For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
After finding all those “rocks” under the table, the guys hauled them all out and found more gold bars hidden underneath the “rocks”. ”What do you think Alfred?” asked John, “That has to be worth a lot of money. There are a lot of diamonds and other gems in there.” John was right, and each type of gemstones were in their own smaller box inside the larger box.
Alfred is an expert when it comes to gems, that was his “profession” when he was on the other side of the law. He began looking through the gems and he even knew who owned some of them originally and when they were stolen, plus their approximate value today. He said many of these were never advertised as being stolen as the owners wanted it kept quiet and due to the importance of these people, the police were willing to do that for them.
Nearly all of the blue diamonds were owned by one family, except the two largest. Blue diamonds of that quality are worth nearly $4 million per carat. There was also pink diamonds that are over $1 million per carat. There were rubies that generally sell for over $1 million per carat, emeralds that sell for over $300,000 per carat.
Alfred valued the haul at over $1 billion, with all of the gold and silver bars too. Lauren is going to be furious over losing all of this money. That is good. I would like to see her face when she finds out, and we will make sure she does find out. I told everyone they were coming home and that I would be sending the helicopters out to pick them up as quickly as possible, so they needed to get ready. We would leave all of our stuff to be picked up at a later date.
The gold and silver would be left in the SUV’s, with a little surprise, if Lauren sends men in to try and retrieve them. Once the road has been plowed we would then go and get them ourselves, and that should not be too long from now. Baldwin is putting pressure on the State to plow that road quickly or he would have his own equipment do it and charge them for it. That would likely be quicker anyway.
Now that I know Cheryl’s name I can call her family to let them know she is okay and looking forward to coming home. So, after talking with Rock I decided to call Jack Stillwater, Cheryl’s father. I certainly was not expecting what happened. I was in my bedroom with Beryan massaging my back, Dawn was also there to help Beryan move me around.
I could not bend at all now and had to be lifted, walked around, basically everything had to be done for me. Since Bridgette was away and Chantelle had the flu and with several already in the clinic with a couple of our girls over there helping, it was decided that I should stay at home. Here I had a lot of help and the girls could take turns looking after me.
Sky gave explicit orders that only the girls could look after me, not the guys. She said the girls would look after me properly, the guys would not. She is probably right about that. I think 2 or 3 more of our girls need to take some basic nurses training, we could definitely use extra nurses around here. Sky said there needs to be 2 nurses just to look after me since I get hurt more than everyone else put together. Not sure what she meant by that.
Anyway, I had my phone on speaker since I was lying down and I did not mind if the girls heard the call. Jack answered the phone and I proceeded to tell him about Cheryl and he cut me off saying he no longer had a daughter named Cheryl. ”She shamed her whole family and our good family name by exposing herself to the whole world!” he yelled, “We do not want that horrible creature back in this house! Do you hear me?”
“But she is your own daughter, how can you talk like that,” I replied, “she was forced into that, she did not go voluntarily. She needs her family now to help her after what she has been through.” ”What she has been through!!” he yelled, “Look what she has put us through! Everyone in town looking at us, pointing at us, because she decided to go into porn and shame us all.
Well she is not welcome, like I said before, you keep her away from here because if she shows up I will personally grab her and toss her right off my property!” Then Cheryl’s mother got on the phone. ”You tell that horrible witch that we do not want her here,” she began, “as far as I am concerned our dog is better than she is! I hate her for what she did to us! You tell her that for me!”
Then Jack came back on. ”There, you satisfied now?” he asked, “Now, don’t bother us anymore because she is no longer our daughter!” He then hung up. I was speechless for a while, then decided to call Rossana and tell her about the gems. She was excited and came to our place with some other people to check out the gems…
To Be Continued.
©2024 Steve McLeod.
Good morning everyone! Well, it is another cloudy day here, but still milder than last week which is certainly nice. Unfortunately, freezing drizzle or freezing rain is in the forecast too. That part is never a good thing. That wild ride in temperature changes, from mild to cold and back to mild so quickly, is something that I find hard on my health.
Unfortunately, that means a lot of extra pain for me, which of course means not being able to do much. Oh well. I’m not complaining, just talking. As you may remember, I am without a doctor now, which complicates certain things. And no new doctors are coming to our little town anytime soon, which is understandable really.

Male Hairy Woodpecker.
I mean, why would a doctor want to come to a small town like this, located in the middle of nowhere, when they can open a practice in a city? Oh well. Just talking again. There are some lazy snowflakes floating past my window right now, not many, just a few of them. There are also 2 pigeons flying around, and have been for the past 20 minutes or so.
There seems to be a lot more traffic on the street below than normal. I just typed that and suddenly it is all quiet on the street. I do miss all of my birds and other critters that used to come around at my previous apartment. That always helped through the long winters we get here. So, cabin fever has been bad this winter. Cabin fever is real, not some made up thing.

Here he is again.
The real name is SAD, or, Seasonal Affective Disorder. It hits me every year, but this year has been especially bad. I like calling it cabin fever, sounds better. International Cabin Fever Day is coming up on Friday. It’s a big celebration day for Muffin and I. We have cake, games and wear mismatched clothes. Well, Muffin does not wear clothes.
I tried her with them one year. I will just say that did not turn out well. For me. Why not join in the fun and wear mismatched clothes, or at least socks, and dance around the room drinking a cup of tea? You might want to close the drapes and curtains on the windows first. Oh well.

Black-capped Chickadee.
Yeah, I know, I am a bit crazy, but you already knew that. Hard to believe I have not used my camera in 25 days. That has to be a record for me. But, there is not much reason to use it around here. Oh well. I better stop. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2024 Steve McLeod.