Mark convinced someone at the FBO to let me shower and change before the flight. It felt wonderful to be clean again. I grabbed a snack of cookies and a granola bar as we passed by the lounge and soon we were sitting in the lush comfort of the plane. I don’t remember falling asleep, and I missed both takeoff and landing.
The next morning, I met Mark downstairs at the hotel’s complimentary continental breakfast. He was just finishing up a phone call.
“Good morning, Abby! I hope you slept well.”
“Like a rock. I barely remember getting from the plane to the hotel. I didn’t realize how tired I was. How about you?”
“Not as well as you, but good enough to get me though the day. Given how tired you’ve been, I think we should take a vacation day today and start up again tomorrow completely refreshed.”, Mark suggested.
“That works for me. I’ll text dad later and let him know about the extra day. What should we do with our free day? Sit by the pool? Go shopping? Get back to sleep?”.
“All those options are on the table, but I’d like to suggest another. Did you know that only a few hours from here is Crater of Diamonds State Park? You get to keep whatever shiny bits you can find.” Mark said enticingly. He was smiling from ear to ear.
My heart raced with excitement. “You know how I love shiny things!”
“I should warn you though, the largest diamond ever found there was only 40 carats and finds of 5-10 carats will make the local news. Try not to break any records please. People might start asking you too many questions if you keep finding gemstones and placing them at auction.”
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“Ok. If I find any huge diamonds, I’ll sneak them out. Got it.”
We stopped to pick up some sturdy shovels on the way. When Mark started to pick out sifting pans, I told him to put them back, as we wouldn’t be needing them. Yeah, I was getting cocky but this was the only aspect of my abilities that I was willing to share with anyone and it felt good to flaunt it once in awhile.
Mark and I had a wonderful day at the diamond park. Compared to the past few days, scanning the park for diamonds was a joke. The diamonds lit up for my field like fireflies in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. There were so many diamonds around, from tiny one sprinkled all over to huge ones, buried deep in the earth. I dampened my inner greed and focused only on those that were three or four feet down. Those required some work, but it was so worth it.
I did end up breaking the record for the largest diamond ever found in the park, although no one but Mark and I would ever know it. Sometime in the next few months, it would find its way into an auction, with the seller listed anonymously, and I’d have more funding for the Hannah Foundation. Besides that huge rock, I also dug up one 35 carat diamond, three 20-25 carat diamonds and an 18 carat diamond. Mark didn’t know about those as I snuck them into my R2 backpack when he went to the bathroom. After that I mostly kept my finds to the five to ten carat range. They’d make really nice gifts for my friends. I was also pretty sure that Uncle Magnum might need a diamond in the next six months and I chose a beautiful 7-carat yellow diamond for him.
By the time we left, I had a bag of uncut diamonds that rivaled the bag of cut diamonds that I’d taken from the safe at Serpentine Logistics a few months back. Mark didn’t do so badly either, with a little guidance, and he was taking home several presents for Conor and Rose. He planned to quietly slip a few diamonds to Andrew to give to Stacey.
Feeling high from our incredibly successful outing, Mark took me out to dinner and we talked for hours. Because of our age difference, I knew that it couldn’t lead to anything, but it felt nice to forget about that and just spend time together.