Eureka, I’ve found it!

“Eureka I’ve found it; I’ve found gold”.
“That’s a two dollar coin, Jon”.
“Yeah, it must be worth… it must be worth...”
“Two dollars”

Jon has been looking for gold for twenty-four hours straight and has gone a bit insane. My name is Rob. Jon and I are in an abandoned mining shaft in Ballarat. Jon is looking for gold and I’m just assisting him. Sometimes I help him look, but I am on holiday and I’ve only just met Jon.

I met Jon on the taxi that I took to the hotel. Well, he wasn’t actually on the taxi; he had strapped himself to the engine and was riding underneath. He was trying to avoid the taxi fare because he had no money and no job. He just looks for gold day and night and because the mining shaft had been abandoned, it is likely that he will be strapped to many taxis in his life. When he disengaged himself from the taxi, I curiously followed him to the abandoned mine where he pretty much lives.

At the moment he is covered in dirt, holding a two-dollar coin, looking at it proudly.
“After years of looking for gold, I’ve finally found something and you, of all people say it’s nothing. By the way, who are you?”
“I’m Robert. I’m staying at the motel over there,” I signalled to the gargantuan motel a kilometre away. “I’ve been here a few times to help and last night you said that I was your ‘best buddy’. Though you did sound a bit drunk.”
“Oh yeah, Bobby”, he said as he put the two dollars in his pocket and started striking his pick into the wall again.”

I decided that I would join in. I didn’t know exactly what to do and so I started digging using a shovel I found. I had no idea at all before I came to Ballarat, but since I met Jon, I’ve learnt a few things about digging. Not all of the ideas were his, but he has given me a few tips, like if you want to mine for gold, you’ve got to be patent (I think he meant patient). After breaking his fist on the wall of the mine, after a few ineffective strikes of his pick, realising he couldn’t live up to his own advice, he stopped sharing his wisdom.

“So Rob, how’s the wife”, Jon asked as more stone fell to the ground.
“I’m not married”, I replied as I shovelled up more dirt. That was when I saw it; a sparkling gold metallic rock shaped golden nugget. “Eureka, I’ve found it”, I exclaimed excitedly. I wouldn’t usually use words like ‘eureka’ but hearing Jon say it before and then seeing the gold, how could I not stoop to cliché.

“Naw, it’s probably fool’s gold”, Jon said as he walked over to have a look, “Found nothin’ but it for the last few months”. My excitement dropped, until Jon yelled, “YES, I’ve finally found some gold that’s worth more than two dollars, this must be worth millions.” Only to sink once again when he said “Thank you so much,” as he tried to take the gold from my hand.
“WHAT”, I exclaimed, as I quickly snatched it back, “do you think this is yours. I found it, it’s mine.”

We continued arguing for a while. Just as I was about to tell him that I would give him fifty percent of the money we would get from the gold when I was interrupted by the pain of metal colliding with my skull. Jon had hit me with a shovel.

I woke up hours later in a daze. It must have been a long time because I could see that it was dark outside. Jon had left. I looked to see if the gold was still there, but like I thought, it was gone. After a while I decided to get up and go home. I didn’t know where Jon lived, so I decided that there wasn’t any point looking for him.

Two days later, I was still in Ballarat because I wanted to keep looking for gold. I found out that the Ballarat gold rushes had ended one hundred and fifty years ago and that finding that one piece of gold was a one in a million chance. Many people had spent unsuccessful years searching for gold only to become bitter and insane (just like Jon) from finding nothing. I wondered how many years I could spend on this search. Would it be worth lost hours with no acquaintance, never having a family? Being alone and unaccompanied. No, I decided I wouldn’t – I’m not going to spend my life pointlessly looking for gold. No, I had better things to do. I would spend the rest of my life looking for Jon.