I needed some food and a break, so I did both by going to the kitchen and checking to see if I had any pre-made frozen white chocolate chip cookies. Bless the Gods! I’d make extra last time and I quickly put them on a tray and turned the oven on to 450 degrees. While I waited for the oven to heat up, I noticed the time and saw that dad should be home soon. Somehow, he always showed up when the cookies were ready and today was no exception. The front door opened just as I was taking the cookies out of the oven. I was starting to think that I got my ability from dad. His power was being at the right place when cookies were ready. Not the best power when it came to fighting bad guys, but still quite useful.
“Hi Abby. How was your day today?”, dad asked as he came into the kitchen and gave me a hug.
“Hi dad. It was ok. I took care of a few errands and I visited with Evan after lunch.”
“I thought you were going to go with Eva after she gets back on Thursday. Is he ok?” Dad hovered over the pan of hot cookies and inhaled the sweet aroma. I sent him to the table where I’d set up plates for each of us, along with tall glasses of milk.
“I got nervous that something would happen to him before then and I couldn’t wait anymore. He’s fine. Well, as fine as a boy dying of cancer can be. I did some magic for him and we had a good time. His parents are barely holding up though. They’ve been told that he only has a week or two left.”
We talked about Evan for a bit as we ate our cookies, occasionally dunking them in the milk, and soon moved on to other topics. He told me about some of his students that were working on interesting pieces and I told him about Uncle Magnum’s plan to have me try out with Sifu Zhang. Was it really only last night that we’d made that plan? It felt like weeks had passed since then.
Dad’s eyebrows rose quizzically at the mention of the tryout. “Sifu Zhang was Paul’s teacher since he started Kung Fu. Zhang mentored him often and they were very close. I’m pretty sure that if Paul had stayed in Raleigh, Zhang would have set up Paul to be his successor. I know that Paul has been back many times, but I don’t think that Zhang has ever come out here to see Paul’s school. Paul must have said some pretty amazing things about you to get him to come out here.”
“I hope Uncle Magnum didn’t oversell me. I have been getting much better lately, but I’d hate to disappoint him.”
“I’m sure that you won’t. Paul knows his Kung Fu. If he thinks you’re ready, then you are.”
We lapsed into silence for a few moments after that and I remembered that I needed to talk to dad about the reports that I’d made for Jake. I ran to my room and brought the reports back to him.
“The first one is a report on my general sense about the two potential mine sites. It doesn’t go into any detail, but my conclusions are there, if only in broad strokes.”
Dad read it over. “I think that this adequately represents what he hired you to do and you’ve done a nice job with explaining your feelings.”
I handed dad the second report without comment. He opened it up and started reading. I ate more cookies. Dad kept reading and when he got to the 3D maps, he lowered the reports and asked, “Did you make these maps?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“I used a mining mapping software program to create each of the maps. The software had existing topographical maps of the areas and I only had to input all the ore data.”
“You were able to get all this information using your ‘land-sense’? These reports show ore bodies a half mile down, Abby. Are you telling me that you can get accurate knowledge a half-mile into the ground?”
Trust dad to get to the heart of the matter. Well, there was no helping it now. In for a penny, in for a pound. “Actually, I can go a lot deeper. Around three miles.”
Dad looked a little shocked. “Three miles”, he repeated. He shook his head to clear it and gave me a penetrating look. “You didn’t just have a vague feeling about where those gemstones were. It wasn’t just luck. You knew exactly where they were and how big they were, didn’t you?”
I blushed a little at that. “Yes, Papa”, I replied, keeping my eyes downcast as if I were getting scolded.
“Don’t you ‘yes, Papa’ me. Your ability is far stronger than you’ve let on. We’ll talk about that later. Right now, we need to focus on this report. Do you have any idea what this kind of information will be worth to Jake?”
“No. From talking with Mark, I know that it will save them both time and money, but I can’t quantify it. I was hoping that you could talk to a few of your fellow professors and see what they have to say. Mark says that Jake won’t cheat me because he’s honest and because he’ll want me to do this again for him. He also said that Jake’s problem will be that he won’t be able to pay me enough money to bother evaluating mine sites for him.”
“How so?”
I went on to explain about the diamonds that I’d found and the dinosaur bones and how Mark didn’t think I’d ever have to work again, unless I wanted to.
“Mark is very astute. Your ability to see into the ground has many practical applications and any one of them would more than pay the bills. Archeologists would love to have your ability, as would treasure hunters, construction managers, surveyors, and miners such as Jake. I’ll talk with some of my colleagues and get their opinions as to what this sort of information would be worth. However, I won’t show them your report. As much as practicable, you should keep the extent of your ability a secret.”
Wow. Here I’d been worried that dad would be upset at me for hiding my power and he’d just told me to do keep doing it. It was like getting a blessing directly from the Pope!
Of course, I had to know why he thought so. “Why keep it under wraps?”
“If your abilities became public knowledge then your gemstones would be seen as more commonplace and you’d get much lower bids for them. A lucky find by a young woman presents a compelling and unique story. That same girl doing it several times a day takes away from that story and turns the extraordinary into simply ordinary. Collectors are all about unique and rare. Everyday is for other people. That is why I rarely ever make the same piece twice. Everyone that buys one of my pieces is getting a one-of-a-kind item. When you put that new diamond up for auction, it will probably be better if you do it through an intermediary or at least have them list the seller anonymously. It will add to the mystique. Also, you shouldn’t put up more than one or two of your major finds per year and consider putting your next one up for auction in Europe.”
Dad’s pretty savvy. In less than a minute he’d already seen a whole bunch of stuff I’d missed. He’s definitely a keeper.
“There is one more thing that I need to understand, Abby.”
Oh oh. I keep forgetting that dad’s insights can also be turned against me.
“You mentioned that you did some magic tricks for Evan. I didn’t even know that you were interested in magic. What kind of magic did you do?”, he asked.
There was no way that I was showing dad my magic tricks. He’d figure out that they were impossible in about two seconds. Instead, I looked him straight in the eye and said, “Watch, as the amazing Abby makes the last cookie disappear!” and I grabbed it and ran out of the room.
I heard his laughter all the way to my room.