Nugget , livre ebook

Nugget
Zavier Alexander
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-08-30
Nugget About the Author About the Book Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgement Dancing the Fear Away Cutter Therapy The Song of Our Heart New View Memories of a Father Engaged Dream Cottonfield Worn Stitches The Silent Rose The Wedding Save the Date
About the Author
Zavier Alexander is a quiet guy who believes the life we have is worth living to its fullest. When he isn’t writing stories, he’s busy making journals for other creatives. Zavier enjoys the outdoors, watching the garden grow, and playing with his dog, Rowdy.
Zavier lives with his wife in Missouri, where they push each other to achieve their goals and dreams.
About the Book
Even the most precious stones need a little polish to shine. Each is unique and individual, with the same being true for people. We long for an opportunity to show who we are but find ourselves rough on the edges.
This collection of 14 short stories features relationships in their varied forms. From first dates, to recollecting the loss of a loved one, we’ll experience the stages relationships develop through from the characters that live them.
Dedication
For Cody. Thanks for being there for me.
Copyright Information ©
Zavier Alexander (2019)
The right of Zavier Alexander to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528960038 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgement
Special thanks goes out to friends and family that support me. Cody, for being my first reader and loving wife; the Joplin Limners for the community support; God for the wisdom and guidance; and Austin Macauley Publishers for seeing my vision and making this book a reality.

As he walked along the hillside, his right hand with its wrinkled palm was turned uphill to feel the pull. He had done this same thing for years, yet his pulse quickened each time the magnetic pull began to entice him to come closer. Nugget was a true prospector at heart and no amount of years added to his life would ever change this fact.
He walked on for a few more paces and then his right hand began to tingle. He was getting close to gold and was pulling at it with minimal effort to locate it. Up the hillside underneath a sedimentary rock, about the size of his small refrigerator at home, lay the treasure. As he approached the rock, he began pulling harder at the gold to pinpoint it. To the right of the rock, a little over fourteen inches from where he knelt was the hiding place of this golden treasure.
Pulling his wide-brimmed hat off, he squinted up at the sun and called out to it, “Thought I was gonna miss it, didn’t ya?” A small chuckle escaped his lips as the crow’s feet increased their presence around his eyes. He used the cuff of his white and brown plaid shirt sleeve to remove the salty sweat building upon his brow.
Nugget was a man of the land. The muscles of his body had been shaped years ago by the hard work needed to sustain his way of life in southern Arizona. Being in his late sixties had only slowed his movements slightly as he continued to walk his land every day looking for more treasures. He knew the vast acres he owned better than any of his fore fathers because Nugget held a secret. He knew how to pull the gold from the ground like opposite sides of magnetic fields yearning and pulling for each other. He couldn’t walk past any type of natural metal without it whispering to him and begging him to come closer.
Gold was the easiest for Nugget to find and manipulate, not to mention the main staple that kept him going through the tough economic times. He could even remember a time when he traded his gold for water. The remaining residents of Vapid Meadows were practical people, not vain when it came to commerce.
Reaching around and unclasping the heavy canvas bag he used for holding his haul of the day, Nugget placed it on the ground in front of him. Other prospectors would need to bring along a shovel, bucket, screen, pan, and sucker bottle to get the gold out of the ground and into their hands. Nugget always counted himself lucky that he didn’t need all that equipment, not to mention access to water in order to pan out the fines. Nugget only needed his canvas bag to hold his pieces that he pulled.
This was a big secret that Nugget held closely because it not only meant that he could pull gold long into his later years, but he also didn’t want anyone else to force his hand at finding it. There are a lot of greedy people in the world, but Nugget strived to be one of the most humble around.
Placing his right-hand palm down on the ground, he slowly moved in counter-clockwise circles barely disturbing the ground surface at all. Within a minute of doing this, he felt a soft thump as the gold surfaced directly into his palm. Closing his hand around the mass and upturning his palm, his fingers slowly uncurled revealing a rough and misshapen, dusty bit of gold. Blowing off the dirt and dust, he began rolling the lump between his palms. He started out slowly and soon picked up the pace to a dizzying speed and within a few moments, the lump of gold was now a smooth ball, the size of a marble.
Holding it up so the sunlight danced along its surface, he was pleased with his finding. This amount would have taken other prospectors hours to collect, but Nugget did it within fifteen minutes. A hearty chuckle burst from him as he dropped the golden ball into his bag and began lightly pulling at the area to see if there were any other pieces worth pursuing. Only sensing loads of fines to the left of the rock, he decided to call this area good for now. It always took more energy than he seemed to have these days to pull gold that was more than a few feet down. Fines took time to gather because there needed to be a sizable amount to make it worth the effort, and Nugget was late in his years with a certain amount of laziness beginning to creep into his bones.
With his bag in hand, he pushed himself off the rock and stood on the hillside taking in the scenery for a moment before heading on. This area of his land wasn’t the most appealing to anyone except him because he was looking below the surface. The landscape was full of the drought resistant plants that populated the area. The dry bed at the bottom was only useful when the skies opened up with generosity and flooded the area with more water than the plants could ever use.
His late wife would always comment, “It isn’t much to look at is it? But then again, neither are you my love.” She meant it with all the love she could possess for Nugget. It had been twenty years since she left him alone in the world and he never could adjust to life fully without her. Although the years were adding up, the wound remained ever fresh for him.
Loose rocks skipped ahead of Nugget as he made his way down the hillside. It was always hard for him to come here because of all the memories that connected back to Helen. However, the amount of gold he was able to pull consistently from this area always called him back. With his head hung low, he made his way back to his shop.
As he came to the front door, he paused and looked up at the old weather-beaten sign above the door. Helen and he had made the sign years ago out of scrap wood that was left over from a remodel of their kitchen cabinets. Faded hand-painted lettering read, NUGGET’S TRINKETS. It was a simple sign that had a simple purpose, serving as the store signage for customers.
He pulled a small ring of keys from his pocket and worked the lock open. As he pushed through the doorway, the small bell above gave its familiar tinkle letting him know someone had entered the shop. Closing the door gave the bell another chance to sound its call to all that could hear.
“Yes, yes. I’m in already.” Those that did business with Nugget knew that he was a different person when Helen was still alive. Now, they put up with his strange quirks with a sympathetic smile riding the corners of their lips because they knew he still struggled with her loss.
Nugget placed his hat on the set of hooks by the door and turned to face his all too familiar shop. At a first glance within the door, a person would think that they were in a rock museum instead of a jewelry shop. It was a standoffish log cabin on the outside, covered with whitewashed cob to protect it from the harsh weather. The next nearest building was one hundred yards away and deteriorating under the elements. The people of Vapid Meadows enjoyed their privacy and kept it with vast acres of land surrounding their houses instead of tall fences.
When Nugget was first building up his clientele in the earlier years of their business, Helen had them participate in a local trade show. This caught the attention of several jewelry dealers of Tucson who happened to be at the show. Many of the larger jewelers in Tucson, Arizona, now sent a representative to him weekly to buy gold because he provided 22 karats or better. He refused to add a large mark-up to the price because he felt that he didn’t do that much to it besides cleaning it with some spit and roll it into a ball. Commission offers from them were turned down as well because he knew it would only lead to more work than he ever wanted to commit to.
Nugget’s shop was as humble as he w