Stubborn

“You are a stubborn old fool,” Matilda chided. “We’d be rich now if you sold this place when you had the chance.”

“My daddy’s, daddy’s, daddy built this place from the dirt up and it will get passed on to our oldest son when I die,” said Zebadiah. “There ain’t no smooth-talking carpetbagger gonna swindle me out of my land, and that’s all I’ll say on the subject.”

“Our son hasn’t been here in over ten years. He has a big-time city job, and no reason to drag his pretty wife and young son all the way out in the sticks just to take over a broken-down shack with an outhouse for a bathroom.”

Like hundreds of similar conversations, this one ended with Matilda stomping off to the kitchen to boil a pot of water to wash the dishes and Zebadiah grabbing the weekly newspaper on his way to the little house with the crescent moon carved in the door. It was his quiet place where he could tune out Matilda and ponder his situation.

Of course, he knew she was right. The house was a dilapidated dump. The only running water came from a hand pump mounted on the kitchen counter next to the sink. Considered a major upgrade when his grandfather installed it. Now, the pump needed priming every time it was used.

Winter was fast approaching, and he would need to prep the old place once again. Plastic sheets had to be stapled over the windows and door jambs to keep in what little heat the old potbelly wood-burning stove would generate. At least he had electricity for the space heaters and lights.

The more he thought about his wife’s complaints, the more he had to agree with her. He was in his late 70s, and the work it took to keep the old shack livable was more than he could handle. Yes, perhaps it was time to move on to an easier life.

No! The word came from the back of his mind with such force he thought every person in the valley heard it. You are the fourth generation to live here, and it’s your responsibility to keep it in the family, the voice of his great, great, great grandfather continued. We fought Indians and the railroad to keep this land. Our family endured famine and floods, economic depressions, and crooked politicians. Look to the land for help—it’s there.

Zebadiah snapped back to reality and almost fell off his perch. He gathered up the newspaper and returned to the house where Matilda was busy in the kitchen. He donned a jacket and hiking boots, grabbed his rifle, and told his wife he was going hunting. She barely looked up from her chores and replied, “Bring back a rabbit, or maybe an opossum for tonight’s supper, if you want meat with your veggies.”

 “I’ll see what I can find,” he replied and left for the woods. He had been walking for about an hour when he spotted a rabbit sitting by a small brook that traversed his property. Zebadiah took careful aim, squeezed the trigger, and missed his target. At the last second, the small creature bounded away. The bullet struck a rock where the rabbit had been, searing off a large shard of stone. There was something odd about this chunk of rock that caught his attention. The freshly exposed surface started out a shiny silver color but quickly faded into a dull gray. Zebadiah picked up the shard and slowly examined it. Other than changing color, it looked like any other rock, so he nonchalantly tossed it into the stream. Instead of sinking to the bottom, the rock floated.

Shocked by what he had just witnessed, Zebadiah reached into the stream and retrieved the bobbing stone. He carefully placed it into his gamebag and headed home. One thing he needed to do immediately, was call someone about the rock. On his way back, a less fortunate rabbit crossed his path. He added it to the game bag so he could present Matilda with more than a rock when he got home.

The next morning Zebadiah gathered up all his spare change and drove to the general store to use the payphone. The one person he could trust to give him an honest answer was his son, Joshua. He inserted enough coins for the first three minutes and waited for an answer. There was no time for pleasantries since he was on the clock, so he got right to the point.

“Lithium,” came his son’s reply almost immediately. Joshua worked as an associate professor in a junior college science department and had conducted experiments with this element. They concluded the call within the allotted three minutes. Joshua agreed to visit that weekend.

Samples taken, surveys completed, and several months later bids from mining companies to mine the precious mineral opened. One bid was from the company Zebadiah had refused to sell his land to. Now they offered ten times their original price just for the mining rights.

Zebadiah chuckled to himself as he tossed the bid in the trash, thinking, Matilda is right. I am stubborn. What if I wasn’t? That carpetbagging company would have swindled me out of my land and all this money. Stubborn is a good thing!