The Story Man
By Rod Jones Artist-Writer
Know one knew. Many tried. One day the mystery was solved. The little mining town in northern Nevada was the home of the curiosity. Most of the mining operations had since left the area, but it had a thriving community surviving off of the tourist trade. There were several rivers that crisscrossed the town with origins hidden away in rocky outcroppings.
The town folks never spoke outside of their community of what took place every Saturday in the town's historical park bandstand. It was a mystery for most and a curiosity for some. All in all, it was a closely held secret that everyone in the town knew to keep. After all, the town made good money from what happened weekly in that bandstand. Sometimes it drew large crowds and they all needed food to eat and a place to stay. No one was unhappy about that revenue.
The rivers that seemed to start and end out of nowhere were interesting for the tourists to look at, but they had no fish, so no one bothered to fish in those waters. They mostly headed to the center of town, or to the town square that showcased a magnificent historical bandstand. That was the big attraction on Saturdays.
About two years ago something interesting took place in the mining town’s bandstand. At first, most people didn't pay too much attention to it. A man mysteriously showed up dressed in old miners clothes. He wasn't a particularly tall man, probably somewhere around 5’6” or maybe 5’8”. His hair had a dark color, but his scruffy beard was nearly all gray and didn’t really match his overall appearance. There he stood for all to see, he positioned himself prominently standing in the middle of the town's historic bandstand. He just stood there a few hours on Saturdays telling interesting stories. Some of those stories were downright homespun, others sounded spiritualistic. Locals who were strolling through the park, picnicking, playing catch, or having fun with their kids, started to pay attention to the man in the miners' clothes. Every Saturday, rain or shine he was always there. People started to refer to him as the Story Man.
The town had a small privately held bank. It was named after the town founder, Tom Jason. Virtually everyone, including all the merchants, did all their banking business at the Jason Savings and Loan Bank. The bank was managed and run by a descendent of Tom Jason. Curiously, the bank manager went by the name of Thomas Jason. The town’s townies would ask Mr. Jason how it was that he had the same name as the town founder. His polite joking answer always was the same, "I’m truly blessed to live here and manage the bank, and give the best service possible to all the citizens." It appeared to everyone that he was never going to really answer that question. After a while, people just gave up asking him and accepted the fact that he was Mr. Jason. As time went on, there was one thing people started to notice, the Story Man and Mr. Thomas Jason a.k.a. the bank manager had the same body type, same height, and their voices had similarities, in fact, if it wasn't for that salty white beard people would've thought they were brothers.
The date was the 15th of June, it was a beautiful Saturday. The town park was teeming with tourists. You could count on the fact that they were there to see and listen to The Story Man. Many of the locals set up tables under the shade trees, some had homemade canopies to protect themselves, the food, and cold drinks they were selling to the tourists. A lot of money changed hands on those Saturdays. Bright and early Monday morning everybody was lined up at the Jason bank to deposit all that cash they made. Mr. Jason greeted everyone and was smiling from ear to ear, "Come on in there's plenty of room for everybody. You know your money will always be safe in my bank." Everybody always thought that would be the case.
It seemed to the tourists and the locals alike that The Story Man had a very special story he was going to tell. Instead of starting right in like he usually did after a 10 to 15 minute break, he started pacing back and forth. It looked like he was mumbling something to himself. He was taking his time. He wasn't his usual cheerful self. He looked nervous which was totally out of character. The people that gathered around the bandstand got very quiet. They just watched The Story Man pacing back and forth, sometimes making complete circles inside the rails of the bandstand. It became deathly quiet, even the kids that were mixed in and around the adults were not saying a word. What was even more strange, you could not hear any dogs barking. The birds in the trees were not singing. No cars could be heard driving around. All was perfectly still and quiet. Not that anyone noticed, but the usual rumbling of the rivers that crisscrossed the town could not be heard, you might think they had all dried up.
Finally, The Story Man moved to the edge of the bandstand where it seemed to him the largest group of people were standing. He looked around at each and every one of them. He seemed to be holding his breath, and appeared to be in some state of anxiousness.
