SO...I FOUND THE WORLD'S LARGEST OPAL...and became Immortal!...sort of...

CHAPTER 1. GENESIS

WHAT IMMORTALITY MEANS TO ME

...just out day-hiking, when I found the world's largest opal...or so I thought. To be rich beyond my dreams, or needs. But I already was--or at least comfortably so; at least my bills got paid on time. After 23 years serving as a law enforcement agent in Arizona, I had retired to my rural ranchita (4 whole acres of grassland scrub...but quiet) nine miles from Mexico near the Huachuca Mountains in the SE corner of the state. Great hiking potential, which I'd enjoyed for several years, and wanted to do at least one more (bucket list?) climb to the top. My life had been a good long run, and I was content, even happy at times. The best for which we should all hope. Miller Peak at nearly 10,000 feet is an all-day, ten-mile round-trip, trudge uphill. 

       As I sat on top, nursing calf cramps, loving the truly spectacular 360-degree view of the San Pedro River Valley--only northward flowing waters from Mexico into the U.S.--and dreading the knee-busting climb down, I felt the ground go trampoline under me. Quakes are rare here. Yet one in 1886 had reshaped the central part of birder-famous Ramsey Canyon in these mountains just north of my peak. I didn't panic; it stopped after just a few seconds; and I started back, looking for any surface changes, since it had been a good shaker.

          Nothing most of the way, till I turned one of the many switchbacks near the bottom and saw a slide had covered ten or so feet of the trail ahead. I had to scramble upslope a bit to bypass the loose pile and then saw it. Half buried in the pebbly soil was an opal...a very large one, size of a softball, perfectly spherical! I recognized this stone at once. I'd given one to my dear wife so long ago as a wedding present. That one had been about as large as a little fingertip, milky-blue and guaranteed to bring good fortune. This was fifty times bigger, perhaps the largest one ever, not artificial. I couldn't begin to guess its worth, nor guess its origin.

       Most opals are from Australia, although some gem quality ones are found in Idaho and Nevada. But none were ever known to be this size or shape! Opals are watery gels of silica spheres packed into honeycomb-like solids--not one giant ball. And how did it get here, in these tectonic uplift mountains that were at least 28 million years old? Millions in gold and silver had been taken here, but no gem stones.         

      As I held it up into the afternoon sunlight, now setting over the mountain crest, it did seem to move internally as expected. Light was refracting through the layers of packed crystals. Lovely. And I was also thinking, at mind's backside, that technically this was on National Wilderness ground and so the gem was Federal property. Technically. But, I was a retired State agent who had worked with the Feds more than once...that had to count for something...correct? Yet I stomped my sudden and distasteful greed quickly. I had upheld the law too long to become thief and cheat now. Still...I could do a lot of good with the fortune from selling this--gee, maybe even MORE good than the Federal Government. Surely. Principal is more important than Loyalty.

      Well, first I had to sell the thing. Best to consider all my options tomorrow, after a good night's rest and with my entire body not aching as if I'd been thoroughly beaten by a sand bag.
And by that next morning, beaten but happy, I ate breakfast and put the opal on the dining table in the rising hot sun while I went online to check out my dreams of wealth. Of course there's no website named "Opals R Us" which estimates price per ounce or whatever; just appraisers wanting a picture and your credit card number. Ho hum. Almighty dollar. Yet it would give me pleasure to use this for something meaningful.

      When I went back to the table to at least measure the size of my prize, it was moving internally again. Problem was I was NOT holding and moving it in the light! I held totally still to confirm it was not the changing angle of my eyes to the gem causing this. Nope. A bright cloud of blue-white writhed inside the ball like heavy fog on a breezy day. I put my face about a foot away and watched, fascinated and a little creeped out. What in the hell was this thing? Maybe the hot sunlight hitting it was making the gel's water writhe inside?