Fire Flies

Fire Flies, how they light up the darkness. To this day when I see them I remember my Grandfather. He was a great fighter pilot in the first world war. As a young boy I would sit with him on the porch as he would tell me of all the times that he nearly died and of those buddies that did, from bullets fired from guns so hot they look like fire flies.

Fifteen years later my Grandfather died and left me as his only heir to his estate in London, Kentucky. I went down from Cincinnati to see the house and to decide what to do with the property. It was dusk when I pulled into the drive and as I was walking up to the porch, I swear I have never seen so many fire flies. When I opened the door the house smelt old, stagnant from being closed up for so long.

So I turned on some lights and opened some windows to allow for some fresh air. Looking around I saw an old Winchester Rifle above the fireplace mantle and an old Grandfathers Clock in the corner. Next to the fireplace was his favorite chair and on the table next to it was a little black book.

The book was old and worn, inside of it was dates and numbers, latitudes and longitudes, notes of mission details. This had to be his Pilot Log and I couldn't put it down, it was as if I could hear his voice telling me everything that I was reading. As I came near the back of the book I found a map of what looked to be this property. On this map was an X what did that mean ? What is out there? It was to late in the day to go out but I will get an early start tomorrow.

The morning came early as the mountain dew was still heavy on the grass. On the map the X was nearby Hawks Ridge a place where I use to play as a kid. The landscape was harsh and unkept briars was thick and tore at the flesh on your legs.

Morning gave way to the sun and to the ridge, I knew I was getting close. The X was east of the ridge, best that I could tell. It was just a short while later that I came across this old whiskey shack. I opened the door and there was a bed and an old potbelly stove and a table & chairs. There was also an old Moonshine Still there, is this the X ? is this all there is ? As I sat in a chair I noticed something under the bed a sack of some sort. I walked over and pulled it out from under the bed.

It was an old leather bag and inside of it I found an old colt 45 and a dozen gold coins that was dated 1916 and had an elephant on them and I also found a map, a map of Germany with these coordinates on it 48.13641 degrees north and 11.57754 degrees east. What was this map about and was there more of these gold coins there ? why didn't grandpa ever go back and get the rest of them ?

I decided to keep the house but a coin collector gave me $20,000 for the old coins and a gun collector gave me another $1,000 for 1911 Colt 45. You know what I did after that ? I bought me a ticket to Germany.

The End..