Diamond in the Rough
It was cold today, but that’s nothing new. It’s just another day of work I guess. Things are starting to really heat up around here, but sadly not the temperature. Since the discovery of the diamond here, more people just seem to be pouring in. It really is quite amazing to see the seas of them coming here just to try to make it rich. It’s almost like a modern day gold rush, except, you know, the snow, ice, and cold. You kinda get used to it, kinda.
I set off from my house on my snowmobile and sped by the main town towards the mine. So far I haven’t really gotten much, definitely not enough to get me out of this place, but every little bit counts. I’ve seen plenty of people make it rich around me, even lost a friend or two from it, but I’m happy for them. Anyways, I took a quick stop to the shop before I finally arrived at the mine and grabbed a quick thing to eat. I don’t really cook for myself too much. I ate it quick and took off for the mine.
I parked the snowmobile right where everyone else does and grabbed my gear, including the drill, pick axe, and even a gun, because you never know what, or who is out there. I slung it on my back and started walking over to my hidden mining location. Where it was located there wasn’t really anyone there, so I figured there was less competition. I passed by the few people who already started their mining and I didn’t even look at me. I just passed by and went to go start my drill. I hunkered down into my spot. There was a little ridge that blocked a lot of the wind, which was absolutely freezing today. I sat there and waited and waited just waiting for the meter to go off. After I waited around an hour and a half, I could hear the screams for joy coming very close to me. Someone had to have struck it rich, so it’s good for them I guess. I just wish it was me.
After waiting for another hour or so, I thought that today was just not the day. I was packing my things up getting ready to go when I saw my friend Dan. “Hey Dan. How’s it going?”, I asked him.
He responded, “Pretty good. Find anything today?”
He had to know the answer based on the disappointed look on my face. “No, nothing today. Here’s hoping for tomorrow!” I answered, with a fake cheeriness. He could sense I was lying, but didn’t say anything about it.
He told me with a bit of a laugh, “Yeah I guess. Well, good to see you.”
I said, “Same with you. Good luck!” and began to take off with my tools. I followed my tracks and got back to my snowmobile, put my gear back on it, and set off back for home. On my way back, I decided I would actually have some fun for once. Going out day after day only to be disappointed really brings someone down, so I thought that the perfect pick me up would be to race around on my snowmobile. I found a spot that led into the woods that I have never seen before, so I took a hard turn and began down a trail that looked like it had been ridden on only a couple of times. I was going so  fast the trees were just a blur and at that point I forgot about everything and actually enjoyed myself. I was out there just weaving through the trees when the sun started to go down. I followed my tracks back to the town and went back to where I was staying and went inside. At this point I was pretty tired so I just went straight to bed hoping for a better day at the mines.
On the new day, I had a pretty good feeling about it. I thought that today would be the day that I would finally hit it big and leave this frosty place. In a way I’m going to be pretty sad to leave this place after spending so much time here, but I can get over it pretty easily. I made myself breakfast for once and then stepped outside to the blinding white after a fresh snow. Immediately after, a huge wind blew freezing air into my face. I shivered with a chill that went down to the bone and got onto my snowmobile to head over to the mine.
I took the same path that I do every single day, speeding past the same exact buildings, and im at the mine in no time. I go back to my usual spot and just let the drill start running like usual. Not a whole lot of people are out here today, but I figured that was just because it was a Saturday. No days off for me though. As I was saying before, I set the drill up and let it run. As it was running, I started to fade in and out and eventually dozed off and fell asleep. I was rudely awaken with one of the best sounds I could hear, the beeping of the drill. I was astounded that I actually found some diamond and could hardly believe it. I removed the drill and began to start carving away with the pick. I was hitting and hitting waiting to see the diamond appear and after a little while, it was there. This was one of the biggest diamonds that I have ever seen, and it had to be worth some big money. I could finally leave this freezing place.
In the whole fury of my discovery, I must have made some shouts and yells as a guy came over to me. I could barely see him as he came out from the dark, that quickly closed in when I was sleeping, so I was pretty surprised to see him. “Everything alright over here?”, puzzled the man.
“Yeah!” I exclaimed, “Everything is more than alright!” I was too excited to say anything else.
“Well that’s good for you.”, the man said, as he just walked away back into the darkness.
The only thing that I could think to myself was how weird all of this was, but I just shrugged it off, as he definitely wasn't the first time I’ve met someone like that. I began to pack up my things, including the newest find, and started to walk my way over to my snowmobile. I put my gear onto my snowmobile and out of the corner of my eye, I spotted that same man who I saw earlier. I jumped on my snowmobile and began to go on my way back to my house, and catch some sleep.
As I was moving on, I saw the same guy, and this time he was on his own snowmobile, following me pretty close. I knew that nothing good could come from this, so to test if he was really following me, I went into the woods that I went into the other day. I took a hard left going in between two trees and, sure enough, he follows me. At this point I knew he had to have been coming after me for my diamond, as some people have been doing recently, so I kept speeding, weaving through the trees trying to evade him.
He kept up with me and in the end he pulled out a gun and I was absolutely scared. He shot and it broke the silence of the night, and ended up grazing my arm. It went clean through my coat and it cut my arm open. The pain was absolutely unbearable, with my arm going limp. I remembered that I had the gun in my tools, so I grabbed it and started to fire back. One shot. Two shots. Three shots. All of the came flying at the man following me and one hit his snowmobile, causing him to swerve right and slam into a tree. I was left in awe about what happened, and even felt really guilty about it, but then I remembered that he shot me, so I didn’t feel nearly as bad.
I went back to my house and started to bandage up my wound. I took of my coat, which is now useless, and looked at where I had gotten shot. It was way worse than I thought it would have been, but I guess that was all adrenaline keeping me going. I patched myself up, and now it’s just going to take some bed rest to get better. It doesn’t seem like it did all that much damage to me, so it turned out alright, or as best a gunshot wound could be.
I eventually fell asleep, which seemed to be impossible due to my adrenaline, but I managed to do it and in the morning, I went to the hospital to make sure that everything would be fine. They looked at it and started to ask questions about how it happened, but I shrugged it off, as the guy had to have died after colliding with the tree.
In the end, I brought the diamond to the appraiser and they said it was the biggest that they have ever seen. They said it had to be worth tens of thousands of dollars, so I really did hit the jackpot. It was actually somewhat worth risking my life, somewhat. Time for me to head out of this frozen wasteland and go to a place a bit more tropical.