The New Portal

The New portal

Linc wondered, now what? After the last portal experience, he was a
bit leery about getting into another close call type of portal, so he
just looked through the portal first. He couldn't see anything, so he
took a step through, and stood there in front of the portal. He could
see a bunch of the same small air cars here too. Was this portal
another opening to Peru, he wondered.
He couldn't see what was going on, so he took another step away from
the portal. He could see that he was on a hill above a plateau, where
a big black pyramid was being built. He saw what looked like sleds or
barges, being pushed around by some flying cars that were a bit larger
than the little ones flitting around, and they looked like they had
big bumpers on them. The barges were loaded with huge black stones,
that looked like lava. The cars were taking the barges up to the
pyramid, putting one end next to the stone that was already in place,
lifting the back end of the barge, and sliding the new stone into
place. Linc could see that there were barges all lined up. Ready to
unload their stones as well. Linc looked off to the right and saw that
the plateau was next to an ocean. He took his GPS out to see where he
was. Sure enough, he was back in Peru again.
Linc searched his memory for any thing about black pyramids. He
couldn't remember reading about any. He knew he couldn't go to the
future, so when was this time period he was in now? Everything was so
strange. Was this the same way all the pyramids were made? Were they
all made by the same people? Who are these people, and where did
they come from? When did all this construction take place?
All of a sudden one of the cars flew over his head from behind, then
it turned around and stopped, and came back to where he was. Stayed
there a bit, then shot off toward the pyramid. A few minutes later
another car came back up the hill toward him. This car had a big blue
bumper on it, that had a row of blue pulsating light on it. It
stopped about twenty feet in front of him at first, then came closer
and dropped almost to the ground in front of him. Linc saw that Angel
had turned and went back through the portal. Linc took a step back,
then turned and dove through the portal. A blast of air, sent him
colliding into the truck. Darn it he thought as he rubbed his
shoulder. This is getting to be a real pain, going through a portal.
You never know what to expect.
Linc went and sat by the fire pit and rubbed his leg, where it hit the
truck. Angel put the paw up on his leg so he petted her and told her
he was glad she went through the portal first. He said the heck with
it, he decided to not bother with a fire, since he was out of sight
unless someone drove up this road. He locked the truck, took the tote
with all the rocks he had collected that day and went to the retreat.
He filled the Jacuzzi tub and climbed in to soak his bruised body.
After a half hour or so he got out and fixed them some supper.
After cleanup, he placed all the rocks from the tote on the patio
table to clean up in the morning, then went to bed.
The next morning he woke before the coffeepot came on. He went out
with Angel and sat in the sun that was just coming up.
After a cup of coffee he started cleaning up the rocks. He had some
nice ones for his collection. He was thinking about turning one of
the rooms in the cave into a showroom for them. He put them back into
the tote to take down to the cave later.
Linc went into the office to process all of the latest data he had for
the specimens he had for the mine company.
They spent a few days recuperating then went back to the truck. Linc
wanted to check at the library in Aguila since it was Saturday and one
of the days it was open. After breaking camp, they went into town.
It was a little early, but he parked in front of the library. In a
few minutes another truck parked next to him. A young man got out and
came over to Linc's truck. The guy told him he was just going to open
up, and Linc could come on in, but the dog was not permitted. Linc
rolled down a window and told Angel, "on guard". The guy said not to
leave the window wide open because they had a lot of sticky fingers in
the town. Linc told him, "Angel will not let them touch anything in
the truck".
Inside the library Linc asked the guy where he would find info on the
mines in the area. The guy said, "my name is Frank Otis, and I can
tell you more about the mines around this area, more than you will
find in this library. My Dad was a miner who worked in a mine over in
the Stanton area before they closed it in 1958. He died last year,
but before he died, he took me and my older brother into most of the
mines around here. By the way, who are you and why do you ask". Linc
took a card from his wallet and handed it to Frank, saying I'm Lincoln
Hanks and I am a geologist looking into properties for a Mining
company". "Oh man!" Frank said, you have the kind of job I want. I
work at the gas station all week, and here on weekends to save money
for college". Linc asked him how his grades were and frank told him
he carried a B plus the last three years of high school. Linc asked
him why didn't he apply for a scholarship, with his good grades.
Frank said he has some applications in but they didn't look like they
were going to pan out. Linc said he went to BYU on a scholarship and
his grad average was only a B average. Frank said he would love to go
to BYU, but he wasn't a Mormon. Linc told him that the only thing
the people who put up the scholarships, cared about was the grades and
the persons determination the get a good education. He also told Frank
to go on line right away and get an application. Linc took his wallet
out again and handed Frank a card of his old professor and told him to
copy it, and when he got into BYU. This is the best teacher there and
he was also a top notch mineralogist as well. Told Frank how much he
had helped him since he graduated. Frank copied and gave Linc back
the card and thanked him for all the info. Then he told Linc all
about the mines in the surrounding area. Linc wanted to know more
about the big piles of milled tailings , that the guy at the museum
had told him about. He told Frank he had got samples from the piles
but wanted to know which mine they had came from. Frank told him, one
of the guys that had helped with the bagging of the tailings for
transfer to the smelter, that they found some new rare earth mineral
in it, just before the smelter was shut down. What Arizona needed
was some new opened up mining activity and a good smelter. There was a
lot of vacant land away from towns that could support a smelter. Linc
agreed and mentioned all the desert area around the mines at Swansea.
Frank said that was a good idea because there was a lot of good ore
still in those old mines, and it would have to be smelted. He said
the old tailings and the smelter slag still had good material in it.
Frank said his Dad always said if he had the money and backing, he
would have done it himself. He told Linc that some company down in
south America had bought the mines , but couldn't get the go ahead
from our government years ago to reopen them. Linc said he liked the
area, and was going to recommend it to the mining company himself.
Frank agreed it would benefit Arizona for sure.
Linc stood up and shook hand with Frank, when he heard Angel bark, and
some one screech.
Linc and Frank went outside to see a kid had the door of the truck
open. Linc asked the kid, what was going on, and why did he open the
door of the truck. Kid said he wanted to let the dog out so he could
pet him, but the dog wanted to bite him. Linc said he could have
petted her all day, but she would never let him touch anything in the
truck, then he closed the door and told Angel, "at ease, girl". Frank
told Linc the kid was a known sneak thief. He rapped the kid on the
head, and told him to start running for home, because he was going to
call his mom.
Frank reached in the window and petted Angel and scratched behind her
ears. She loved that.
Linc looked across the street toward the gas station and saw a lot of
people set up tables and put stuff out on them. He asked Frank what
was going on and Frank told him that every weekend people in town and
some of the towns around, set up to sell stuff. Some good stuff and a
bunch of fake Indian stuff. Told Linc which dealers were honest and
which weren't. Linc said he had to get fuel anyway so he would look
and see what they have.
Linc told Frank to keep in touch with him, because he was interested
in how he would make out t with BYU. And too if he remembered anything
else about the mines, to let him know. Frank went back inside and
Linc drove on over to the gas station, got fuel , and then went to
check out what was for sale.
At one dealer, he got two fake Indian type rugs, for by the beds, and
a blanket to put over the back of the couch at the cabin. At another
dealer who had a lot of old pots and pans, he bought two very heavy
aluminum , two gallon pans, only one had a lid., and a very heavy old
aluminum roaster with a lid. As he was about to leave he saw a long
handled popcorn maker, that you use at a fire place or fire pit. He
bought that to. Having spent about a hundred and twenty bucks, he
decided he better leave while he still had a few bucks left.

