Chapter 26: People Skills

July 16, 1992 - Thursday

Wokal Field/Glasgow International Airport in Glasgow, Montana

Waiting at the airport for about a half an hour, Alan finally saw his cousin come into the tiny airport terminal. He nudged Rob, who had gone along for the ride, and pointed toward Richard.

"Richard!" Rob yelled, as he spotted him in the crowd.

Richard looked around. He spotted Alan and Rob and smiled. Richard's wife, Melissa, was walking next to him and she was seven month's pregnant. They reached Alan, after maneuvering around some people. Melissa hugged Alan.

"It's good to see you, Alan," she said.

"Same here. And wow! Look at you," Alan said.

"Where's my hug?" Rob asked with his arms opened wide.

Melissa smiled and hugged Rob, too, and then she looked at Alan again, rubbing her belly.

"She's due in seven and half weeks."

"She? You cheated and already know it's a she?" Rob interrupted.

Melissa smiled and waved a hand at Rob.

"It's not cheating. It's just a matter of knowing what color to paint the room," she countered, "Plus it helps with names."

"You have a name already?" Rob asked, shocked.

"Yes. Jodie," she answered.

"Very odd. You guys already have the college picked out that 'Jodie' will go to?"

Richard was shaking his head at Rob, when he stepped up and shook hands with his cousin. Alan had gotten a phone call the week before from Richard, and he had wanted to come visit. Melissa loved going to the dig site, so they all planned around her schedule and mood. Her doctor had told her to rest, so the trip was mostly about her relaxing, away from the busy city of Chicago.

"How you doing, Ricky?" Alan said, still shaking his hand.

"Very well, thanks. Still hanging out with this loser of a friend, huh?" he asked, playfully gesturing toward Rob.

"Yeah, I guess I am," Alan said, smiling.

Rob gave Alan a look of disappointment.

"Hey! You're supposed to be defending me, you know," he added, smiling.

"Sorry, I forgot about that part," Alan said.

Rob was about to complain some more, when Melissa interrupted.

"It's great to hear that your sister is doing well," she said.

"Yeah, she's quite a strong-willed person," Alan observed.

"She's staying with us right now, too, so you'll be able to see her," Rob said, smiling.

Melissa smiled at first, but then a sudden look of panic swept over her face. Rob was about to ask what the problem was, when she announced what was wrong to the three men.

"I need to find a restroom . . . right now."

"Is there something wrong?" Richard asked, very attentive to his wife's needs.

"No, no. I just need to go . . . right now," she said, repeating the urgency in her voice.

Alan and Richard quickly guided her through the crowd. Richard watched as she disappeared into the restroom.

"Rob and I will go get your luggage," Alan said, "And then we'll head over to the dig site and go out for lunch."

"Sounds good," Richard said.

"Maybe we can play some cards, like the old days," Rob said.

Alan glanced at Rob, as he laughed about the "old days". Those particular days were only about five or six years ago, but Rob made it sound like it was much longer than that. He turned Rob around toward the small baggage claim area.

"He just got here, Rob. Already, you want him to gamble his money away to you?"

"Sure. It would be my pleasure to take some money from the Grant family."

Richard laughed.

"You're on, Mr. Tandy. Tonight, there won't be enough money in the world for you to keep yourself alive, mate."

Rob was about to retaliate against that playful threat, when Alan pushed him toward the baggage area. Richard watched them walk away, talking and laughing the whole way to their destination.

After the twenty minute car trip to the dig site, Alan pulled in quickly, rushed out and opened the passenger door on his side. He helped Melissa out and showed her to the bathroom in the trailer. When she was in there, Richard laughed.

"It's not very smart to make a pregnant woman wait to use the bathroom. You're very lucky there wasn't an accident."

Alan smiled and Rob shrugged.

"Oh, well. It's not his car anyway," Rob commented.

Richard laughed.

"Whose car is it?"

"My Paleobotantist. Ellie Sattler," Alan answered, shaking his head at Rob.

"She trusts you enough to let you use her car whenever you want?" Richard asked curiously.

"Well, we live together, so I guess she must trust me to a certain extent," Alan said.

"It's a shame really. She doesn't know him at all. If she did, she would have high-tailed it out of here months ago," Rob added.

Richard nodded at Alan, doing his best to ignore Rob. The way Alan had just admitted to living with a woman so easily, showing that he was going on with his life after Kathryn, made Richard very anxious to meet the woman.

"Oh, okay. Well, where is this Ellie Sattler?"

"Hopefully, she's gotten herself very far away from here," Rob said aloud to himself.

