The 'Lost Diamond ' Mining Company
"Hmm. That wasn't there last month!"
That was my first thought as I looked down upon this massive sheet of slowly moving snow, ice and churned up rocks and soil.
We stared at each other, dumbfounded, too shocked for any rational thought. Hilary my wife, Joanna my daughter and I were literally rooted to the spot, as we stared across this monstrous intrusion to our newly acquired peaceful life.
We had left the city and our previous lives far behind and headed out to the remote valley just on a year ago. The hard decisions to break away from all that the city promised but which somehow never fulfilled, were almost forgotten. A priceless serenity and close family contentment had replaced the daily grind of commuting, working in a stressed out environment, and the continual friction in our relationship. We were at last free to enjoy the natural way of life, unfettered by the continual needs of so called modern day living.
Our good fortune had come out of the blue. An aged aunt, long forgotten, if the truth were known, had remembered my wife in her Will. Hilary had opened the hand written but official looking envelope and had gasped in shock as the news it contained finally sank in. "...and accordingly, as you are the sole beneficiary of Miss Hortense Phoebe Gladstone's last will and testament, would you care to present yourself at the Chambers of Goodly, Goodly, and Archibald in Boston on Friday the twenty first."
Our hands were shaking as the ancient Horace Goodly handed over the cheque. Four Million Dollars! There were also shares in a long defunct and oddly named Mining Company and the permanent use of a property belonging to that Company. Over coffee in a nearby Café, we perused the faded document with its beautiful copperplate script. Joanna's eyes were dancing with glee.
"We're rich Mom! We're millionaires Dad!" Her infectious grin and high spirits made a couple of other coffee drinkers turn and smile. The planning and decision making started right there in that coffee shop.
Our arrival at the property a few days later could hardly have been more of a let down and punctured our high hopes severely. A small, long abandoned stone building stood at the convergence of two mountain streams. The timber trusses of the roof showed through the rotted thatch like a dead animal's ribs and were stained grey and black in places where the worst of the weather had rotted the once sturdy structure. The single doorway was without any visible door but a couple of rusted hinges still swung from a rotten frame in the light breeze. An overall air of desolation hung about our newly bequeathed property and it quickly quelled even Joanna's exuberance. To the rear of the house the ground sloped steeply up toward a large opening in the hillside.
"That must be the mine" said Hilary as we picked our way across the shallow stream and started a closer inspection of the house and the area around it.
We realised that what was wanted was a good deal of hard work and commitment and that was what we did for those next six months. We moved into a small hotel in the nearby town and set to work to plan and re-construct the house. A young architect had fortuitously just started to work in the town and we engaged him to design our new home. Watching him, as he did the preliminary sketches, encouraged us to carry on with what we saw then to be our new lives together.
The great day eventually dawned and we moved out of the Hotel and into our now palatial home. The old stone house had been razed to the ground and the only evidence of its existence were the ancient stones, which now formed the hearth place in the huge living room. No expense had been spared and we now looked in awe at the magnificent two-storied house, which had replaced the old ruin. Water had been piped from a nearby well and the electricity provided by a generator would ensure the power supplies needed to run the house's modern equipment. A line carrying the telephone connection was blended discreetly into the background, as we didn't want to be cut off completely from the big bad world outside. Joanna still had a career to pursue and an Internet connection would be an essential part of that.
I had my own spacious office and work room where I could carry on my work as a free lance writer and occasional novelist and Hilary was delighted with the well watered and carefully planned vegetable garden to the rear of the house. Joanna's days would be filled with her studies via the Internet and upon graduation she hoped to become a GP to the local community. Life had turned up trumps for all of us and we had only just started to believe it.
The holiday had been Hilary's idea. " We need a break after all that hard work and I need to get someone to wait on me for a while!" she exclaimed. I smiled and reached for the phone. The three weeks walking holiday in Southern Spain flashed by and we were soon back on the road above our home, when we saw what had happened in our absence.
A colossal frozen river of snow and ice now cut us off from our new home. Somehow this massive glacier had cut away from its more northerly course, crushed the low ridge which had separated it for aeons in its own valley and flowed remorselessly down onto its new course right across the approach road which had been built to gain access to our home. Its speed was slow but it could actually be seen to move. Even as we watched, the head of the moving moraine, made up of tons of ice and rocks, slid across the area behind our home and began to churn away at the hillside where the entrance to the old mine still gaped at the outside world. Soon we could see the newly exposed strata of an ancient formation as the glacier churned inexorably onwards.
We abandoned the car just above the glacier and started out over this slowly moving mountain towards the house. Wearing our newly purchased walking boots we made good time and on reaching a high point we could see that the main thrust of the glacier had missed the house and garden. It had veered to the south before slicing a huge swathe of ground across the front of the old mine entrance, exposing a blue veined cliff face to our relieved eyes. We could see with a huge feeling of relief that the house was undamaged, and we then turned to inspect this new vista of the curiously striated cliff to our front .
The evening sun then came out from behind a cloud and shone directly onto this newly exposed rock which suddenly sparkled back at our unbelieving eyes. The whole face seemed to glint and reflect the low rays of the sun. Almost blinded by this unexpected display, we moved over the remaining few yards of ice and snow until we were looking directly up at this amazing sight. Behind us, Joanna's laugh startled Hilary and I and we turned to hear her say "Good old Aunt Phoebe! She named her Company well!"
"Yes" I replied "The 'Lost Diamond' Mining Company was a very apt name!"