The Story Man speaks: "I have a confession to make. I have been deceiving all of you for quite some time." His audience was listening intently, but started to look at each other and quietly say to themselves and to others. "What's going on here?" Others whispered, "This doesn't seem like the real Story Man." One man in the crowd who acted like he was speaking for the rest, shouted out to the Story Man, "What is this all about? We just want to hear one of your stories. You don't seem anything like the Story Man we've all learned to love and respect." People all around the bandstand started to ask him that question and similar questions. Trying to be respectful by not shouting out in a confrontational way. Collectively they all showed tremendous respect for the Story Man’s appearance of being stressed out and anxious.
The Story Man patiently listening to the comments from various members of the crowd, waited to speak. Then he did something that shocked everyone. He pulled his beard down and away from his face and threw it to the ground. Everyone that saw what he had done and was in total disbelief because many of them recognized who it was. Standing before them was the president of the town's only bank, Mr. Thomas Jason. Now the crowd around the bandstand really started to speak to each other. A very common comment was, "What the hell?" Others shaking their heads in total disbelief shouted out, " You’re not the story man, you're Mr. Jason, where's the story man, we want him."
The Story Man, who now identified himself as Mr. Thomas Jason, the bank president, was getting ready to tell everyone the whole story. He was truly frightened. He felt scared inside and thought to himself that the townspeople and the tourists alike, would probably want to throw him in the river and let him drown once they heard what he had to say.
Mr. Jason, whose voice by now was anything but stable, and certainly not the elegant tone he took when telling stories, began to speak, "Here is the truthful story my friends, my bank customers, and to all of you who have come out to listen to my stories. You're probably going to find what I tell you to be upsetting, but I want you to remember I shared with you all many inspirational and in some cases humorous stories that you all seemed to enjoy." The crowd that encircled the bandstand were all quiet, and they were listening attentively. Mr. Jason, better-known in this environment as the Story Man, started to tell what he thought would be his very last story.
" I like to think of myself as not being a dishonest or deceitful man. As many of you know I've never been married and I have no children. A few months ago about the time I came up with the idea to tell stories here in the park. I met a woman online who was from Thailand. I will tell you more about her in a little while. But first I want to share with you how I became the person you so fondly referred to as The Story Man. For some years I knew there was access from the bank that went down into caves that were interlaced in the rivers that flow through the town. These were constructed by the miners during their mining operations. While exploring those caves I discovered that one of them led to the park and went right underneath the town's bandstand. There was even a ladder that went up to the floor with access to one of the corners of the bandstand."
All of the locals and the tourists alike, and even the children were listening attentively. Admittedly, they all were completely confused and didn't know if he was telling the truth, or if this was a joke. He started in again by stating, "What I'm going to be telling you is no joke, it's the truth. Many years ago I read a book about storytelling. Learning that it is universal and is as ancient as humankind. My father and especially my grandfather were great storytellers. They mostly told stories about miners and mining. I became so interested in storytelling that I purchased other books on oral storytelling through voice and gestures. Then I had an idea, actually I had two ideas. I would come up with a way to tell stories to lots of people, and secondly I would figure out how to make money with it. As you know by listening to my stories I achieved the first goal. The second goal was a little bit more complicated. I knew our small pretty much abandoned mining town was never going to really draw enough tourists to bring in the money needed to support local businesses and families." A few of the people yelled out, "Was it really your goal to help people out?" Another person spoke up and said, "Well, you certainly have achieved bringing money into this town." Another person spoke up and said, “I don't think my business would've survived if all these tourists did not flock into our town on the weekends to hear The Story Man, which I I’m surprised to find out all along was you Mr. Jason."
“Yes, I became the Story Man, yours truly, the town banker. And you know what? The bank has prospered greatly by all of your deposits, and we’ve managed to keep the town in good shape. Businesses are thriving, people are happy and you tourists that are in the audience, I have to thank you for coming out and listening to my stories and supporting the community. We appreciate all of you very much." Surprising to Mr. Jason the Story Man, people in the audience actually applauded and cheered for him.
