***
Water monster sightings and monster tracks. What’s next? UFOs? Henry threw an impatient look at his cluttered desk. There were reports to finish, people to call and meetings to arrange; but suddenly the walls were closing in on him. He had to get outside under the beautiful summer sky, breathe in the fresh air and walk among the trees.
And he wanted to get a good look at that fossil bed in the daylight, that’s what he wanted.
Getting an insulated go-cup from the office, Henry poured a final cup of coffee. Before leaving, he checked the morning dispatches from the local and park authorities (nothing urgent there), and after answering some procedure questions from a couple of the loitering rangers, he walked out the door and climbed into his jeep. He’d drive as far up the rim as possible and hoof it the rest of the way.
Ah, it was great to be boss. Well, sometimes.
Parking the jeep at the bottom of the trail, Henry hiked up. When he reached the bones, someone was already kneeling before the crumbling lava rock.
Henry walked up and the man turned and flashed a wide, friendly grin, then swiveled around on the balls of his feet and stood up with graceful movements not unlike a panther. The man was young, no more than mid-twenties or so, and was the thinnest person Henry had ever seen for his height. The man was almost as tall as he was.
“Howdy, ranger.” Perceptive brown eyes peered at Henry through golden wire-rimmed glasses and took in his uniform. “Sorry…Chief Ranger,” he amended. The man’s long hair framed a thin, pensive face. As chilly as it was, he wore only a flimsy blue-jean jacket over a sweater, and worn blue jeans. His tennis shoes were dirty from traipsing through the mud.
Henry was usually a good judge of character. It was something he’d perfected as a police officer. He could look at someone, observe their expressions and how well they maintained eye contact, and would know basically what kind of person he was dealing with.
The young man might be dressed shabbily, but something about the way he held himself, the way he moved, the way the brown eyes studied him tipped Henry off. This young man was sure of what he was doing and who he was–and not easily intimidated.
“I see it didn’t take long,” Henry said, his eyes flicking towards the wall of fossils.
The other man’s face registered puzzlement for a fraction of a second and then he said, “No, I got up here as soon as I received your message.” He smiled again. “I’m the staff paleontologist you asked John Day’s to send out, remember? You are Chief Ranger Henry Shore, aren’t you?”
Now Henry smiled. “Yes, I am.” He’d been afraid the man was a hiker or a tourist who’d merely happened upon the site. “No offense, but you look awfully young to be a PhD paleontologist.”
“No offense taken. I’m older than you think. I graduated college early. Don’t worry, I am a full-fledged paleontologist, with a secondary degree in seismology. That’s why they sent me. Been on staff at John Day’s now, oh, for about two years, but I’ve been on paleontological digs all over the world with the top people in the field.”
“Oh, one of those child prodigies?” He still looked like a kid to Henry.
“No, not exactly.” The scientist seemed embarrassed at the remark and Henry changed the subject.
“Well, it didn’t take you long to get here, did it? What did you do, fly?” John Day Fossil Beds National Monument was over three-hundred miles away.
“In fact, yes. As soon as I got your message I had a friend, who has a pilot’s license, fly me up as soon as it became light. I couldn’t wait to see what you’d discovered. And, from what I can see already, I believe it’s an astounding find.” The brown eyes were shining with an obsessive glow. The eyes of a true zealot.
“How’d you locate the exact place, though?”
“Simple, Chief Ranger. I asked for you at park headquarters earlier. You weren’t in yet, so I moseyed on over to the Crater Lake Lodge to get some coffee and wait for you. I happened to come across this man in the lobby who was going on about these bones he’d seen yesterday up on the volcano’s rim after the earthquake. He gave me detailed directions. So, here I am.”
He’s resourceful, too, Henry thought. “Was he a middle-aged guy with a beard? About this tall?” Henry’s hand went shoulder high.
“Yep.”
Henry wasn’t too happy knowing the guy was blabbing to everyone about the fossils. “I wonder who else knows about it? And what they know.”
“I wouldn’t worry, Ranger Shore. I don’t think the man who sent me up here has a clue to what these bones really are. He was just making conversation and I was lucky enough to overhear. He thought they were bear bones or bones of some other large park animal. And I didn’t enlighten him. The fewer people who know about this, for now, the better.”
Henry was further impressed. The man knew his business.
