I'm so sorry its taken me so long to get this updated my life has been kind of hectic lately, now I'm staying with my grandparents because my grandmother had surgery and they need some help around the house and I've actually had some spare time to work on my stories.
As always thanks to supergeek17 for creating the ant language.
Ann and Lucas pulled the safe's heavy door the rest of the way open, and a pile of broken china spilled out. Elnora walked over and picked up a piece, shaking her head sadly. "This is from around the time of the American Revolution, probably shipped over from England a few years before the war," she explained. "With what looks like a nearly complete set, it would have sold for over a hundred thousand dollars; now I don't really know what you'll be able to get for it, but I do know there are people who will buy the pieces just to have something that old. Just keep it all and don't let it break any worse."
Ann grabbed a plastic tub and a roll of Bubble Wrap from by the door and they started carefully putting the china in it. Once they had finished and set the tub aside, Ann carefully pulled out something long and skinny that was wrapped in paper out of the top of the safe and carefully started to unwrap it. When she had finished, she found a beautifully-crafted sword. "How old do you think this is?" Ann asked as she held it out for Elnora to look at.
"It's from the early seventeen hundreds, in wonderful condition. Probably worth fifty thousand at least-- I'm not very familiar with the values of things this old, though, so it could be worth much more," Elnora told them.
They pulled out another dozen swords, all dating from the seventeen hundreds to the late eighteen hundreds. There were several large bags of old coins; after going through a few handfuls out of each bag, they found that most were from the mid-eighteen hundreds, one bag was from the seventeen hundreds and one smaller bag was from the fifteen and sixteen hundreds. Under the bags were several boxes of jewelry from the early nineteen hundreds back to the seventeen hundreds, although Elnora told them some of it may have been much older. Behind the boxes of jewelry was a smaller, fire-proof lock box.
Ann pulled it out and tried to open it, but it was locked. "I guess we'll have to get someone to get the lock off of this before we find out what's inside," Ann said, a note of sadness in her voice.
"Let me see it," Elnora said, holding out her hands.
When Ann handed the box to Elnora, she pulled a hairpin out of her hair and started to work on the lock. A minute later, she had the box unlocked and Ann and Lucas were both staring at her in shock.
"How did you learn to do that?" Ann asked.
"After years of dealing with stuff that's been locked and the families don't have the keys, you learn a trick or two," Elnora told them slyly, handing the box back to Ann.
Ann carefully set it on a small table next to the chair Elnora was sitting in and opened it. Inside was a pile of a couple dozen old letters. Ann's heart started racing as she carefully picked one up and skimmed over it until she came to the signature. "It's them," she breathed, barely able to speak. "It's the letters written by George Washington-- this one is from during the Revolution." She set the letter back in the box when her hands started to shake.
"So this means we're not just going to be rich-- we're going to be super mega millionaires rich, right?" Lucas asked excitedly.
"We won't know for sure until we get these authenticated. There is a chance that they're reproductions or fakes," Ann said, pushing a few wisps of her hair out of her eyes.
Elnora took one of the letters and looked at it for several minutes. "If it is a fake, someone went through a lot of trouble to make it and knew what they were doing. Ann, I want you to take these on into the house-- keep them in the box so they're protected and hide them somewhere until I can find someone to authenticate them. If they are real, we don't want to take any chances." She put the letter back, closed the box and handed it to Ann.
Ann breathlessly agreed then headed into the house and up the stairs. "Where am I supposed to put these that no one would think to look if someone broke in or something?" Ann asked out loud, a little frustrated that everywhere she thought of didn't seem safe enough.
"Let me out of here for a minute," Zoc requested.