"The part I'm about to tell you about me becoming the Story Man is probably going to make you not trust me and perhaps, some of you might end up even hating me. But I'm hoping to regain your trust. Remember when I mentioned to you about the woman I met from Thailand? Even though I never met her in person I fell in love with her and I believe she fell in love with me. We corresponded frequently and even had phone conversations. She sent pictures of herself and I sent her pictures of me. She was very attractive. She was a mature woman. She was married once, had no children and her husband passed away. As time went on I felt I could trust her and I shared with her what I was doing. She thought my idea of becoming the town's Story Man was genius. She started asking me how we can be together and maybe get married. I told her I had access to a lot of money. I never told her that I owned and operated a bank. When all of the people and businesses started making big deposits in the bank, thanks to the tourist trade, I could barely keep track of all of the deposits. Trust me there is a lot of money stored up in the vault. I had this brilliant idea, but in retrospect, it was really a bad brilliant idea. I would take all of the money and move to Thailand and marry the one woman I thought would be my true love. But something happened. I started to have a very guilty conscience. Everyone in the town has always been polite and supportive of me. Even on those days when I was grumpy in the bank. Now you know the story, but maybe not the complete story. I want to share with you that I'm here to stay and I will never betray the trust you have given me. I want to continue to tell stories. But way more important than that is I think we need to have some town meetings and decide what to do with all this money that has been growing. I've taken the extra revenue and invested it. Those investments have doubled and tripled so for all practical purposes this town has a nice surplus, you might want to call it a nest egg. Some of the ideas I had was, we can build a small hospital that will take care of everyone's health free of charge. I'm sure there are other ideas out there that may be of more benefit to everyone. But I do think medical care is pretty important, especially when you consider this town is somewhat isolated from the nearest hospital."
For a few minutes there Mr. Jason a.k.a. The Story Man could not determine what everybody was saying to each other. Some looked mad and disappointed, others seemed to be happy and excited. One thing for sure, they were all trying to determine if this guy was really being honest. Several of the citizens that seemed to group together, turned to the bandstand and said, "We thank you for sharing your story, we are both disappointed and happy at the same time. More importantly, we're thankful you're not a crook." One woman who seemed to command a good part of the audience spoke up confidently and said, "Maybe God slapped you on the side of the head and knocked some sense into you. I don't think your life in Thailand was going to be all that great. And after all the money was gone your supposedly true love that you think you had found would quickly dump you."
Mr. Jason had to agree with what that woman was telling him. Deep down inside, he knew she was right. He was thankful that his conscience overcame any of the dishonest and deceitful plans he had. He went on to speak, “I promise that I will do my best to do everything possible to be a good citizen and a strong supporter of the community. While I was sharing my ideas about the hospital, and the fact that the investments were really paying off, I came up with another idea. Underneath this town are many interesting tunnels with waterfalls and streams. I've been through virtually all of them and they’re safe and with a little bit of work they could become a huge tourist destination. Just think of it, people can explore the old mining town and still be mesmerized by the beautiful underground scene that none of you have ever seen. I would love to start showing any of you who would like to see what's going on down there. It wouldn’t cost that much money to turn this into a huge tourist attraction far greater than The Story Man. Maybe I can give tours and tell stories there." After that statement everyone in the town became even more excited. Locals and tourists alike started yelling out, "I want to take that tour!” One young boy moved up to the front of the crowd and said, "I want to hear the mining stories, will you keep sharing stories with us Mr. Jason?” The Story Man said to the little boy and to everyone that was there I will tell you lots of fascinating stories, not only about mining and what the town was really all about, but some of the characters that lived and worked here. If you don't mind now that I don't have to wear my phony white beard anymore, I would like to tell you a story right now." There was a great spirit of enthusiasm from the crowd. People cheered and clapped, many yelled out, "Yes please, tell us a story that we can all think about for the rest of the week, even though the story you just told us about ripping off the town had its moments. How about giving us a story with a happy ending?"