“So, Chief Ranger, how did you figure out these were dinosaur bones?” The young man prodded his glasses higher up on his narrow nose. Sunlight glinted off the lenses. He still looked so young Henry had a hard time taking him seriously. It was like talking to a friendly, but precocious kid.
“Dinosaurs have always been one of my great passions.” Henry shrugged. “When I was younger, I yearned to be a paleontologist, too. But life sent me on another road.”
“So I see.”
Henry slid his eyes towards the once-buried treasure. “What’s going to happen now?”
The paleontologist coughed, bringing up his hand to muffle it. Dirt clung to his fingers from digging around in the mud. “We notify the proper authorities and, eventually, I’ll call in some colleagues of mine to set up a monitored dig. Then we’ll begin unearthing and cataloging the specimens; send them back to John Day for further study.” He locked gaze with Henry and appeared to make a decision. “But there’s no hurry. Not after all the millennia these bones have lain here. I’ll report back tomorrow or the next day. Next week, even. I’d like to spend a little time looking over what is here first. In private. Would you mind? I’ve been waiting for such a discovery my whole career. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Henry liked the kid more every second. “No. You’re right. A week or two one way or another can’t matter. I was hoping to do the same thing, look around some before the crowds rush in, the fences go up and the whole place becomes off limits.”
The paleontologist nodded in agreement. “Exactly.” He knelt down, his back to Henry, making clicking sounds with his tongue as he studied the find. “It’s an amazing discovery. Simply amazing. I believe what we have here are genuine dinosaur fossils. But,” he scratched his chin, “of what species, I have absolutely no idea. It’s an enigma. That’s why I want some time with them before I call the troops in. This is much too juicy to share yet.”
The man’s eyes traveled dreamily over the white fragments protruding from the earth and the clear impressions in the layers of rock. He gently caressed the jagged end of a bone. “Perfectly preserved…must have something to do with the ancient volcanic lava trapped underneath the earth in this area. The earthquake yesterday set them free.”
Henry stood behind the scientist. “To think they were once dinosaurs. Real dinosaurs. Any idea how old these particular fossils might be?” He inquired with reverence.
“I’ve got a rough idea. Ballpark figure. But tests at John Day will have to be performed to gauge their age precisely.”
Henry moved closer to the fossil bed, squatting down on his haunches to gain a better look. Tipping his hat back on his head, he reached down, running his hands over the length of a very deep fossil impression. “I’m merely a layman, but I’d guess these bones to be around…sixty-five million years old?”
“Perhaps older.” The scientist gazed at Henry, distracted. “You see, I’ve never seen fossils like these before in any book, in any museum or on any dig. Not anywhere. Not ever.”
The expert wiped sweat from his forehead and abruptly plunked down on the ground. He seemed overwhelmed.
/> Henry sat down beside him. Maybe the kid was sun-stroked. “You okay?” he pressed. “The sun and the thin air can be a killer this high up unless you’re used to it. It’s deceptive because it’s so cool.”
“Sure, I’m fine. It’s the discovery that has me light-headed, that’s all. Can you imagine the hoopla, the crowd you’re going to have here when we finally release the word about this?”
Henry’s eyes rested on the wall, open disdain on his face. “Unfortunately, yes, I can.”
His companion searched around with sad eyes. “I’m real sorry, Chief Ranger. It could ruin this place. A damn shame. It’s a beautiful park. Hopefully, with restrictions, we’ll be able to keep the crowds down and control the damage some.”
Henry felt that he’d met a soul mate. It was a relief to know the kid thought as he did.
The young man seemed to recall his manners. “I’m sorry, I haven’t even introduced myself properly. The excitement of the moment, you know, and these astonishing fossils, sidetracked me.” He stood up, extending his dusty hand for Henry to shake. “I’m Justin Maltin. Dr. Justin Maltin.”
Shaking it, Henry responded, “Real nice to meet you, Doc.”
“You were here then when the earthquake hit yesterday?” Justin queried.
“Yes. This one knocked half my tour group on their butts.”
“This one? You mean there’s been other earthquakes recently?”
Henry looked off into the distance. Everything had fallen so silent all of a sudden. Not even bird noises. Strange. His gaze returned to Justin.
“Yes. One last year. Like this one, not much above ground damage.”
“Before that?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been here in the park for less than ten years.”