Ann carefully helped him down and he made himself bigger, then took the box from Ann. He slowly turned to the wall and slammed his fist through it, then proceeded to break several more pieces off of the wall. When the hole was big enough, he put the box in it and then repaired the wall with his staff. "I don't think anyone would think to tear the walls down to find something to steal," he assured, turning back to Ann and taking her shaking hands in his. "Are you alright?" he laid a cool hand on Ann's cheek, searching her eyes.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little overwhelmed. You know how you were worried about not being able to provide for me unless I permanently moved into the nest if we got married? If those letters are authentic, even after splitting the money with Lucas and his family, I think between the money from them and all the other stuff, we'd have enough to last the rest of our lives," Ann told him, her voice wavering. "It's also making me a little uncomfortable having something that valuable in the house-- what if something happens to them?"
"Don't worry, everything will be fine," Zoc reassured, gently kissing her forehead and embracing her.
All the tension seemed to disappear as he held her; Ann sighed and smiled at him. "I think that has to be the quickest anyone's ever been able to calm me down."
Zoc grinned, bringing one hand up to gently run it through Ann's hair, and said, "Good. So are you ready to go back out? If we stay in here much longer, someone could come looking for you."
"Yeah, I'm ready," she replied, letting go of him so he could shrink himself and they could go back out.
When she got back to the shed, Lucas asked, "What took you so long?"
"I couldn't decide on the best place to put the box," Ann told him vaguely, evenly.
"Alright, but can we finish with the safe now?" Lucas asked impatiently.
"I don't know-- I'm starting to feel a little tired. Maybe we should take a break for a while," Elnora said, smiling conspiratorially at Ann.
Ann grinned back and said, "She's right-- we have been out here an awful long time. We should stop and get some lunch."
"Are you two crazy?! How can you just want to stop now?" Lucas asked seriously, glaring at them for a second when they both started laughing at him.
"Okay, let's get back to work," Elnora said still smiling.
As they continued to go through the safe, they found old guns and pistols, china dolls and hand-carved wooden toys, old books and a couple of family Bibles, all from the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, and several old photo albums from around the time of the Civil War.
The last thing in the safe was a large wooden chest, which took up quite a bit of space in the safe, with a note on the top that said, Keep in safe until time to sort; museum quality. Ann passed the note to Elnora.
After reading it, Elnora said, "Let's take it inside to open it. That way, we'll have more room to lay out whatever's in there."
Ann and Lucas agreed and carried the trunk into the house. Once they where all inside, Ann carefully unlatched the lid and opened it. Inside was a Civil War-era rifle and an older-looking sword; underneath those was a neatly folded Union soldier's uniform.
Ann carefully took out the sword, pulled it out of the sheath and noticed an engraving on the blade just below the hilt; she turned it so she could read it, and gasped when she saw what it said.
"What's wrong?" Elnora asked.
"What's it say?" Lucas asked at the same time.
"'To my grandson, William Courtney: your great-grandfather William used this sword to fight for the freedom of this country; now, you shall use it to ensure that all may share in that freedom. Your loving grandfather, Joseph Wagstaff,'" Ann read, still in a state of shock.
"So it's a sword from the Revolution? Big deal-- we've found at least a few that you think are that old. Why were you gasping about this one?" Lucas asked.
"Because William Courtney is my great-great-great-grandfather-- this whole trunk could be his stuff," Ann said, her hands shaking and tears filling her eyes at the thought of touching something that had not only belonged to him but also had been passed down through four generations of her family.
"So one of your grandfathers fought in the Civil War?" Lucas asked.
"At least three, possibly four that I know of, actually. William Courtney was the youngest, though-- he lied about his age and enlisted a few months before his seventeenth birthday," Ann told them.
"And his grandfather fought in the Revolution?" Lucas asked.
"Yes, William Wagstaff-- he was forced into service with the British and when he got to America, he switched sides," Ann explained.
Ann carefully set the sword aside and laid out the uniform; underneath it was a pile of letters. As Ann carefully looked through them, she breathed, "There are letters here from his whole family, written to him during the war."
