Prehistoric Love
Prolouge
“Dr. Andrews, I don’t think I’m doing this right.”
I look up from the log book to see one of my students looking down at their dig with frustration. Smiling I exit the tent and walk around the other students working. When I reach Robert I kneel down and look at what he’s doing, “What’s got you confused?”
The boy tossed his toothbrush in the dirt, “I can’t tell what’s bone and what’s dirt. I feel like there’s isn’t even bone here.”
Looking down to his dig I smile, “Actually, you’ve got quite a find here,” I lift his brush and gently wipe away some dirt, “If you look here you’ll see a small dip in the ground. That’s an eye socket.”
He looked closer, “How can you tell?”
“Here,” I brushed some dirt out of a little crack, “This crack is part of the bone surrounding the socket. Dirt won’t form such a jagged crack.”
I handed the toothbrush back to him, “Now, just make short brush strokes and imaging the skull in your mind. We know it’s a dinosaur; we need to figure out which species. Use the eye socket as your starting point.”
I watched him brush at the bone for a few seconds, making sure his technique was fine before I walked back to the tent to organize the log books.
But before I could make it to the cool shade my name was called once again.
“Dr. Andrews!”
Raising my hand to block out the sun I see Mr. Stock, the man funding this dig. Rushing over, I quickly grab a bottle of water, gulping the liquid down.
“Ah, there’s my favorite doctor,” Mr. Stock gushed, “it’s good to see you’re not wasting my money on fruitless digs.”
I laughed, “I have a feeling we’ll find some good specimens here.”
The millionaire smiled, “That’s good. I was hoping you would do me a favor.”
“After everything you’ve done for me, funding my digs and classes, do you really think you need to ask?”
His smile got bigger, “I was hoping you’d feel that way. I know that next week is spring break and I was wondering if you would travel to a dig that I’m particularly pleased with.”
I smiled; I wouldn’t want to spend my two weeks off any other way, “Of course, what are you digging for?”
Mr. Stock looked a little sheepish, “There’s a dig in Egypt that I think you would be a great benefit to, so are you in?”
“Most definitely.” I responded
“Good, cause you’ll be working with another well known paleontologist, Nathan Hawke.”
My face paled as that name echoed in my head.