It was a common issue when you went digging around in layer after layer of soil. You never knew what you would find and sometimes, that meant a pretty scary dig site. We'd found unexploded landmines once because the old owner had been some kind of intensely private person who had wanted to blow up solicitors, according to the local newspapers in that town. The cops had found a few of the landmines.
We'd found the other 30.
"You wanna go out to lunch and swerve the brass?" I asked. "There's a great vegetarian store-shop combo not too far from here."
Nicole's mouth hooked in a lopsided smile. "You gonna go veggie with me just because, huh? Do I look that pathetic?"
"You look great, but I figure I can suffer with you, if it helps."
Someone cleared their throat above us and I sighed as I looked up. The man who stood there was our boss, the budget version of Dr. Ian Malcolm, Dr. Willem Sonnet. His eyes narrowed when our gaze connected and I just knew he was in a pissy mood. "Neither of you are going anywhere for lunch. You're needed here."
"Do we have to?" I said, pleading. "You can handle all of the big wigs coming in. There's no reason to keep us dirt-pushers around. They're just going to stare at us like we're garbage."
He rolled his eyes. "The entire staff is to stay and that means you, too. We need to show that their money isn't being ill-spent. These exploratory investigations are expensive and people like the Fontaines want to see that they aren't wasting their funds. If every site is busy and everyone is working, it looks better."
"They won't notice two of us gone out of a hundred," I muttered.
Willem pretended not to hear me. "A lunch cart will come around for your orders in a few hours. It's on the house today, as a thank you for staying on the clock. I don't mind if you sit down to eat, but be aware that you should make quick work of it."
That said, he disappeared off to another site to badger them. I sighed and picked up a tiny, hand-sized pick axe and began to chip away at the dark soil around us.
"What a prick," Nicole sighed. "Gives us a free sandwich to stand around and look pretty for the people with the cash."
I shoved her brush back into her hands and went back to work. There was no arguing with Willem, not when he was like this. And I wasn't going to fire up Nicole by agreeing with her. It was better to stay quiet and try to get my work finished. I still had Mom's hospital bills to pay, the funeral cost, and my student loans. I couldn't afford to lose the job and there was always someone that could whack the ground.
Willem went back past us without another word. We spent the next few hours in silence, the steady whisper of her brush accenting my carefully-laid digging plans. Though we didn't find much, we removed several buckets of soil from the site and pushed another few feet back into the ground. It was a good use of time and I was pretty proud of myself.
The lunch cart came and went. I ordered a mushroom-replacement version of a cheesesteak sandwich, with Nicole doing the same. Summer blazed down on us. If nothing else, at least I'd have a nice tan by the time we were done with the land in front of us.
An hour passed and dizziness rocked my head. "Did you see the cart come back through?"
"I haven't seen any sign of it for a while, no. It came past us about 45 minutes ago but..." Nicole trailed off. We only had four workers under us. It was possible that we'd been skipped.
I mopped my brow with the back of my sleeve and sighed. "Lemme go see if I can find it. I'm starving."
"Good luck."
That? I didn't respond to that, but a boiling urge to snarl at her came bubbling up deep within me. Nicole was your church-casual Christian, the type that went on holidays and when her parents bothered her to go. She didn't know anything about luck, didn't understand what she was saying. I stalked off after the cart.
Luck was what had cost me my mother.
Luck was another one of those stupid words that people used in my mother's magical crystals-and-herbs community when they didn't want to call on a specific deity or whatever. I'd been raised around that, believed in it most of my life, and knew the deep, passionate intricacies of a bunch of different forms of witchcraft. I understood the rituals, the casting; all of it.
And none of it had helped me in the end.
You couldn't prove that a spell done skyclad beneath a full moon did anything other than make you stand naked out in your yard at 3 am. What I did now? That had evidence. I could touch a dinosaur skull with my hands. I could reassemble pottery based on accurate reconstructions based on facts.
Maybe, just maybe, if Mom had put more belief in her doctors than her spiritual healers, she would still be with me. And my life wouldn't have been tipped upside down.
I nearly tripped over the lunch cart, as distracted as I was with my thoughts. I managed to regain my balance, and my composure, before the little old lady blinked up at me. "Yes, dear?"
"We had two veggie cheesesteaks, three BLTs, and a Cuban over in site 16?" I said, frowning. "Did you miss us?"
She gasped and put her hand over her mouth. "Oh, my goodness. Yes, I must have. I'm so sorry. This old brain ain't what it used to be." I smiled
