road and looked back toward his place. He couldn't see the road improvements. He would just leave the first quarter mile rough and nearly impassable. He would drive slowly when he first turned off the state road into his property.

When Seth got back to his home he stopped the dozer inside the garage once more. He was closing the door when he thought he saw movement inside one of the fallen buildings farthest from the mine. He always carried a pistol for protection from snakes and in the hopes of killing some game for a meal. He moved slowly and carefully out the walk door and toward the building keeping out of sight as much as he could.

When Seth got within sight of the building he stopped and hid while he looked it over carefully. He thought he heard a slight sound, almost a moan coming from within it. Seth moved slowly and carefully toward the building. Finally he came to the side of it and believed he was still unseen. He moved to a window opening and carefully looked inside. There lying on a dirty blanket was an old man. His leg was swollen and bloody. Tending him was an older woman and a younger one. There were three small dirty packs on the floor.

Seth pulled his pistol and held it in sight just inside the window. He said, "Who are you people. What are you doing here?"

The man didn't even move. The two women jumped and looked toward him. The old woman showed defeat and bone deep exhaustion. The younger woman jerked her head toward Seth and clenched her jaw. Her face showed sorrow, fear and resignation. She said, "Can't you just leave us alone? Haven't you done enough to us? Please, just go. We are leaving and won't tell what we know. Who would believe us anyway?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I do know you're trespassing on my land so I have a right to know who you are and what you're doing here. Do you need a doctor? That man looks like he should be in a hospital not laying here in an old fallen down building."

"NO! No hospitals. We have no money and can't afford doctors. We're just trying to get back to the reservation. Maybe our people will take us in. Can't you please just leave us alone?"

Seth moved farther inside the hut and gently pushed the young woman aside. He reached out and took the bandage off the old man. His leg was badly lacerated and filthy. While he was looking at the wound he heard the young woman's stomach growl. He made his decision and stood rapidly. When he did that both women jumped back and looked scared.

Seth said, "That is a nasty looking wound. Let's take him up to my house. We'll clean it and try to doctor it some."

The two women looked at each other and spoke in a language Seth didn't understand. Finally the young one said, "We don't have much choice do we? You're the one with the gun."

Seth looked surprised and realized he was still holding his pistol. He sheepishly put it back in his holster then leaned down and picked the old man up. He was skin and bone. He would be surprised if he weighed 100 pounds. Seth moved out of the old fallen down building and walked toward his quarters. The two women followed.

When Seth got to the old office he placed the man on his table and turned on the light overhead. Seth moved to his stove and started a fire then placed a pot of water on it to warm. While the water was warming, then boiling he removed the dirty bandages and washed the wound with soap and water. He washed a lot of dirt and gravel from the wound. He broke several scabs loose and pus ran from the wound.

The young woman was trying to help him as he worked. Every so often he heard her stomach growl again. She would stare at his shelves of food. Finally Seth had done all he could until the water got hot. He turned to the two women and said, "OK. I can tell you're hungry. So am I. How about I make us some supper while we wait on the water to boil?"