“Tell me about both earthquakes.” Justin tugged a notebook and a pen from a bulging pack sitting on the ground behind him. He looked up, giving Henry his full attention. “Or anything you can recall. You discovered these fossils–and yes, they’re genuine fossils–after the most recent quake?”
“Yes, it uncovered the site.”
The scientist nodded. “I’d already been told most of the damage was done below this lake, though.”
“Really? How do you know that?”
The young man smiled. “Secondary degree in seismology, remember? And I did the research. Then also, with the lava rivers and tunnels this caldera is supposed to have underneath it, this whole area could become very unstable, if it isn’t already. It’s something you’ll have to keep in mind, not only for your reports, but for the safety of all the people in the park.”
“I’d wondered about that myself.”
Justin jotted something down in his notebook, the guy was nothing if not thorough, and went back to examining the site. Henry right beside him.
“Never seen any fossils like these, though,” Justin repeated, unable to hide his excitement. “As I said, perhaps the bones are an unknown breed of dinosaur altogether. A brand new species. Wouldn’t that be fantastic?”
He found the younger man easy to talk to. Soon they were discussing more than fossils.
Justin wanted to know why Henry had become a park ranger and Henry told him the sanitized version he gave most people; that police work in New York had become just too dangerous. It turned out that Justin had been a cop himself, for a short while, after his first two years of college. Unsure of what he’d really wanted and tired of school, Justin dropped out and had attended a local police academy. He’d served on a small town police department for nine months before he decided it wasn’t for him.
“For me, it was too boring. Riding around all night in a squad car hoping someone would rob somebody or try to shoot someone, not my thing anyway I discovered…and the dinosaurs were still calling to me.” The scientist grinned. “So I went back to school, worked around my classes to pay my way, got my degree in record time and here I am.”
They had a lot in common, age difference aside.
“I need to walk down to the lake and take a look around to see if there’re more fissures or broken ground, Chief Ranger. How about meeting me later at the lodge for lunch?” Justin asked Henry as they were getting ready to part ways. “We can continue discussing our prehistoric friends here and compare the pros and cons of being a police officer in the United States today.”
“Can’t make it, I’m sorry to say. I’m supposed to go home and squire my wife back up here so she can take pictures.” Henry had previously mentioned that Ann worked at a local newspaper. “And I have work waiting at headquarters.”
Justin’s carefree expression went serious. “Do you think your wife might hold off a while on publishing those photos where everyone in the world would see them? For a few days?”
“I’ll talk to her about it. She’ll be disappointed, but I don’t see any reason why not. The paper’s a weekly and they just put this week’s edition to bed. It’d be a week anyway until the pictures come out. That enough time for you?”
“I imagine it’ll have to be.” Justin crossed his arms, obviously relieved. “Well, then, how about joining me for dinner around six? You and your wife? I’d like to meet her. I can give her some expert input for that article of hers.”
“You got a deal, Dr. Maltin. Ann and I haven’t eaten at the lodge for…at least a week,” he joked. “We need to get out.”
“Please, call me Justin.”
“Okay, Justin. And you’d better call me Henry, then. Enough of this Chief Ranger stuff.”
“You got it, Henry. See you at six.”
“See you then.”
They shook hands.
Justin collected his duffel bag with an audible groan and, after Henry aimed him in the right direction, started on the path towards the lake. The bag was overstuffed with whatever the boy had in it, probably clothes, snacks and books, and looked larger and heavier than the young man it was being dragged behind. He stumbled around a corner and disappeared, the duffel bag bouncing along in the dust.
Henry returned to headquarters.
That afternoon he attended to business. The Ranger’s Station was so busy, he was almost relieved when Ann called from the newspaper and told him she couldn’t make it back before dark. Zeke had a couple of timely stories for her to write and they were short-handed again. The assistant editor was out for the day. She couldn’t make supper at the lodge by six, either.
“I’ll grab something to eat on my way home,” she told him. “You have a good time with your new friend and you can show me the bones tomorrow. Zeke promised I could have tomorrow morning off. He really wants those photos.”
Henry’s day passed slowly, and just before six he made a quick circuit of Rim Village and the campgrounds. One group of campers had parked far away from the others and had left trash out in the open. Bears had come in the night and had made a mess of everything, scaring the campers pretty badly. Henry issued the offenders a fifty dollar ticket for breaking camp rules. He suspected they’d follow instructions better next time.