"Here you go, happy to oblige, I will make it a short one.
The Story Man began with great confidence and enthusiasm now knowing that the townspeople and tourists alike were on his side, "In days past gone there was a secret cavern with streams and waterfalls. It was the domain of a man who no one knew, and nor would they want to, once they laid eyes on him. By age, he was every bit of a century old, maybe more by some calculations. Was he hideous looking? No, I suppose you might think not if you had a chance to accidentally run into him down in those watery caves. You could determine that he was some sort of ghostly apparition that would certainly scare you. He could materialize and disappear. There was only one person who actually knew him well. It was an ex-soldier that fought many battles in World War One. By some blessed miracle he survived. The soldier, one day went out looking for game to hunt. He quite by accident discovered an entrance into the underwater caves. He had no flashlight to see where he was going, but he quickly discovered it wasn't needed. There were some mysterious glowing rock formations that seemed to light up everything and made the waterfalls and streams sparkle like precious stones of many colors.
The soldier's name was Tom Jason. The people in the crowd around the bandstand listening to Mr. Thomas Jason, bank president and now also known as The Story Man were wondering who Tom Jason was so one of them shouted out, "Who is that Tom Jason?" Mr. Thomas Jason was happy to reply, " He was my great-grandfather. Now let me get on with the story, because I know it's getting late. I will do my best not to confuse you."
Tom the soldier, who discovered the cave, ended up meeting face-to-face with the cave’s ghostly apparition. Tom was certainly confused by what this person was all about because of his background as a soldier not much could scare him these days. Tom asked the strange apparition, "Who are you? Why are you hanging around down in these caves? Better yet, what are you? Don't think I've ever seen anyone like you before." The apparition took on the appearance of a man dressed in bib overalls and a bright red cap an proceeded to tell Tom, "My name is Rodney Hall, at least that's the name I'm going to go by today, I may change it tomorrow." Tom had always been a pretty friendly guy who made friends easily, looked at Rodney and said, "Well that's a right handsome name Mr. Rodney Hall.
“Thank you my new friend, what name do you go by?" Rodney with a warm friendly voice asked Tom.
"My name is Tom Jason. I was out hunting in this area and I stumbled into this cave. I thought this area might be a good place to build a cabin and maybe do some mining for gold. There seems to be a good source of water around here." Tom as he was looking around the large cavern he was standing in with Rodney, went on to say. "Hey Rodney, what is all this glittery stuff down here? A fella doesn't even need a torch to see his way around." Rodney was looking around with great pride and said to Tom. "All this is my home, I live here. I don't know how I got here and I don't really know how long I've been here. Only a couple of other people stumbled into my cave. I did not like them at all, so I scared them off. But you Tom, I can tell, you are a good honest man and you are welcome here. I find it interesting that you may want to do some gold-mining in this area. I can help you make that happen. I can help you get that house built that you can live in. You have to promise me that you will never tell anybody about me, and what I did for you, promise!" It took Tom some contemplation, he even walked around looking at everything he could see in his view. He then turned to Rodney and said, "By Golly, you got a deal. And I will never tell a soul about who you are or about this place. But I suspect sooner or later this will become a mining area, and neither you nor I can stop that." Rodney was disappointed to learn that this area might become a mining area. But he then said to Tom, "Yeah I got it, I could understand why you want to keep this place to yourself, at least I think I understand. But I swear on a stack of Bibles that I will keep my mouth shut." Rodney told Tom how much he appreciated his honesty. "I appreciate you being my friend, I don't know what you mean by a stack of Bibles, but it must be pretty important for you to swear on."
