Quicksilver

16

At the bottom of the sluiceway the land leveled out.

I was back in Notch Valley.

Several yards beyond was the campfire ring. Sitting around the campfire were the three men I’d left at the main tunnel entrance. Robert and Walter sat side by side on a log on one side of the ring. Henry sat on a low boulder on the other side. Around his waist he wore a belt bag, which pouched next to the holster. His Glock hand rested on the belt bag.

The little fire struggled.

As he watched me approach, Henry picked up a ferny spray of dried mountain misery and tossed it onto the embers and the fire leapt to life and Henry explained in his fragile soulless voice, “The odor repels insects.”

Holy hell it was some kind of bizarre camp-out.

Henry nodded at an unoccupied boulder and I came over and took a seat. So chilled that I hunched toward the fire and held out my hands.

My eyes caught Walter’s eyes and I read caution there.

Henry watched me intently, the way a kid who’s built a campfire in the woods waits for Mom’s approval. Mom nodded, cautious. Good work, Henry. Now let’s go home and by the way you’re grounded for life.

Henry spoke. “What did you find?”

I cast about. Where to begin?

He said, “You came all the way.”

“How did you…?”

Walter cut in. “We heard you.”

Oh yeah. Back up at the bunker. Knocking at the door. Shouting hello.

“What did you find?” Henry repeated.

I swallowed. Whatever I said in answer was going to have consequence.

“What did you find?” he said again, Henry the fixated kid who keeps on asking asking asking…

Be very careful, lady. You’ve got to give him something.

As I hesitated I noticed Robert’s keen attention. Nearly as keen as his brother, it seemed, to learn if I’d found something worthy in the tunnel.

What could I say? The gravel was not blooming gold. The miners had stopped, given up, run out of money to cover the costs. All I’d found in there was the ancient bearer of treasure — the deep blue lead. Henry awaited my answer. I thought, it’s deeply risky to bullshit this life-long seeker of legends. Very slowly, very carefully, I put my field kit on the ground and opened it. I withdrew the chunk of cemented gravel that I’d hacked free.

I held it up so that all three men could see it.

In the pearly light the rock face looked blue-gray, like the face of an ice crevasse. For a flash I thought I saw Walter respond, thought I glimpsed the Dogtown boy who fell in love with painted nuggets and grew up to thrill to the geology of the deep blue lead. But Walter just jerked a shoulder in the direction of Henry and the gun, and gave me a look. Focus, dear.

Henry focused. He was examining the rock with a disciple’s concentration. His face twitched, like a fly had buzzed him. Shoo fly. His hands began to shake. The gun bobbed on his knees. He said, “Please give it to me.”

I could not reach him. I’d have to stand and take three steps to hand the rock to him. I thought that over.

“Please bring it to me, Cathy.”

“It’s Cassie,” I said. Like that mattered.

“Cassie Cassie Cassie Cassie.” He nodded to himself. “Cassie.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Robert and Walter on alert. Waiting for something? Waiting for me. I leaned forward and tossed the rock to Henry. It landed behind him.

He did not turn to look. His hands steadied on the gun. “Only a child falls for that trick.”

“It wasn’t a…”

“I’m not your brother Henry.”

I twitched. Hard. Like I’d been punched.

“My brother told me about your brother who died. We have the same name. It’s only a name, Cathy.”

“Cassie,” I said, automatically.

“I have trouble with names,” he said.

So the fuck did I.

Still having trouble with Henrys. It was more than a name that linked the two Henrys, it was the fragility of a boy with hemophilia and a man with mercury poisoning, and it was guilt, Robert’s guilt about his brother and my guilt about my brother, and isn’t that a kicker that guilt trumps logic every time?

Oh boy, get a grip Cathy.

I watched Henry’s hands on the Glock. Shaking again. One twitch and his finger trips the trigger and then he shoots his brother. Or Walter. Or me. Accidentally, on purpose, doesn’t matter, shot is shot.

He said, “How did your brother…”

“Accident,” I snapped.

“What more did you find?”

