Chapter Four
1975
I snuck into my house, looking around the dark living room. I looked back at Ian, who was glancing around as well.
"The coast is clear," I whispered to him. He came in quietly, shutting the door behind him. As he did, the kitchen light turned on and my mother, who looked extremely pissed off, was standing there. Her arms were crossed and her brown hair, which had a bit of grey in it, was up in a messy bun. She wore her old blue robe that she's had since before I was born, with light pink slippers that never matched—then again, my mother never cared, it was house clothes. It wasn't a big deal to her. She glanced at Ian before locking her gaze on to me, and I had to do everything to not visibly cringe.
"It is three in the morning." She said slowly, almost dangerously.
"I know, I'm sorry." I said quietly. Mom shifted her gaze to Ian.
"Ian, your mother is worried sick about you. She's been calling here and all around the neighborhood all day. Almost went to the police about you being gone."
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Hansen, Kerri and I didn't intend to be out this late." Ian nervously rubbed the back of his neck. Mom kept her gaze on him for a moment before looking at me.
"What in the world were you two doing that kept you out until 3:30 this morning?"
"We, uh…" Ian shifted from foot to foot as I didn't look at my mother. I grasped his hand in mine, biting my lip.
"We were just out and lost track of time." I looked at the TV set, staring at myself in the dark screen. You liar, I chided myself.
"You didn't think to call? You never went by a payphone?"
"We did." I said quietly. "We just didn't think about it."
"I see." Mom nodded, walking over to us. "You're lucky your father is on a business trip right now, Kerri. Otherwise you'd be getting it worse than you are now."
"I know."
I heard Mom sigh and saw her shaking her head out of the corner of my eye.
"Where did you two go?" She asked quietly. I glanced at Ian nervously, who shook his head.
"She's going to find out sooner or later, we should just tell her now." He said. I nodded before looking back at my mother.
"Mom… uh, Ian and I, we um…" Before I could finish, Ian spoke up.
"We snuck off to get married." My mother opened her mouth to say something, but Ian cut her off. "I know how you feel about this, Mrs. Hansen, and believe me, I understand. But I want you to know, I love Kerri. And, uh, I'm going to do all I can to-to make her happy."
Mom cupped his cheek gently before crossing her arms again. "I know that, Ian, I just wish you two had waited a few years, got college out of the way. I know how you two feel, but marriage is no cakewalk. There will be ups and downs. There will be fights. And, possibly, children. And children aren't easy either. I just want you two to be happy."
"Oh, trust me," I nodded. "We are."
Mom sighed before shaking her head. "Oh my God," she whispered quietly, tears forming in her eyes. "My baby got married and I wasn't even there."
"Mom, we were thinking about a ceremony in a couple weeks, we just have to save up for it." I said, hoping to not make her cry so much. "If it makes you feel any better, I didn't really wear a wedding dress, just an old church dress."
"Yeah, and I just wore a suit I bought at a cheap store, you didn't miss anything." Ian said, trying to help. My Mom laughed quietly, though she was still crying a bit.
"You two…" she smiled a bit and I hugged her.
"Dad'll be home in time to make it, right?"
"Yes, he's going to be home Wednesday." Mom wiped her eyes, looking at me and cupping my cheeks.
"My baby girl got herself married…" she smiled a bit as Ian put an arm around my shoulders.
1993
"Dr. Grant, as I was saying, we laid out lunch for you before you set out into the park." John Hammond and the rest of us caught up with Alan, who was currently looking at one of the park enclosures with his hands on his hips. "Our gourmet chef, Alejandro—"
"What are they doing?" Alan asked.
A loud clanking noise was heard, and soon we saw a cow lifted up on some kind of contraption with a harness above the enclosure. "Oh. Feeding them." Hammond answered simply. After that, he continued what he was saying earlier. "Alejandro's, uh, prepared a delightful menu for us. Chilean sea bass, I believe. Uh, shall we?"
Alan didn't answer him, and instead started up towards the enclosure. The rest of us soon followed him. We looked inside, but couldn't see much, save for a lot of vegetation that shook constantly. Soon after, we heard the cow shrieking in pain as roaring soon overtook it as the cow was, presumably, ripped to pieces. I covered my ears and buried my face into Ian's shoulder. I couldn't stand it. I felt his arms gently hold me as I buried into him.
"They should all be destroyed." A man walked up to us, wearing a safari uniform. Hammond laughed.
"Robert. Robert Muldoon, my game warden from Kenya." He introduced us. "Bit of an alarmist, I'm afraid, but knows more about raptors than anyone."
Automatically, Alan was asking Robert questions about the raptors. "What kind of metabolism do they have? What's their growth rate?"
"They're lethal at eight months." Muldoon told him. "And I do mean lethal. I've hunted most things that can hunt you, but the way these things move—"
"Fast for a biped?"
"Cheetah speed. Fifty, sixty miles per hour, if they ever got out into the open. And they're astonishing jumpers."
"Yes, yes, yes, yes." Hammond raised a hand to silence Muldoon. "That's why we're taking extreme precautions." He turned to Ellie. "The viewing area is set below here," he started as Alan spoke to Muldoon again.
"Do they show intelligence? With their brain cavities—"
"They're extremely intelligent. Even problem-solving intelligence—especially the big one. We bred eight, originally, but when she came in, she took over the pride… and killed all but two of the others. That one… When she looks at you, you can see she's working things out. That's why we have to feed them like this. She had them all attacking the fences when the feeders came."
"The fences are electrified, though, right?" Ellie asked.
"That's right, but they never attack the same place twice. They were testing the fences for weaknesses systematically. They remember."
