Most of the lunchtime crowd was dressed in work clothes, although a couple of the women were nude. The mixture of dressed and undressed females was oddly erotic and distracting, and I had to force myself not to stare.
“We explored the cabin’s wreckage. I was the one who found the old safe filled with stock certificates for the Liberty Mountain Mining Company – 345,000 shares total. The original owners cleared out when the gold ran out, and the mine went bust.”
Lisa paused and chuckled before she continued, “They even left a note which described the gold mining venture as a ‘fool’s dream’ and anyone stupid enough to try to make a go of it was welcome to the company and all its worthless holdings. We researched the enterprise when we returned to Denver. Apparently, no one had filed paperwork to dissolve the company. Although dormant, it was still a legally valid entity.”
“We had to settle nearly 160 years worth of back taxes, fines, and fees to the tune of $240,000 to get on the right side of the law. It was worth every cent,” Lisa said with a grin that would put the Cheshire cat to shame.
“Dad and I fixed the cabin up enough to be useful as a family hunting lodge. We came up to the mountains every year before he died and I became the sole owner of the Liberty Mountain Mining Company.”
“I continued to visit the cabin with friends and lovers after my dad died. We fancied ourselves a ‘Society of Sisters’ and often daydreamed of starting an all women commune. We pooled our money and purchased lottery tickets. We planned to split any winnings among the players. We used to daydream about winning and held many discussions on what to do with our good fortune if we ever won. Then it happened. We found out that we held the winning lottery ticket to a huge jackpot,” Lisa said
The word about Lisa’s history lesson spread and a dozen or more sisters joined the others at the table.
“Each sister could have cashed out with $1.5 million before taxes if we had split the money evenly, but the windfall would have been the end of our group. We decided, after much discussion, to pool our money and build a state of the art survival colony instead. The vote was unanimous,” she said.
“I remember the vote well. I wasn’t ready to live away from civilization, and turning my back on that kind of cash in my pocket was a tough choice. I considered the money as an alternative retirement account,” Darlene said.
The attention to detail and planning which went into the Colony’s creation was impressive. Lisa and her group spent a year creating a shell company to redeem the $75 million winning lottery ticket to avoid the public attention associated with winning a large jackpot. The Society drafted a charter and a set of bylaws governing the community’s operation.
Everything was open and democratic according to Darlene’s remarks, and comments from several sisters, at least as open as a secret society could be. Free and open elections for Colony leadership resulted in Lisa’s selection as leader, a post she had held without visible opposition for the last 15 years. Members of the family of sisters were fiercely loyal to each other and to their leader. The fact that I was accepted, or at least tolerated, by Lisa did much to improve my standing as a ‘guest.’
“I love what you’ve done to the place.”
“The only thing missing is children,” one of the women said to Lisa.
The comment about children hung like a pregnant pause in the air. Looking around, I was startled to see all eyes were on me as the phrase ‘founding father’ took on a potentially new meaning.
“Children might be a nice addition,” Lisa said.
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