After giving Rob one of his "shut up" looks, Alan answered Richard.

"She's out in the field," he said, as he looked at his watch, "She was going to meet us at 2:00pm. We just got here a little early."

The trailer door opened and Melissa carefully made her way down the few stairs and came back to where the men were.

"We did make very good time," Richard commented.

Alan nodded and was about to reply, when he saw that Ellie was making her way toward them. Richard noticed the broad smile that had developed on his cousin's face and he followed his gaze.

"So," he began to say, "That must be Ellie."

Ellie made her way to them. She stopped in front of Alan and gave him a quick kiss. Alan turned toward Richard.

"Ellie, this is my cousin, Richard and his wife, Melissa."

"Please, call me Missy. Everyone else does," Melissa said.

Ellie quickly shook hands with the couple.

"I apologize for not coming to the airport," she said.

"Oh, think nothing of it," Richard said.

Ellie nodded and then made a big deal over Melissa's large belly. They laughed about something that Alan didn't quite hear, and then the ladies began to walk away from the men. Alan watched as the two women looked as if they had known each other for years.

"They just met and already they're best friends. Women are strange that way," Richard said, echoing his thoughts. And then he added, "It looks as though you've finally begun to get on with your life."

"Yes. I think I have. She really is wonderful. I couldn't ask for anything more," Alan said, glancing toward Ellie.

Richard smiled. And, for once, Rob didn't say a word.

"So, where's your sister, Robert? I'd love to meet the good looking half of the set of twins," Richard teased.

"She's around her somewhere. I'll go find her."

Rob turned and left Alan and Richard to talk. Richard had visited the various dig sites, on several occasions, but he hadn't really noticed the large amounts of people before.

"Looks like a lot of people have taken an interest in dinos . . . all at the same time," he observed.

Alan cringed.

"You can blame Rob . . . and Ellie, for that," he said, and then he said a little more softly, "Rob put an ad in the paper, and so now we have a zillion amateurs wondering around, basically stepping on things, and getting on my nerves."

Just as the sentence left his mouth, a man in his mid twenties, tripped over a power cord on the ground and toppled face first into the dirt. Alan rolled his eyes and sighed, but still ran over to assist the man.

"You okay?"

The man got up quickly, brushing the dirt from his pants and shirt.

"Absolutely. I just wasn't watching where I was going."

"Maybe you should try that," Alan said.

The man nodded and walked off toward his vehicle. Alan stood there, watching him, as he almost fell again, tripping over a protrusion in the ground.

"See what I mean?" Alan sighed.

"I guess I do," Richard said.

"Found her!" Rob announced.

Richard looked toward Rob and saw a shorter woman, with Rob's same color hair, walking next to him. The facial features, and even they way they both walked, told him they were definitely related.

"You must be Kara," Richard said.

Kara nodded shyly and smiled. Richard had a twinge of that Australian accent, just like Alan, and she immediately thought of the load of bull Rob had tried to tell her in the hospital. She was sporting a short haircut and, if you didn't know she had surgery only two months ago, it wouldn't be readily obvious. Rob had gone to check on her and found that she had just woke up, so he suggested that she go outside, for fresh air and to meet some of Alan's family.

After a quick handshake, Richard continued, "Pleased to meet you," he said, smiling.

"Likewise," Kara said.

"Now we're one big happy family," Rob added.

Richard stood off to the side, as Alan was explaining digging fundamentals to the tourists under the late afternoon sky. Melissa and Kara were sitting in some folding chairs, right next to him.

"Typically, when you're out prospecting for new fossils, you look for anything that might stand out," Alan said, trying not to talk over the amateur's heads, but also trying not to bore the actual students, "Color and texture are two very big factors."

Everyone was staring at him, with most people nodding, or showing some other signs of understanding, so he went on.

"Usually, finds that are significant include skull elements, like a jaw or a piece of a cranium, etc. Often enough, though, you'll just find scrap . . . like tiny pieces of ribs or other various things."

"Most of the time, we drink beer," Rob joked.

This got a laugh out of people. The laughter allowed Alan an easy transition into the next phase of the three-phase plan, he had constructed for these people.

"Now I want to move on, to how we identify a fossil. Basically identifying it comes down to giving it your best shot . . . an educated guess. Sometimes it's a given, but other times it's not until you remove the fossil, clean it in the lab, analyze the anatomy, etc, that you can really see what you have."

"So, you can't tell right away if something belongs to, let's say, the T-Rex?" A man in his mid-forties asked.

