Frazzled - Digging up Magic #6

            They spent the rest of the day searching for the last of their coins though they found them rather quickly.  Sylvia and Rodney didn’t want to send them out to anything new on their first day so they were able to end the workday early.

            The next day, however, would be a full day of work no matter how much they found.  They were each given an area to detect in and told which way and how far they had to walk to get there.  Nikki and Ian didn’t have too far to go.  They were sent downhill from the cabin to find a large pond where a creek ended.  Nikki took to the edge of the water while Ian stayed where it was flat about a yard away from her.

            “Afraid to get your feet wet?”  She teased as she stumbled down the bank.  It didn’t look like it had rained for awhile.  She was going to have a hard time walking along the slope.  At least the dirt was softer here.

            “Not at all.  I’m afraid of water snakes.”

            “Of what?” She snapped, but he was already walking away smiling.

            By lunch time they each had pulled in a decent amount of stuff, varying from coins to pull tabs.  As told, they turned in everything in to Rodney and Sylvia and set out again after lunch.

            “Whoever finds the oldest coin serves the other dinner?”  Nikki asked.

            “Deal.  I’m not going easy on you this time.”  Ian said.

            Nikki wasn’t getting too high of hopes since she only found three coins a half hour before dinner and two of them were within the last three years.  The most that she could hope for was a tie.

            She was digging something up when Ian called time.

            “Alright, I’ll make this the last one.”  Though she was thinking about leaving it.  Whatever it was it was deeper than she thought it was.  She was already at least six inches in and hasn’t found anything, yet when she waved the pinpointer around it beeped like crazy.  She was going to call it quits until her little spade finally hit something solid.

            “Need some help?”  Ian was putting away his things.

            “No, I’ve got it.”  Just as she said it the thing came loose.  A pop can, perhaps?  She rubbed some of the dirt off and a chunk crumbled from the middle leaving a curved ‘C’ shaped object.  It was still quite dirty but she could tell that there was some kind of design on it.  A braclet?  No, more like a cuff.

            “I wish I knew where this came from.” She muttered to herself.  A jolt went through her fingers and she dropped the cuff, shaking her hand.  It was like a static shock but worse.  Cautiously she picked it back up and turned it over and over in her hand.

            “Find something good?”

            “No,” she shoved it into her bag just before Ian climbed down the bank to join her.  “I mean, I don’t know.  I don’t think so.  Are you ready?”

            She didn’t wait for him to answer before she climbed the bank and headed back toward the cabin.

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Nikki and Ian got back to the cabin just as the others were getting their food.  Nikki found Jenna and sat next to her while Ian sat across from them.

“Alright Nikki, empty your bag.”

“What?” Nikki felt bad for hiding the bracelet, she didn’t even know why she hid the bracelet, but he didn’t have to make a big deal about it like this.

“Don’t act like you forgot.  A deal is a deal.”  He dumped his bag.  “I think my oldest one was 1986.”

Nikki sighed and the tension immediately left her as she got up from the table.  “Well, you already have me beat.  Mine were all 2000’s.  I’ll get you a little bit of everything.”

“Ok, turn in your bag and go eat.”  Sylvia said from the kitchen and Rodney stood next to her.

Nikki froze and slowly turned back around.  She took her time as the rest of the group rushed to leave their bags and fill their plates.  She knelt down and almost picked up the bag but thought better of it as she reached in, found the cuff, and quickly tucked it into the pocket of her jacket.  She never thought that she would have been glad for cold days.

“Are you ok?”

She whipped around to find Ian there.  No one else had come back their way yet.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”  She stood up, stuffing her fists into her coat pocket and hoping that the extra bulge in her pocket couldn’t be seen.  “Where’s your plate?”

“A deal’s a deal, remember?”  He smirked.

“Right…”  Nikki moved away from him and to the kitchen to make two plates with only the vague paranoia that he was still watching her.