they eat them. I am not sure I understand how it works. Mom tried to discourage me by mentioning cottonmouth snakes and all types of insects able to transmit horrible diseases. Mom was a city person: she did not like marshes, beaches or woods: she saw dangers in everything.
Finally, I said that I would ask Mr. Levine's advice. After all, he was in the construction business. He could tell me how to go over the ditch. I did not want to swim across the ditch, though I probably could have made it. But if Grandpapa considered me as a good food source, forget about singing to him in B flat!
5. A 20-foot Adventure
Mr. Levine always said that he had spaced his children so that he would always have one at home. He had Johnny, who was about my age, and before that he had had four other boys. The eldest was working with him and was already married. Mr. Levine was always in a good mood and laughing a lot, I think it is why his business was good. When I went to his workshop, he asked me if I knew how to build a bridge. “I do not need a bridge, I told him, I just want to screw two planks together.” He let me choose the planks I wanted and he showed me how to pre-drill holes and get the appropriate screws. I thought I was done. “Now, you try it!” said Mr. Levine, and he placed my construction over two blocks of cement and told me to walk on the planks. I made two steps and the planks started making a cracking noise and they bent to the ground. “The planks,” Mr. Levine said, will not support your weight over this length, and you don't even have twenty feet yet! There is a rule of thumb that says you need about an inch of thickness for each foot of length, so how much thickness do you think you'll need?” Math again, and Dad was not even there! There was no piece of wood thick enough in the workshop. I thought that I could cut the big gum tree along the edge of Bessie's backyard and let it fall across the water. It would do the trick, but I was not sure Bessie would care for that. An electric pole would be fine. But there was not any at the right place.
“Is an electric pole expensive?”
“Ah! It is a good idea. Old poles are often on sale, so it is not too bad. But you should ask your aunt if she wants a permanent structure. It is her house. If she does not want it to stay, you will have to pay somebody to bring the pole in and bring it out. Who did measure the width of the ditch? Did you do it? How do you know it is twenty feet log?”
“I don't know, I think Mom said 15 to 20 feet, or maybe it was Aunt Bessie.”
“You should measure it. A 20-foot bridge will cost much more than a 15-foot bridge.”
Cost? I had not thought about it. Mr. Levine saw me blush and had a hearty laugh. “Nobody thinks about the cost when they are not paying,” he said, “but everything costs something.” He handed me his cell phone and said: “Call Aunt Bessie, ask her if we can come and measure the ditch.”
Aunt Bessie agreed to see us, she was always happy to have company. And I travelled for the first time in Mr. Levine big big truck, all loaded with ladders and saw benches and big aluminum cases for his gear. It was as fun as being in a firefighter's truck. Mr. Levine explained to me that his job was to ask the customer what he wanted, take measurements, make plans, estimate the cost, then buy the wood he needed and pre-cut it as much as he could before building anything. “It is what people do with any job”, he said. “Measure, plan, come up with the money, right?”
Good advice! As soon as we were at the house, I asked Aunt Bessie if she wanted a permanent structure. She winced.
“How much would it cost?” she asked. Grown ups are all the same.
“We are trying to find a way to do it with scrape wood, said Mr. Levine, so it would not cost anything. If you let me go in the yard and take measurements, I would have a better idea.”
“I will make you some hot chocolate,” said Aunt Bessie. So I stayed with her in the kitchen while Mr. Levine went to his truck.
He came back with a big smile: “Edge to edge, it is only 14 feet, he said, but of course we need to be longer than that, otherwise the bridge could slip in the water.”
It was good news. Mr. Levine had a twinkle in his eyes. He took a sip of chocolate and added: “I made you a bridge.”
What? A bridge? In five minutes and without making any noise? What had he done? Aunt Bessie and I rushed to the window. Mr. Levine was a genius. He had deployed his long ladder over the ditch. How smart was that!
“I think you can crawl to the other side. If you do it on Sunday, you can invite Johnny, and your Dad will sure come to help. I will come too, because I will need my ladder on Monday. This is not good for Backrub though, I think he should stay home.” Very true, Backrub loved to jump in the water, which is fine, unless there is an old gator in it.
