Her name was Ellen and she had called me concerning some rough she had that needed to be categorized. I don’t usually do house calls, but she sounded like she needed help and if my suspicions were correct, I might be able to find out where she collected her samples. She insisted she had jade. At least fifty pounds of it from a place she was hiking and wanted to see if she was correct. I told her over the phone that the geology in the area she told me she found this was not known for its jade. Believe me, if it was, it would have been mined out years ago; but, the benefit of the doubt is the downfall for all rock hounds, amateur or otherwise.
I make a meager living buying rough from collectors and reselling it to people who know what to do with it. My real business is looking for large dealers that have hundreds of pounds of stuff that they want to dump onto the market just to get it out of their warehouse. I usually end up making anywhere from a dime to a buck a pound for the stuff. Not much, but if you find someone who just isn’t knowledgeable about what they have you can make a killing. Maybe she did have some jade, if so it would be a low grade at best, but you never know. It could be something entirely different that would make both of our days. Or it could be trash not worth looking at. That’s the chance you take.
She lived out on some dirt road in the middle of nowhere. She had a modest little two bedroom house that could use a new paint job and a new roof. There was a detached garage separate from the building that could have housed three cars. She drove an old army jeep from 1945 that had seen better days. Just the kind of vehicle a rock hound drives. I myself drove an old Bronco that was in its last miles. I kept it alive via duct tape and a lot of pampering. I can only imagine that her jeep had similar maladies.
I knocked on the screen door that was latched; there was no bell to ring. I heard some rumbling inside and a muffled voice called out, “Just a minute”, and I waited. I heard the dead bolt on the front door slide back and it opened a crack. All I could see of her was a bit of red hair and an aquiline nose about ruby red lips.
“Can I help you,” she asked?
“I’m afraid it’s the other way around, can I help you,” I said.
“Are you the rock guy,” she asked?
“Yes,” I have been called many things in my life and this was the mildest, “I am”. I produced my card and held it up to the screen door separating us for her to read. She studied the card for a moment or two and opened the door and unlatched the screen.
“Please come in.” She stood about five eight, kind of tall and slender. Her red hair she wore long and down around her shoulders. She was dressed in jeans and a T shirt and she had on a climbing harness that fit around her waist and along the inside of her thighs very tightly. There was a locking clamp in the O ring in the center of her harness.
“You have to forgive me, I am planning on doing a little climbing tomorrow and I just wanted to check my equipment out.” She seemed a little embarrassed, “I must look silly.”
“Oh,” being somewhat of a climber myself, “not at all. I see you prefer Petzel harnesses and if I’m not mistaken, that’s more for repelling than for top roping.”
“You climb?”
“I have been known to abuse one rock face after another,” I replied.
She had a wonderful smile and very bright eyes. She was very engaging, hard to take your eyes off of her. The seat harness accentuated her pelvis and butt. I had a difficult time not looking at her jeans and the way the harness fit.
“I was planning to repel into a canyon tomorrow and do a little exploration for rock samples.”
“Very admirable,” I commented. There followed a slight awkward silence.
“Would you like a cup of coffee or something?”
“I would love a cup, if it’s not too much trouble.”
“No trouble at all, I just happen to have some fresh brewed.”
I followed her into the kitchen and she obtained a couple of coffee cups, not matching, and poured us both a hot cup of coffee. It was a little bitter but warm and welcome.
We chit chatted about climbing and exchanged some of the escapades that we both encountered. We discussed the differences in gear and the performance of this over that. We were into our second cup of coffee before we actually got down to the subject of rocks.
“Well, would you like to see what I found?”
“Absolutely,” I replied.
I followed her as she led me outside to the garage. Once inside, I found that she had several ropes hung from the rafters to practice her ascent and repel changeovers. She had an enormous amount of climbing gear and ropes hanging from the walls of the garage and along the base of the walls she had five gallon buckets and galvanized wash tubs filled with rough stone of all varieties. I immediately identified thunder eggs and agates, and quarts that ranged from milky white to clear and rose. She had a lot of obsidian and garnets. There was Malachite and white quarts bearing flecks of gold. I saw several wash tubs of the blackish rock bearing silver ore and crystals of all kinds. The rush of all this rough drained the blood from my head and I felt a little woozy. I was like the preverbal kid in a candy factory. There was gypsum, amethyst, chunks of raw cat’s-eye, purple marble and so much more that my mind could not categorize it at a glance. While I stood dumbfounded she walked over to a galvanized wash tub and kicked the side of it, “This is what I wanted you to see.”
I found my feet and walked over to where she was indicating. Inside I saw multiple stones of a deep green color. Some had a mild vein in it and some was a little duller than the rest, but the overall color was of a dark green nature. I picked up one of the rocks and hefted it, it had a solid mass and was up there on the Mohs scale. I took out my loop and inspected it closer. I picked up another piece and did the same. I looked at several more before I stood back up and told her, “Jasper”.
“Jasper” she repeated.
“Jasper,” I repeated. I saw the downcast look on her face and felt for her.
“Jasper of a high quality,” I added. “It’s not jade but it could fetch a nice price per pound rough of say,” I was calculating what I could afford, “a dollar to a dollar fifty a pound.”
“Hardly worth the effort it took to get it here,” she was very depressed and I felt bad. The Jasper had a nice color, but rough like this was a common event and not really worth any more than I could offer her. It was a more than fair price I felt.
“I’m sorry. I truly did not mean to disappoint you. However, I see some other stuff here that I would be very interested in.” She brightened at the prospect.
I took her through her collection of rocks and told her what she had. Normally, I would downplay the collection as second rate and make an offer less than it’s worth and make a killing on the deal. But she was just to pretty to do that to and besides, I felt kind of protective of her and had no desire to take advantage of her. At least, as far as rock were concerned. She still had the seat harness on and the way the straps of the harness fit around her ass made my mouth water. Maybe that’s way I was being so straight forward. I really couldn’t tell. I just liked having her in tow showing her what she had and how she could cash in on it.