Ophelia's Gold

A young woman travels through the American West looking for lost treasure based on maps, tales, and partially-reveals secrets. Along the way, she finds mystery and perhaps love. A series of episodes in a mosaic form that come together to create a novel that explores a young female geologist and her relationship with her scientist father -- a man who creates machines that heal, detect metals and oil, and measure the auras of individuals. Ophelia, who has suffered from seizure disorder since her young teenage years, is emotionally fragile and yet finds great strength and acceptance in the quirky eccentricity of a father whose basement laboratory seems at times to belong to a benign Dr. Frankenstein, or a cheerfully cloud-busting Wilhelm Reich. With her father, Ophelia constructs maps, gathers data, and organizes treasure hunts and explorations for gold and precious minerals. Drawn to eccentric characters as much as she is drawn to treasure maps and quests for gold and oil, Ophelia falls in love with a young man who has embarked on his own quest for a rapprochement with his father -- a Vietnam veteran who must journey through time, memory, and the jungles of Laos, where treasures were found and smuggled out of the country.