Short attention span, Henry? My mind raced. I gave him the only thing I had. I jerked a thumb, pointing uphill. “I found an outcrop of chiastolite hornfels.”

“Is that all?”

Well that answered that. He’d already seen it. And it wasn’t enough. Okay then, I’d make it enough. “Somewhere around here, Henry, you’ve got hornfels intersecting an auriferous channel. Maybe near the existing tunnel, maybe a deeper or parallel channel. Maybe somewhere out here.”

Henry listened.

Walter jumped in. “That’s right, Henry. The channels were laid down in different ages. You can have later channels intersecting earlier channels, channels occupying different positions laterally as well as in elevation — all in the same general area. You understand the geology, son?”

Henry shifted his fevered gaze to Walter. “Not like you do.”

“Nevertheless, you’ve had a couple of days to look around.”

Henry said, “A couple of weeks.”

A couple of weeks?

Walter and I exchanged a look. Had we misremembered Robert’s story, back at the lab? I could have sworn Robert had told us that his father died a month ago, and then a week later he and Henry got together to go through their father’s things. Which was when they’d found the ore specimen in the attic. And then — two-plus weeks after that—Henry had gone off hunting, leaving the so-called suicide note.

Robert had not said what Henry was doing in those two-plus weeks in between finding the rock and setting out to find the source.

Shit.

Robert gaped at his brother. Surprised as we were.

Henry stared back.

“Hey Bro,” Robert said, finding his voice. “What the hell?”

“What the hell,” Henry echoed.

“You want me to put two and two together?” Robert looked at the sky, looked at the ground, taking the time to do the math, struggling to catch up. And then he faced his brother. “Well shit, Henry, looks like that equals four. You went looking for the source right after we found the rock. Right? And you found it. You found this place. You spent a couple of weeks at it. And then three days ago you went home and left me a note and half the rock and then you took off again. You left me clues and expected me to follow.”

“You followed,” Henry said.

“Damn straight I did.”

“You found me.”

“How could I miss? I read you loud and clear. Found the bandana on the hike in. Smelled the mountain misery — you build a little campfire up top? I assume kicking the rocks over the edge was an accident. And then down in the pit, I found the dime. I played it out. And then that flask in the river. I understand. It’s all cool, Henry. I’m here now. I’m listening to you.”

“And I’m listening to you,” Henry said.

I thought, this is isn’t going anywhere good.

“Why didn’t you just talk to me, Henry? That day in Dad’s attic. We could have talked.”

“No we could not.”

“Meaning what? We need to play games to talk?”

“That’s how we roll.”

Robert gave a short laugh, a bark. “Where’d you pick up that phrase?”

“From the movies.”

“It’s a little cliched. I wouldn’t use it if I were you.”

“How should I talk, R?”

“R?”

“You call me Bro, I call you R. It’s cool.”

“You’re playing games with my head, Henry.”

“That’s right.”

“So what’s this game called? Bro.”

“It needs a name.”

“How about brothers?” Robert said.

“That’s good.”

“How does it start?”

“You apologize.”

‘No problem,” Robert said. “I apologize.”

“Do you know for what?”

Robert said, “For whatever I did to offend you.”

Henry’s hands began to shake. He shook out his arms, gun bobbing in his clenched fists like a jackhammer. He pressed his hands back onto his knees and steadied himself. Steadied the gun. He repeated, “Do you know for what?”

“I just said I…” Robert lifted his own hands, spread them wide. “Sure, I know. For being a bully of a big brother. All the times I put you down.”

“That’s when we were kids.”

“I don’t recall being a shithead to you as an adult.”

“Do you know for what?”

Robert said softly, “Not just being a bully. Enabling you to mess around with the mercury. I’m truly sorry Henry.”

“That’s when we were kids.”

Robert blinked. “Then I don’t know what you want me to apologize for.”

“Think.”

“If I was a shithead as an adult, I apologize for that too. We good?”

Henry didn’t answer.

“Henry,” I blurted, “your brother came to us to help you.”

Henry turned to me. “Thank you Cathy.”

And then he looked beyond me, beyond us all, to the hillside that bordered the mine works canyon.