"The Chamber of the Forgotten Gold"
"Fifty-fifty, That's what the doctors told him his chances were if he had the operation, zero if he didn't. He looked at the stacks of gold coins scattered across the table in front of him and thought,
"Why not, its mine, isn't it? If I live I'll go back and get it, If I don't, I guess somebody can figure it out."
He began to place the coins into a metal strongbox.
The painting was situated on the wall of her den among many other pictures of family members and events over time.
It was a large framed landscape of a view from a summit location looking down toward a body of water. Near the foreground was a steam train laboring hard on its climb up the hill. Surrounding this was a country farm setting with vineyards, cow pastures and trees. It was extremely well detailed.
The painting was a gift several years ago from her aunt before she passed away. The artist was her grandfather, a man she had never met but who many people had told her she reminded them of.
Now she sat alone admiring his work, when she noticed something. The train consisted of several cars, all of them black except for one which was gold. It was located very close to a road intersection where it crossed. She thought about this and began to remember all the stories she had heard about him over the years, and she thought,
"Why not, . . . I might have done something like that myself."
She picked up a coin from the table in front of her and told herself,
"Heads I'll investigate this idea more thoroughly, tails I'll never think of it again."
She tossed the coin, grabbed it from the air and examined it on the back of her hand.
She looked up at the painting on the wall and took a deep breath."