We had to wait, it was very hard, but Johnny and I spent a lot of time thinking about what we would need on the other side. Of course we would need the metal detector, but also a shovel, a bag to put the treasure in if we found it, and two planks to walk on if the other side was too soggy. We read the whole booklet of instructions for the metal detector, and it said that we should take water with us, because sometimes the stuff you find is so dirty that you cannot guess what it is. So we added water to the list, and mom added insect spray. She would have added the whole pharmacy if we had not protested.
Our dad was a good cook. He had to, because Mom needed to sleep during the day. She also cleaned the house, did the washing and ironing, plus she was working all night. So Dad was the main cook. He was worried that we would not find any treasure at all, so he decided that we should have a feast day. Mr. Levine and him decided on a Low Country boil for Sunday. If you are not from around here, it is a meal we cook and eat in the yard. It consists of potatoes, corn and smoked sausages cooked in water with a lot of spices and some beer. When it is almost ready, you add lots and lots of shrimps for a few minutes. Then you eat with your fingers on large paper plates and you use a lot of paper towels. Mr. Levine said that he would pick up the sausage: he knew a place where they did the best beef sausage. Dad asked him if he did not mind eating shrimps. Mr. Levine laughed: “Maybe I should mind,” he said, but I don't, “I have been raised on shrimps.”
So we all had a good time, even Backrub who was invited on a leash; he loved shrimps and even corn on the knob. Grandpapa bellowed once, but he did not come for a visit. I always thought he was a bit shy. After the meal, Backrub got inside with Aunt Bessie, who was ready for a small siesta. Mom said she would rest a bit and to call her if we needed anything. Johnny, Kate and me cleaned the table and put everything back in order.
Then came the time of the treasure hunt. It had been a very long wait. Mr. Levine went first to show us how to crawl on the ladder, then little Kate. My father shouted to her that she should look at her feet to avoid walking on a snake. I came over with the metal detector and Johnny with the rest of our stuff. We looked for a long time without finding anything. Well, it is not quite true. We disturbed a white egret and some snapper turtles. Mr. Levine saw a minuscule scorpion. No snakes, which was good news. Dad suggested that we poke with a stick in the bank to feel is there was something solid buried there, so Johnny and I exchanged roles, one poking and the other using the metal detector. Kate found two spent cartridges and a very old bottle of Coke. She was very happy, because she had found something and we had not. Dad sent her back to the house to show her treasure. Mr. Levine changed the setting on the detector and suddenly, it made a sound. We discovered an old kettle where some bitumen-like product had been melted. It had protected the pot. Next to it was a piece from a domino game. Dad asked what were the numbers on it. The color had disappeared and Mr. Levine felt with his finger to count the little pits representing the numbers.
“It is a five and three,” he shouted.
“Excellent” shouted my dad. “Two prime numbers.”
It is extraordinary what you can find in places where nobody goes!
Another peep gave us the treasure. Johnny was holding the detector and he got so emotional, he almost fell in the water. We started digging very cautiously. It took some time because the trea
sure was by now over one foot deep in the ground. And there it was. The bag had disappeared, except for the closure, but there were little stones and things looking like jewelry. Even Dad crossed on the ladder to come and see. He went back to the house and brought us a colander for all the pieces we found. When we were done scraping around, the colander was half full. A real treasure. Mr. Levine helped us back across the ditch and took the ladder away. He filled a watering can and helped us clean our hands and most of the dirt in the colander before we entered the kitchen. Aunt Bessie said: “Did you find my letters?” and was disappointed that we had found no paper at all. She helped us clean and dry and sort out the treasure. She remembered what every piece looked like. There was a necklace of rubies (glass looking like rubies) in four pieces, but what was missing was just three small silver links. The chain was black in color, but Aunt Bessie assured us it was real silver, it just needed cleaning. And there was a necklace looking like a green snake, and some pendants. We also recovered a plastic bracelet that looked superb because it was pitted by time like an antique and we also discovered two rings that were real gold. We shared everything. Dad wanted to give the gold rings back to Bessie, but she