Ann set the letters with the sword and uniform and pulled out an old photo album, smiling. "Thank goodness they actually wrote down who's in the pictures," she said as she looked at the first two pictures that showed two young men in uniforms.
"Who's the other guy in the uniform?" Lucas asked.
"That's Williams brother, Elzey-- he died in the war. I'd never seen a picture of him before or anyone else in William's family except for one of him and his wife, Anna that was taken around the time my great-grandmother was born" Ann told them as she looked through the rest of the album.
At the back of the album was a picture that looked older than the rest, of a young woman wearing a light-colored dress with dark trim, the neckline coming to just off her shoulders with lace around it; a ruffle of lace ran around the bottom of the elbow length sleeves, and two layers of lace were around the bottom of the skirt, with a row of roses running from the top to bottom to one side on both rows and a single rose at the center front of the neck. She held a baby in her lap and there were two boys standing on either side of her, one looked about five and the other about three. Standing behind her was her husband, whom Ann recognized as John Courtney. On the album page under the picture was written, John and Mary Jane Courtney with sons Elzey, James and William. Below that, and apparently written in later was, Mama wearing her wedding dress.
"Who's Mary? I thought John was married to Margaret. She's the one who was with him in all the other pictures," Lucas asked.
"Margaret was John's second wife; Mary died when William was two, right after giving birth to his brother Joseph. Until I started researching the family, no one even knew about Mary-- she had been forgotten. Even on William's death certificate, it said his mother was Margaret," Ann explained.
"Then how did you know about Mary?" Elnora asked.
"Well this may sound a little crazy--" Ann started.
"As long as it's you talking, we expect it to be crazy," Lucas quipped.
Ann glared at him for a second, then said, "Well, several years ago, my parents and siblings and I were at the cemetery where the Courtney's are buried. My parents had other places to go, but I wanted to stay at the cemetery a little longer, so they left me there. We knew who the other people were, but there was the tombstone for Mary Courtney and I had never heard of her before and had no idea how she was related to the rest. I had been sitting there for a while when it just suddenly hit me, almost like someone had told me-- she was John's first wife. It seemed crazy because she didn't die until 1849 and William was born in 1847, and everything I had found said Margaret was his mother.
"Well, I just couldn't get it out of my head, so I went to the courthouse and found the marriage certificate for John and Mary and checked the 1850 census and found out it only listed John and the four boys. I eventually found out later that John and Margaret hadn't been married until two years after that. I've always felt like in some way Grandma Mary had been communicating with me and I've felt really close to her ever since." Ann explained.
"How can you feel really close to someone who's been dead for over a hundred and fifty years?" Lucas asked.
"I don't know, but I've heard of other genealogists feeling close to certain deceased relatives, too. I guess it's just a genealogist thing," Ann said as she carefully set the photo album aside and dove back into the trunk.
The next thing in the trunk was something that filed the whole bottom and was carefully wrapped in old brown paper and tied with string. Ann carefully set it out on the floor and removed the strings and started to unwrap it; inside was something white with dark green lace and unusually bright, considering the apparent age, pink roses. As Ann carefully unfolded it, she gasped and tears filled her eyes as she finished laying it out on the floor. It was the dress Mary Courtney had been wearing in the picture. Ann dropped to her knees next to it and reached out gently running her fingers over the roses.
"They're pink, bright pink," Ann breathed.
"So what's so important about them being pink?" Lucas asked.
"For some reason, I've always felt like Grandma Mary would like bright pink flowers. That's what I always take to the cemetery for her. I-- I must have been right if she put them on her wedding dress. It's certainly not a normal color for 1841, when she got married," Ann said.
"So this is supposed to have been her wedding dress," Lucas asked.
"Yes," Ann confirmed.
"But I thought wedding dresses were supposed to be white," Lucas questioned.