As he left town, he took the cut off road back toward Congress. He
wanted to turn on highway 93, and go on up toward Kingman, to check
out a couple of mines Frank told him about. One was out of Wikiup,
that turned out to be a dud, being turned into homesteads. By the
time he headed north again, it was late afternoon. It was still a
ways to Kingman, but he knew he could get there before dark. He
looked at the fuel gauge, when he was coming into a small town, and
decided to get some diesel . No need to take a chance he had enough
to get to Kingman. He drove into the gas station, and saw a man
standing by the pumps. As he got out of the truck, he saw the guy
look at his Nevada plate and grin. Guy said," just locked up the
diesel pumps, going home now. Then he smiled again and said, I can
unlock it for you for ten bucks extra". Link shook his head and said,
I'll take my chances on driving to Kingman first, before I pay you
extra, for fuel". Man smiled again, and said, " suit yourself there
sonny, because there isn't another gas station before you get to
Kingman". Linc smiled and said," thanks for the info, kind sir". He
looked at the sour look on the guys face as he drove off. Going up
the road, Linc was thinking, what a greedy old crook.
When Link was about ten miles out of Kingman, Angel was getting
restless, so he pulled off at a small roadside rest area, next to a
big wash that came down a canyon out of the mountains, just as a semi
was pulling out. There was a covered picnic table and a port-a-potty,
and garbage cans here. He saw a trail where people had went through
the fence and down into the wash. A sign said , Fishing allowed only
when there is water in the river. Funny. Right now there was only a
tiny trickle of water meandering down the canyon wash.
While Angel chased around down by the wash, Linc used the port potty
and then he got into the back of the truck and drug out the tote he
had a two gallon can of fuel in. No sense on taking chances of running
out on the road. He put the fuel in, then put the empty can back in
the tote and put the lid back on it to keep the smell out of the back
of the truck. He had to laugh as he did this, and thought, the jokes
on you, old crook.
He called to Angel and went to get back in the truck, when a portal
opened up right in front of him almost. Oh! Now what? I hope not
Peru again, or some place just as bad.

To be continued.