We used to call him Uncle Ore because he and my grandfather were partners in a gold mine at one time and had a falling out. When I was a kid my brothers and I would try to avoid him because he was kinda wierd...one of his fingers was half missing and he always said a pig bit it off. I never knew just how wierd until my mom called to say he'd died and wanted me to get his belonging from his assisted living apartment in a seedy part of Denver. When I arrived , a sheriff and manager were already there and after signing some papers, we were ready to proceed. When they opened the door I couldn't believe what I saw...there were two large crows flying around the room in a panic and the living room window appeared modified so they could enter thru a hole. Obvioulsy the crows were welcome and Ore just let them come and go at will. We let them fly out the front door and then looked at each other shaking our heads. Why the crows? The manager was not surpirsed since he has been dealing with uncle Ore for a few years and told us about finding him passed drunk in the pick -up with a bunny suit on ..holding a metal detector. The sheriff then, had a strange look and said he'd be right back, after a few minutes he came back into the apartment and said he did some checking and sure enough, Uncle Ore had been arrested, along with another man, both wearing animal costumes, drunk on federal property somewhere close to Louisville, CO. and..they both had metal detectors! This seemed quite funny to me as i visualized this old man in a bunny suit. The sheriff said the other man was wearing a racoon costume which made me laugh out loud. The manager suggested it was just old age and people do wierd things when they get that old. The sheriff said he was sorry for our loss and left in a hurry. (I wonder why?) The manager did the same and said he would come back tomorrow to change the locks and do a final check.
Now I was alone in Uncle Ore's apartment and started to feel kinda spooked about the whole mess and I'm suppose to get his things and take them to my house. I came totally unprepared and was suprised to find items that didn't make any sense...like a big bag of dog food? Ore had no dog.. no pets allowed except for the pet crows. I tried to pick up the giant bag and it ripped, scattering dog food all over the kitchen. To make thing even worse I saw those crows were outside the window looking into the hole. I just tried to cautiously ignore them and started to clean up the mess when one of them flew into the kitchen, grabbing a piece of the dog food and bounced off behind the sofa. The other one was holding something in his mouth and as I looked closer it appeared to be a gold nugget. As I approached closer, the bird dropped the nugget on the floor and swooped past me into the kitchen, grabbed a piece of dog food and joined his buddy. Now, I know gold when I see it and sure enough this was a fairly large piece of gold...about the size of an eraser head and the largest piece I've ever held in my hand. I heard a noise at the front door and was startled to see the figure of a man in the light of the setting sun. He looked quite old and was just staring at me. He spoke so soft I couldn't hear him and the sun light blinded me so i couldn't see his face. He started moving closer to me and opened his hand which kinda freaked me out. I could only assume he wanted the nugget so I foolishly put it into his hand. I took a look at his hand and now there were two gold nuggets and a very happy smile on his face. "You must be Red" he said quietly, as i started to back up looking for an exit. "I came by last night and fed the crows and they brought you this" refering to the nugget in his hand. " I though your family could use it for funeral expenses" he said .. I started to feel a little better but still totally confused. He turned around and walked over to the fridge pulled out a couple of beers and suggested i sit down. "I have something to tell you...something about Ore' he handed me a beer and said his name was Rusty. He placed the two nuggets on the table in from of me and cracked a big smile, popped open the beer and took several swigs followed by a huge sigh and burp. To be continued....