"Not back then. Most wedding dresses were darker colors; if it was white or a lighter color, the hem would end up so stained it couldn't be worn again. Back then, women would wear their wedding dresses for other special occasions, not just their wedding. It was actually some time in the eighteen forties that women started wearing white, after that was the color Queen Victoria wore when she got married," Ann explained, still looking at the dress in a state of shock. "I just can't believe that after over a hundred and sixty years, it's still around. From the looks of it, it's in perfect condition. And what were the chances that I would be the one to find it? Who knows how long it had been out of the family or how many times its changed owners? Yet all of the stuff is still together like Grandpa Courtney just packed it up."
Ann very carefully refolded the dress and wrapped it back up, then moved back over to the trunk. There was another, smaller brown paper wrapped item. Ann carefully pulled it out and started to unwrap it; inside was a beautiful veil with a ring of bright pink roses on the headpiece that matched the ones on the dress. After looking at it for a few moments, Ann carefully refolded and wrapped it, then set it with the dress and pulled out the only thing left in the trunk, a small box about the size of a ring box. She opened it and inside was what looked like two plain gold wedding bands and an engagement ring, although the diamond or whatever stone had been in it was missing. As she looked closer at the rings she had to fight back more tears when she saw the inscriptions on the inside.
"What does it say? Elnora asked.
"'J. C. and M. J. W. 4-15-1841' and 'W. C. and A. A. L. 4-3 -1873,'" Ann read. "That should be John and Mary and then William and his wife Anna Lindley; the dates are the days they got married. Once William decided to get married, his father must have given him the rings to use." Ann ran her fingers delicately over one of the rings.
"So why don't the men have middle names? What was Anna's middle name?" Lucas asked.
"Back then, people didn't always give their children middle names," Ann explained, "and no one is sure what Anna's middle name is. All the records I've ever seen just have the middle initial, but it may have been Alvina because that was her daughter's middle name."
After carefully putting everything back into the chest, Ann and Lucas carried it up to Ann's room. Then they went back out to the shed and carried all the plastic tubs into the house and agreed that they needed a break that day so they would get together the next day to go through all the coins.
Once Elnora and Lucas left, Ann helped Zoc out of the earring and collapsed onto the couch in the sitting room.
Zoc made himself bigger and walked over behind Ann then pulled her hair to one side and gently started massaging her shoulders. "You look exhausted," he observed simply. "It was absolutely driving me insane not being able to help you carry all that stuff in."
"Yeah, I guess I am pretty tired and sore after all that-- some of those old guns and swords are heavier than they look," Ann sighed, leaning forward a little so Zoc could work his way farther down her back. "How does someone with an exoskeleton learn to give such a good back massage?"
"We do have a very thin layer of muscle outside of our skeletons, but mostly I'm just guessing," Zoc admitted.
"You're doing a fantastic good job," Ann told him gratefully.
After working his way down her back and back up to her shoulders, Zoc gently kissed her neck and said, "You should eat something-- it's after dinner time and you didn't have any lunch."
"I'm too relaxed and tired to make anything; I'll be fine. I just want to get some sleep," Ann said, lying down.
"How about I make you something to eat, that way you won't have to get up?" Zoc asked.
Ann's eyes flew open and before she could say anything, Zoc seemed to read her mind and assured, "I won't make anything that could end up burning down your house-- just a sandwich or something so you don't go to bed without eating anything."
"Okay-- a peanut butter sandwich sounds good," Ann said, smiling. "Could you put some honey on it too, please?"
Zoc grinned and said, "Sure." He softly kissed Ann's forehead and headed out to the kitchen.
Ann raised an eyebrow. "What are you grinning about?" she asked, sitting up so she could see over the back of the couch.
"Well, I would tell you, but it may make you not want the honey. Unless, of course, you've gotten used to eating honeydew," Zoc replied, grinning over his shoulder.
"I've been able to handle eating honeydew since the cave-in, as long as I don't think about where it comes from. Now what were you grinning about?" Ann asked again.