The first thing that Rodney did for Tom was give him a few ounces of gold. He told Tom, "Take that gold and get the money you need to build your cabin. Don't go to the nearest town and show the gold. Go somewhere further away so people don't ask questions." Tom did exactly as instructed. A few days later he returned to the cave, it took him a while before he could find Rodney, then all of a sudden he just seemed to materialize in front of him. Tom just didn't care much about all that, he figured that was Rodney's business to do as he pleased. When Rodney appeared Tom asked him, " Where should I build my cabin? I made arrangements for all the materials to be shipped to the location I just need to let them know where." Rodney said to Tom, “I'm going to tell you exactly where to place your cabin. Build it where I tell you. On the spot where you build it, there will be a hidden secret access down into the caves so you can come in here anytime you would like." Tom thought that was going to be amazing, then he could explore all the caves in that area without anybody knowing.
It was starting to get very late in the afternoon. Mr. Thomas Jason, the bank manager, and now everyone knew he was the Story Man and still wearing his old miners clothes, minus the beard that he threw onto the ground, stopped telling what he thought was going to be his last story, and said to all the people surrounding the bandstand, "I'm getting hungry, and I'm sure you folks are too. Let's call it a day." Now most everyone surrounding the bandstand and listening to the story was pretty much in agreement. But a couple people shouted out, "At least tell us about your grandmother. Your grandfather must've married and had a wife otherwise you wouldn't be here." The Story Man, a.k.a. Mr. Thomas Jason agreed and said, "It’s only fair that I tell you about my great-grandmother. At least this is what was told to me by my grandfather and grandmother. As it turns out my great grandfather asked Rodney Hall how he could find himself a wife, and eventually have children to live with him in that cabin. My great-grandfather figured that someday there was going to be a town above those underground caves and waterways. He knew it was only a matter of time before others discovered the rich mineral deposits in the area." It became perfectly quiet from all of the people listening to the story, some of them began to think that this might be the most interesting point of all. Mr. Jason said, "Well as The Story Man I feel like I’d better share what actually happened, at least this is what I learned. When my great-grandfather asked Rodney Hall about finding a wife, Rodney told him that he already picked one out for him. Needless to say, Tom, my great grandfather, was completely baffled by that comment from Rodney. He learned over the next few weeks that Rodney was going to materialize the perfect wife for my great-grandfather, and apparently Rodney did such a thing. My great-grandmother's name was Bernice. She was a beautiful, strong capable woman. She only had one child and that was my grandfather. I learned that Bernice may not have been completely human as we think of ourselves. Seeing how Rodney had all of the characteristics of being ghostlike and unearthly, it made sense when Rodney told my great-grandfather, I've already picked out the perfect wife for you that later on led everyone to believe that she wasn't 100% human. My grandfather often said she could see into the future and always seemed to know what was going to happen before anyone else. She was incredibly nurturing and apparently if someone got hurt she would touch them and they would completely heal. If someone got sick they would always call on Bernice to heal them, and she always did. She outlived my great-grandfather. My grandfather said that one day she disappeared into the caves below the house and she never returned."
Everyone wanted to know more, it seemed very mysterious to say the least. One lady yelled out to the Story Man, " Are You putting us on with this fantastic story? Is it the truth or is it just one of your fancy made up stories Mr. Story Man?" Others in the crowd began to ask similar questions. The Story Man replied, "Does it really matter if it's true or not? The only person that knows for sure is Rodney." That answer quickly prompted another question and this one came from one of the tourists that showed up almost every week to hear the Story Man. He asked, "Was this Rodney Fellow one of those Lemurians in Mount Shasta you read about?"
The Story Man now known to the townspeople and the tourists alike to be Mr. Thomas Jason, the town’s bank owner and manager, and he didn't really know how to answer the tourists' questions. This is how he responded, "I don't know much about the legend of the Lemurians. I think it's just a myth. But I do know for sure the story about my great grandfather and great grandmother is true as true can be. I guess the only one who really knows for sure is Rodney. Maybe if you go down into one of those caves and tunnels that run underground all through our town. Maybe you will run into Rodney Hall, you can ask him yourself. Based on the story that was handed down to me by my grandfather and my parents it sounded like Rodney was a pretty nice guy.
Rod you weaved a good story here. There are a few points that could use polishing. But all and all a great little feel good tale. I really enjoyed it.