Don Bruns - Too Much Stuff

“I would bet you that someone rakes the sand over there.”

“And I would bet that the cleaning service will have tomorrow off. Then they’ll have to come in the next day and clean all of those rooms from these late check-ins.” I remembered the conversation with our desk clerk at the Cove.

“Damn. There’s something there we weren’t supposed to see. And maybe somebody tried to shoot us today because we did see it.” James stretched and we started walking the half mile back to the van.

“Something in those suitcases.”

We walked back in silence, each of us rerunning the scene we’d witnessed. Something worth holding us and threatening us with a gun.

A night bird’s shrill call startled us.

“What were they saying back there?” James got into the truck and Em and I climbed into the passenger side.

“Obviously it was Spanish.”

“I hate to say it, Skip, but I think James may be right. They could be smuggling drugs. Using kids, men, women-”

“Anybody remember high school Spanish?” I asked as James turned the key.

And turned the key. And turned the key.

“Guys, I think our battery just died.”

It turned out that Em had AAA coverage. They’d come, tow the truck, and drive us back to the Cove. So she called them on her iPhone. It also turned out that we had to wait two hours, so we walked. That only took about an hour and fifteen minutes.

We crashed for three hours and then the phone rang. I was groggy, tired, and sore and not in the mood to talk to James or whoever was making a conscious effort to bother me.

“’Lo.”

“Skip, it’s Maria Sanko.”

I couldn’t think of anything to say.

“I want to apologize for the way I acted the other night. The other morning. You probably had a right to accuse me of-”

“Hey, I’m sorry. I actually appreciate the fact that you came out to see how we were doing. Looking out for us.”

“I was out there because if you found gold, I wanted some.”

I wanted to believe she actually cared about us, but then I remembered that we’d lied to her the entire time we’d known her.

“So, what do you want now?”

“First of all, did you find anything?”

I was quiet for a moment. Lying to Maria was becoming a habit. I hated to do it, but-

“No. We were chased by dogs the first night and the second time we went, well, you were there. You saw what happened.”

“Yeah. What was that all about? I didn’t tell anyone you were going to be there. I hope you’ll believe me.”

“Do you know those guys? O’Neill and the motel manager?”

“I know who they are. And I’ve pitched Dr. O’Neill some property recently. There’s an old motel down where Zane Grey’s fishing camp used to be, south of here. It’s in foreclosure, and I was trying to interest him in buying it. Maybe fix it up, give it the Zane Grey western theme and, you know.”

I didn’t. Zane Grey had been a western novelist, and I knew he’d frequented the Keys, but that was about it.

“So, Maria, you know him, this O’Neill?”

“He called me yesterday.”

“Wants to buy your motel?”

“No. That’s still for sale.”

“What did he want?”

“He knew I was the one on the Harley. He wanted me to give you a message. He said he wants you to stay off his property, stay away from the medical building, don’t go near the vacant lot, and, oh, he wants his gun back.”

“Well, you delivered the message. Now, I’ve got to get back to sleep. It was a late night.” Lots of messages being delivered.

“He was pissed, Skip. And he’s usually a very nice man.”

He certainly hadn’t shown that trait to me.

“I’ll take it under advisement. Thanks, Maria.”

“Skip. If there’s anything else I can do-”

I hung up. There wasn’t. At least not then.

Em drove to the library, the three of us squeezed into her two-seat sports car. James cursed the entire two-mile trip.

“Are you going to be able to squeeze a battery for your truck out of your employer, James?” Em asked. The spymobile still sat half a mile from the infamous vacant lot that we’d pillaged.

“I certainly hope so, because I swear we’re not going back with Skip and me in each other’s damned laps.”

She just smiled as she pulled into the library parking lot.

“Guys, I have some good news for you.”

Kathy motioned us into her office, the makeshift lab.

“The paper has moistened considerably. I think we can make this thing work with a minimum of effort.”

She had already removed the folded letter from the jerry-rigged humidor, and thankfully hadn’t opened it yet.

“I’ve got the strips. We can paste this thing together and I will be happy to share it with whomever you want. But,” she hesitated, “I would like the permission to print the contents in our newsletter.”

I shivered. The contents could be worth millions of dollars. Millions.

“I’m afraid that we can’t promise that, Kathy.” I didn’t want any stipulations on what we had to do.

She glanced at the damp piece of evidence. The piece of paper that could dictate our future livelihood.

“It’s historic.” As if that gave her the right.

“And, it’s private. It actually belongs to our employer’s great-grandfather and I’m afraid we can’t authorize that the contents can be made public.”

She frowned. Librarians probably think that everything that is readable should be made public.

“You’ll ask her?”

“We will,” I said. But the answer was a given.

She started unfolding the ancient piece, very slowly unwrapping it. With a damp sponge she moistened the creases, and sure enough, the paper responded. The first fold-over flattened out without any damage to the piece.

The second fold was more troublesome and even with extra moisture it cracked.

“You’ll have that,” she said, working with her hands like a surgeon.

There were more cracks and it was obvious that some of the paper would need adhesive.

Our archivist worked for forty minutes, slowly unwrapping the old message. When she was done, we had six pieces of paper. I’d tried to read some of it, but the way the letter unfolded, the writing was mostly on the underside of the paper.

When she finally turned one of the six pieces over and we studied the words, I saw James with a big grin on his face.

L dp vdih .

With the first group of letters I knew we were safe. It was all written in code.

She’d sprung for the new battery, and James was happy.

Mrs. T. had the template and she worked on it at the desk as the three of us sipped mai tais on her balcony. Yes, we were guests at a resort. But there were certain levels of resort living and this lady was right at the top. The room was better, the view was better, the drinks, hand delivered from the bar, were better.

“Kathy was disappointed.” James was leaning out over the railing, watching two girls in bikinis sunning themselves poolside.

“First of all because she couldn’t read it and secondly because we wouldn’t let her make a copy of it.” She’d asked again if the contents could be kept at the library. I politely declined. The lady was nice and had seriously helped our cause, but-

“It was truly impressive how she melted the Japanese tissue into the paper.” Em had been fascinated with the process. There was almost no sign of the breaks in the original manuscript.

“Kids,” she called from inside.

When we stuck our heads in the door, she motioned for us to come in.

“Sit down.”

“Good news?”

“I don’t know.”