"Well, one of those books of yours said that quite a bit of the honey humans eat is made from honeydew that bees gather off of leaves and such; from what I've seen of the bees in the area, it's true," Zoc told her. "I just find it rather amusing that you and Lucas both think it's disgusting that ants eat honeydew when you've already been eating it, just in a slightly different form."
Ann smiled and said, "I'd forgotten about that. That was in Holldobler and Wilson's book wasn't it?"
"The smaller of the two that you have by them, yes. So you already knew?" Zoc asked.
"I did, but I had forgotten-- it's been a while since I read the whole book. I had wanted to get an ant farm since I was little. My mom couldn't stand the thought of having ants in the house, but I kept begging so when I was twelve my parents told me if I wrote a really long report about ants they would let me get one. I guess they never thought I would actually do it, they were so shocked when I handed them the finished report-- all twelve pages. That's why I know so much about ants-- I did a ton of research for the report, although obviously I didn't remember everything I learned."
"What is an… ant farm?" Zoc asked.
Ann clapped her hand over her mouth in pure panic. How could she be so stupid and insensitive as to mention ant farms in front of Zoc? She hesitated a moment, then finally said, "You're going to think I'm horrible."
"I highly doubt that will be the case," Zoc told her gently.
"Well, an ant farm is… well, it's what people keep ants in when they keep them- well sort of as… pets," Ann said nervously.
"Humans keep ants as pets?" Zoc asked in mild disbelief.
"Yeah," Ann confirmed sadly, unable to look Zoc in the eye.
"And you kept ants as pets?" Zoc asked.
"Um yeah. Actually I, um… I still have them," she admitted, expecting a horrified or disgusted reaction from Zoc.
Zoc walked over to her, knelt in front of her and gently tilted her face up until he was looking her in the eyes and whispered, "If you keep tensing up like that, I'm going to have to give you another back massage just to get you relaxed enough to sleep."
"You… don't think I'm horrible?" Ann asked quietly.
"No. If, when you started keeping them, you had never met me or had any idea that there were ants as intelligent as humans and it's a thing some humans normally do, I can't blame you for that. I would like to see them, though. Where did you get them?" Zoc asked.
"I found the queen walking across the sidewalk in the city; they look completely different from you. If I had thought there was any chance of them being like you or your people, I would have told you about them before," Ann said, standing and leading Zoc into the office. She walked over to the desk and lifted a red cloth to reveal two ant farms full of large black ants. The farms were made of four sixteen-by-eighteen inch picture frames pressed back to back and connected to each other by plastic tubes; one had another tube coming out of one end into a jar with food in it.
Ann held her breath, waiting for Zoc's reaction; finally, he asked, "Why do you keep them covered?"
"Normally, ants don't have light inside their nests and it can upset them if there's too much light, so I keep them covered unless I'm looking at them," Ann explained.
A sudden idea struck her. Rather hesitantly, she held up the cloth and asked, "What color is this?"
Zoc looked a little confused but answered, "It's red. Why?"
"I was just curious, because normally, ants can't see red. That's why I use this to cover them-- all they'll see is darkness," Ann told him, then yawned.
"Okay, it's time to get you something to eat and get you to sleep," Zoc said quickly, taking the cloth and covering the ant farms.
Ann laughed. "You're just afraid I'll make you yawn," she teased as Zoc led her back into the sitting room.
"Maybe, but you still need to eat and get some sleep," Zoc said heading to the kitchen.
After eating, Ann fell asleep in Zoc's arms. After a while, Zoc carried her up to her bed. Ann woke up just as he was covering her. "You're not staying?" she asked sleepily.
"Not tonight-- I've already been away from the nest too long. Quite frankly, I'm surprised Spindle hasn't come after me. I'll come back tomorrow after you're done with all those coins and Elnora leaves," Zoc told her as he kissed her forehead.
"Alright," Ann mumbled as she fell back to sleep. "Rashahlyahm annmiralaq."
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