"Sometimes it's very hard to identify a fossil. Let's say you find something that looks a T-rex tooth . . . it could be a T-rex, but then again it could be a new species of tyrannosaurid."

The man nodded. Alan wasn't sure if he understood, but the man looked intelligent, so he moved on.

"Okay. Onto extraction. I'd like to take a little trek out in the field, to show you the different phases of extraction. Sometimes, it can take years to unearth something completely."

Alan began to walk out toward an area that had been prepared beforehand, mostly by Ellie and Carl Porter. There were three finds, all in different phases of extraction, so they would make for perfect examples. He turned and noticed that adults, and kids alike, were coming.

"Uh, excuse me," he said, clearing his throat, "since the area we're going into is very delicate and important, I'm going to ask that anyone under the age of eighteen, stay behind for now. My apologies."

One of the tourists told his little eight year old boy to stay put, and others were doing the same. To Alan's happiness, no one looked really upset by the request. No one, but Ellie, who was sort of glaring at him from afar. He tried not to make additional direct eye contact with her, as he turned and headed out toward the field, putting his hat on his head.

Rob was just finishing a small conversation with Richard, when he noticed his sister walking with the rest of the group. It had only been about two months since her near death experience, and he had made it his duty to keep an eye on her.

"Kara, it's kind of a long walk. Are you sure you're up to it?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think so. I've done nothing but sleep for about half the day, so I feel pretty strong."

"Well, if you feel tired at all, just ask someone to radio me and I'll drive over there to get you."

"Why aren't you going?"

"I told Richard that I'd keep Melissa company, while he goes. He wants to learn about dinosaurs or something," Rob answered.

"How sweet," she said. Her brother was so thoughtful at times.

"Plus I'm hungry and Porter is cooking," Rob added.

"Of course," Kara said, laughing and rolling her eyes.

Richard kissed Melissa on the cheek, and then caught up to the rest of the group. Kara was right beside him. As a whole, the group was pretty quiet, with just a few people whispering back and forth. Like most of the people, Kara was taking in the magnificent view, all around them. It was a very peaceful and beautiful place.

After about a twenty minute walk, they made it to the first extraction point that Alan wanted everyone to see. He waited for everyone to get situated around the area, and then he began.

"Okay, this particular fossil here, is of a megaflora type, and -"

"What is that?" someone from near the back asked.

Ellie thought that he may have looked a little stressed out suddenly. He wasn't really a people person, and she was feeling guilty for basically forcing him into the current situation. She stepped up next to him and answered the question.

"The plant fossils found here are megaflora, consisting of mostly angiosperms, or flowering plants," she began, as she placed a hand on his shoulder briefly. He glanced at her and flashed her a coy smile. She continued, "Flowering plants made their presence known in the Cretaceous Period, as best exemplified by the diversity at Hell Creek. Over half of the findings being made here are of this particular type of fossil."

Quite a few people nodded in understanding. Ellie basically took over the tour at that point. Alan wasn't disappointed in the least, since she had a lot more patience than he did. He gestured to her back pack, telling her he would carry it for her if she was going to take charge. She smiled and gave it to him, as she continued with the explanation of the fossil before them.

"This fossil is still in its infancy stage, meaning that it was very recently discovered. The first step taken to preserve this fossil is to use a type of glue to keep it intact." As she thought about the glue, memories of her first week at the dig site, last year, suddenly popped into her mind. After a brief smile, with a focus on a few fond memories in the teepee with Alan, and then later in the research trailer, Ellie continued her explanation, "After the glue secures the fossil, it can be extracted and analyzed, without damaging it easily."

She looked around and saw that the majority of people were looking like they understood. That's what is was all about really, people understanding what you were trying to say.

"Okay. Moving on. The next show and tell area is just a little farther ahead of us. It's a dinosaur fossil, which is at about its half-way point, in terms of extraction."

Everyone began to follow Ellie, making Alan very happy. He lagged behind, smiling and tipping his hat at the people walking past him. The last two people to walk past him were Richard and Kara.

"Looks like she took over your job," Richard observed.

Ellie could still be heard, talking about preserving the fossils.

"In the next area ahead, you'll see that the exposed surfaces of the fossil have been wrapped in paper towels. This is for protection. In some cases, a trench is started around the area because the rock needs to be removed from around the fossil," she explained.

"I'd say he's probably happy about that," Kara said.

"You are absolutely right," Alan said, nodding and pointing at Kara, "She invited these people here, so she can parade them around."

Ellie continued with her explanation, but she was getting farther away from Alan, and he found it hard to hear every word now.