The contraption began to come back up, the harness and the metal holding it together was broken and shredded to pieces. I shook my head, leaving Ian's side.
"Yes, well," Hammond said, smiling. "Who's hungry?"
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In the dining room, there were pictures and videos all around us for us to look at as we dined. Hammond's recorded voice could be heard throughout.
"More adventurous guests can opt for our jungle river cruise, or for a close-up look at our majestic winged dinosaurs—" I heard the voice say. I rolled my eyes. Oh, yes, Hammond, excellent idea.
"None of these attractions are ready yet, of course," Hammond said to us. "But the park will open with the basic tour you're about to take. And then other rides will come online six or twelve months after that. Absolutely spectacular designs. Spared no expense."
"And, we can charge anything we want," the lawyer added. "2,000 a day, 10,000 a day. And people will pay it. And then there's the merchandise. I can personally—"
"Donald, Donald," Hammond cut him off. "This park was not built to cater only for the super-rich. Everyone in the world has the right to enjoy these animals."
"Sure, they will." Donald said, albeit annoyed. "We'll have, uh, a coupon day or something."
Hammond laughed quietly. I rolled my eyes. I wanted to know how the hell this guy actually passed law school. I saw Ian grimace and shake his head.
"Gee, the lack of humility before nature that's being displayed here, um, staggers me." He said. I sat up a bit, getting ready for what I could assume to be a fight. Whether it was large or small, time would tell.
"Well, thank you, Dr. Malcolm, but I think things are a little bit different than you and I had feared." The lawyer said, still annoyed.
"Yeah, I know. They're a lot worse."
"Now, wait a second… Now we haven't even seen the park yet and you—"
"No, Donald, Donald." Hammond cut him off. "Donald, let him talk. I want to hear every viewpoint. I really do."
"God, it's like managing an argument between my kids," I muttered. Donald pouted a bit.
"Yeah," Ian spoke again. "Don't you see the danger, uh, John, inherent in what you're doing here? Genetic power's the most awesome force the planet's ever seen, but you wield it like a-a kid that's found his Dad's gun."
"It's hardly appropriate to start hurling generalizations—" Donald started up again, getting ready for a fight.
"Donald. I know it's in your nature to argue because you're a lawyer, but you need to shut your mouth for a moment." I snapped at him. Ian shook his head, placing a hand on mine for a second and stammering a bit.
"I-I-If I may," he stammered. "Um, I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here. Uh, it didn't acquire any discipline to attain it. You know, you read what others had done, and you-and you took the next step." He shrugged. "You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility… for it." At this, Hammond shook his head, obviously disagreeing with him, and began to motion for Ian to be quiet so he could speak. It didn't work. "You stood on the shoulders of geniuses, uh, to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you-you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunch box. And now—" Ian banged on the table. "You're selling it." He banged again. "You wanna sell it. Well—"
"I-I don't think you're giving us our due credit." John Hammond argued. His voice was calm, but I could tell he didn't like what Ian had to say. Not at all. "Our scientists have done things which nobody's ever done before."
"Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." Ian argued back.
"Condors." John pointed, as if to make his statement more powerful. "Condors are on the verge of extinction—"
"—No—" Ian shook his head.
"—If I was to—No, no, if I was to create a flock of condors on this island, you wouldn't have anything to say." John, satisfied with his point, looked at Ian for a response, which he readily received.
"No, hold on. This isn't-this isn't some species that was obliterated by deforestation… or-or the building of a dam. Dinosaurs, uh, uh, had their shot, and nature selected them for extinction."
Hammond shook his head, utterly amazed at Ian's mindset. "I simply don't understand this Luddite attitude, especially from a scientist. I mean, how can we stand in the light of discovery, and… and not act?"
"Oh, what's so great about discovery? It's a violent, penetrative act that scars what it explores. What you call discovery, I call the rape of the natural world."
Finally, someone else threw their hat into the ring.
"Well, the question is—how can you know anything about an extinct ecosystem?" Ellie asked. "And, therefore, how could you ever assume that you can control it? You have plants in this building that are poisonous—you picked them because they look good. But these are aggressive living things that have no idea what century they're in, and they'll defend themselves, violently if necessary." She argued. Hammond looked amazed.
"Dr. Grant," he motioned to Alan, who had kept to himself this whole time. "If there's one person here… who can appreciate what I'm trying to do—"
"The world has just changed so radically, and we're all running to catch up." Alan started. "I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but look—dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution, have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?"
"Also, John, if I may." I cleared my throat. "Dr. Grant has made a-a-a fantastic point. Things happen for a reason. Some people say it's God, some people say it's the natural order of things. 65 million years ago, dinosaurs went extinct. I believe at least 2 to 3 million years ago the first humans came about. While they did have to fight off some animals, as we still do sometimes, they aren't, you know…" I stretched my arm up as high as I could to show my argument more. "As tall as a skyscraper." I repositioned myself in my seat. "My point is, John… While what you may have done is groundbreaking, I will not deny you that, but it's not right. Man and dinosaurs are not meant to co-exist with one another. I'm sorry."
"I don't believe it." Hammond threw his hands up into the air. "I don't believe it," He began pointing at Alan. "You're meant to come down here and defend me against these characters," he pointed at Ian, the lawyer and myself. "And the only one I've got on my side is the bloodsucking lawyer." He then pointed at Donald again, who didn't look too thrilled at being called what he was just called.
"Thank you," he said, nonetheless. A man dressed as a butler came in and whispered in Hammond's ear, which made the older man smile.
"Well, they're here." He said, standing up.