". . . you wrap that eventually in a plaster cast, that way you have several layers of protection. The plaster cast, the cotton or paper towels, etc, and the rock itself," she was saying.

"I'd like to see you say that to her, mate," Richard said, laughing.

"I bet you would," Alan said, smiling at his cousin, "You'd love to see her beat the hell out of me, wouldn't you?" he joked.

"It would be quite entertaining," Richard admitted.

Alan shook his head, thought about just how mad Ellie would be if she had heard what he had said, and then swayed the subject in another direction.

"Let's catch up to them, before she gets mad at all of us," he suggested, throwing Ellie's back pack over his shoulder.

"And so, to recap," Ellie began, "To remove a fossil, you secure, protect, wrap, remove, wrap underneath, haul away, open up, work on it, analyze, submit analysis and fossil, wait, get commended or refuted, and carry on."

People smiled at the way she summed up everything. Alan had been following along with the others, making a few comments along the way, but for the most part he was quiet. He was quite proud of the knowledge displayed. Of course, he knew she was fully capable of explaining everything, but it was just nice to sit back and let someone else do the talking for once. When she was finished, he walked up next to her.

"And somewhere along the lines you get paid, I think," he added.

This received some laughter. Still smiling himself, Alan happened to look up toward the side of a nearby cliff. Something there caught his eye, so he excused himself and began to walk in that direction. Richard and Kara followed him, leaving Ellie with the tourists and students.

"Okay, then. That's probably about all for today," she said, watching where Alan was going, "So, we'll head back to base camp. Does everyone remember how to get back?" she asked. Quite a few people in the group nodded. "When you get back there, Dr. Porter can answer any additional questions you may have. And I believe dinner will be served soon, as well."

The group of people erupted into small talk, as they began to turn around and walk back the way they had come. A few of the more curious volunteers and students turned, checking to see where the doctors were going, but then continued on their journey back to camp.

Ellie caught up to the others.

"Alan, what is it?"

He was still walking toward the cliff, which didn't seem to be getting any closer. He quickened his pace.

"I think I glanced something over in one of the cliffs over here," he said, still staring toward his destination. If he took his eyes away from it, he was afraid of losing it.

"Like what?" Richard asked.

"A possible fossil," he answered.

"Really?" Ellie asked.

Alan nodded, as he continued. The others followed. Several minutes later, they were standing close to the cliff in question, all of them staring upward.

"I don't see anything," Ellie said.

"I probably wouldn't see anything, even if there was something to see," Kara commented, laughing at herself.

Alan, still looking upward, smiled at Kara.

"I don't see anything either. Must have been a shadow or something," he finally said.

"What's that?" Richard asked, pointing to their right.

Alan looked in that direction and noticed a cave about five hundred yards away, barely noticeable in the jagged rock formations.

"Let's go check it out," he suggested, already walking in that direction.

"You've never seen it before?" Ellie asked, following him.

"No, I don't recall ever seeing it before. This area is largely unexplored, so I can believe we could have missed this," Alan said.

Kara was lagging behind, as the others hurried toward the cave. She really wasn't a fan of caves, or any other types of enclosed spaces. She turned around, to check on the progress of the volunteers and students. They were very far away now, almost completely out of view. It didn't look like she would be able to catch up to them. She thought about heading in that direction anyway, but she didn't know the area well enough to begin walking back alone. She sighed, as she continued to follow Alan and the others.

Rob was sitting outside, eating a cheeseburger that Porter had prepared. Melissa was next to him, sitting on a chair that Rob had padded with an overabundant amount of pillows. She had her feet up on another chair, enjoying a cheeseburger, as well. As they were making small talk, with Rob making her laugh almost continuously, Rob's radio chirped.

"Rob. It's Ellie. You there?"

Rob put his food down, and grabbed the radio latched on his belt. After Alan's unfortunate accident last summer, the good doctor had insisted that everyone in the field wear a radio. Rob looked at Melissa for a second, as he brought the radio to his face.

"Always in the middle of dinner with her," he joked, and then he pushed the talk button, "Yeah, I'm here. Where else would I be, beautiful?"

"Funny, Rob," Ellie said through static, "I wanted to let you know that we've found a cave, not too far away from the display area from this afternoon. So, we're checking it out."

"Who are 'we'?" Rob asked.

"Me, Alan, Richard, and Kara."

"Kara went into a cave?"

"None of us have gone into the cave yet. We're still- " Ellie cut her own sentence short, "Okay, I take that back," she said, laughing through the static, "Alan is in the cave now."

"Well, be careful," Rob said, "And tell Alan to get back here soon, before all the tourists eat the grub and exhaust the beer supply."

"Speaking of tourists. Have they found their way back yet?"

Rob stood up and looked in the direction they would be coming from. He could see something faintly in the distance, so he grabbed his small binoculars that he kept in his back pocket. With extra eye support, he could make out some of the people.

"Yep. They're not here yet, but I can plainly see them."

"Oh, good. I was worried," Ellie said, and then she added, "I'm going to check out the cave now, so I'll talk to ya in a few."

"Okay. Be careful," Rob repeated.

"Will do."

The radio fell silent in Rob's hand.

Ellie walked to the cave entrance and looked inside. It was very dark.

"Alan?" she said softly.

"Yeah, over here," he answered back, just as softly.

She walked into the darkness, being as careful as possible. A light finally turned on, so she was able to see him. He had the flashlight from her back pack in his hand, kneeling down, looking at something of interest on the cave floor.

"Find something?" she asked. As she approached him, she put her hand on his shoulder and leaned over him.

"Maybe. We'll have to come back here with the proper lighting," he said, "But I think this could be something significant. At first glance here, it looks like partial remains of some infant dinosaurs."

"I can radio Rob, see if he'll bring some more light," she suggested.

"Good idea."

Ellie pulled her radio out and hit the talk button, saying Rob's name. There was no answer. She tried again, but got nothing but an unusual humming noise.

"I'll go outside where the reception is better," she said.

Alan nodded, but never took his eyes off the cave floor. Ellie walked outside, past Richard and Kara, and tried to radio Rob again. Still nothing. Richard could see she was getting angry. He walked up to her, just as she was prepared to start hitting the radio against her hand.

"Hold on, hold on. Let me see it," he suggested.

She smiled and handed it to him. Kara was still standing near the cave entrance, waiting for Alan to come back out. It made her nervous knowing that he was in there alone. She took one more step and edged her head inside the cave.

"Alan?"

She could hear him talking suddenly, but she couldn't make out anything he was saying. She took one more step closer, repeating his name a few times.

Richard got the radio working . . . sort of. They decided that the batteries were going dead. Ellie was about to go back inside the cave to get Alan's radio, when she heard a very chilling sound coming from above them.

Alan was still looking at the cave floor, when he heard a faint rumbling. He had heard Kara talking to him, so he figured she was somewhere close behind him.

"You hear that?" He asked her.

Kara was only slightly in the cave. She could see Alan now, and saw that he was asking her a question. She didn't hear it, so she took a few cautious steps into the cave.

"What?"

"That noise . . . like something echoing . . . " he said, trailing off.

Kara continued to walk toward him, forgetting her fear for a few seconds, concentrating on what he was saying. Making a mental note about where her escape route was located, she was about to ask him to repeat himself for the second time, when she saw him stand up with a sense of urgency. An uneasy feeling steadily began to grow inside of her, as she noticed that he was walking rather quickly toward her.

"We need to get out of here," he said calmly.

She turned around as fast as she could, and began to walk faster toward the cave entrance, which seemed a lot farther away than she had previously envisioned. The next sequence of events happened too quickly, for her to comprehend right away.

There were more signs of a distant rumbling sound. Even before the sounds stopped, the floor of the cave began to tremble under Kara's feet. She had already been running, but she agonized over the fact that she seemed to be moving in extreme slow motion. The situation began to feel more hopeless, as the cave walls began to crumble all around them, as the incredible sound of rocks falling from somewhere above, echoed through the cave.

She felt Alan's hand on her shoulder, and then she felt his grip tighten, as he pulled her backwards. She wanted to yell at him for altering her forward momentum, but in that same second, hundreds of rocks fell in front of her, exactly where she would have been, had he not pulled her away. The two of them fell to the ground, with Alan making sure Kara landed safely. She felt like screaming in panic, but nothing would come out, as she felt Alan's arms reaching around her, attempting to shield her from the rocks, falling at a high rate of speed and quantity. Terror replaced all other emotions for her, as the cave entrance quickly disappeared, leaving them in darkness.

Ellie took several quick steps, away from the cave, as the falling rocks pummeled the ground, all around the entrance and beyond. There had been a landslide, somewhere high above, and the various sized rocks had finally made their way to the bottom, with the help of gravity.

"Alan!" she yelled, knowing her voice would be drowned out by the landslide, "Alan!" she screamed again, shielding her head.

Richard dropped the radio and grabbed her, forcing her to move even farther away.