Chapter 2: First Day On The Job

Chapter 2: First Day On The Job

May 20, 1991 – Monday

All of the students, undergraduate and graduate alike, stood in a designated section, under a large tent. They were going to meet the resident paleontologist in just a few short minutes and Ellie was anxious to ask him a million questions. A man walked under the tent and addressed them all.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Rob Tandy and I'm the resident computer specialist, the resident technical advisor, and all around resident good guy."

This speech got a chuckle from the students. It was well rehearsed, of course, since Rob had said the exact same thing to a variety of groups visiting the dig site. But he always smiled when his little joke made the people smile.

"I'd like to introduce you all to the paleontologist, but at the moment . . . he's not available. Besides, I'm better looking and more of a pleasure to look at, anyway."

This got another chuckle from the students. Rob was 29 years old and had been born and raised in Montana. He had a very nice build, standing at 6'2" and 180 pounds. His dark brown hair was cut fairly short, with several strands moving about in the wind. He continued.

"I'll be initially showing you around, until Dr. Grant is available. So if you will all come with me, we'll get the tour started."

Everyone began to follow Rob. Everyone except for Ellie. She stood there thinking about the name Rob had spoken. Grant. Of course! Alan Grant, the paleontologist. She couldn't believe she was so absent minded, not figuring that out before. She had heard of him through her studies and still couldn't believe she didn't put it all together. It must have been the almost fatal accident she had. Or maybe it was because he was so good looking, she smiled to herself, as that amusing thought went through her mind. What an eerie coincidence, meeting up with one of the instructors at the dig site she was heading to. Well, not eerie . . . but definitely right up there with strange. She finally forced herself to walk and catch up with the rest of the students. Another student noticed her strange behavior.

"You okay?" She asked.

"Yeah. I was just thrown off by something. It's no big deal."

The woman smiled. She was a dark-haired woman, looked to be in her mid twenties, and was very tanned and fit. She had a real confidence about her.

"I'm Allison Dover. Second year, undergraduate."

"Well, hi there. I'm Ellie Sattler. Graduate student, trying to find the time to complete my thesis and become a Paleobotanist."

"Wow, you look very young to be so far along already."

"I'm 24," Ellie said, "I've been at this for several years now."

"I'm 29 and getting started a little late, I guess. But I'm hoping that won't stop me from going far in the field," Allison said.

"I'm sure it won't. It's all about how prepared you are, not about your age. What field are you studying?"

"Palaeobiology. I thought I'd get a look at a real dig site, to see if this is really what I want to do before I get too far along. It's absolutely wonderful, so far."

"Yes. I agree. The environment here is fantastic. It's like an extended family. I hope I will be able to fit in with everyone," Ellie added.

"I'm sure you will, don't worry too much about it. I think we'll do great here," Allison said.

Ellie nodded in agreement. She about to say something else, when her attention was diverted by a man walking toward them from the right. The man was definitely someone she had seen before. She began to smile shyly to herself, even before Rob's introductions.

"Oh, here we are. Your guide has arrived. I'd like to introduce you all to one of Montana's leading most foremost paleontologists, Dr. Alan Grant."

Alan put up a hand, as he neared Rob. He placed it on Rob's shoulder.

"Mr. Tandy. Thank you for that . . . introduction. May I remind you, sir, that we still don't have the funds to pay you, so you might as well stop the praise."

This got a chuckle out of the students, as well. Ellie was mesmerized by his every word, as he stood very close to where she was. He was much neater and cleaner now and he was sporting a beaten-up fedora. He was wearing khaki pants and a red button-down shirt, as well as dusty work boots and sunglasses. He hadn't seen her in the crowd of students yet, and for some reason, she wanted to hide. She watched him take a folder from Rob.

"Okay, well, now that you know who I am, I would like to get to know you. So when I call your name, give a holler and tell us a little about yourself."

He waited for everyone to nod, and then he continued.

"Good, good. Here we go," he said, looking down at the roster. "David Arnold."

A man near the back raised his hand. He was short, about 5'4", with light brown hair. Alan motioned for him to talk, and so he did.

"Uh, hi. People call me Dave. I'm 20 years old. I'm thinking about going into the paleontology field, and so I thought I'd come to see what a dig site was like."

Alan nodded.

"Very good, Dave. Pleased to meet you and glad you decided to join our little team," he said.

Dave smiled and nodded. Alan looked for the next name on the roster.

"Gregory Diamond."

A very tall young man with short black hair raised a hand and said a little about himself. Then he asked Alan a question.

"Dr. Grant, how much money does it take to keep this place running for a month?"

"Well, Mr. Diamond, that is confidential."

"Why is that? Isn't this a public place?"

"No. It's a privately funded expedition."

"Why not just tell us."

Alan was getting a little angry toward this outspoken man. This was a sore spot for Alan, as he was always the one being blamed for the rising costs. He was always and forever defending his every move, and now this newcomer was questioning him. He didn't feel he had the right.

"If you're here long enough, more than just the summer, then maybe you'll find that sort of information out for yourself. But for now, I'm afraid you're going to stay in the dark."

Greg frowned, clearly not satisfied with the answer, but he relented. Alan went to the next name.

"Allison Dover."

Allison was standing right next to Ellie. She raised her hand. Alan looked in her direction and spotted Ellie. He smiled and then looked at Allison.

"Care to share any thoughts with us, Ms. Dover?"

"Sure. You can call me Allison, first of all. I'm 29 and I'm preparing for a degree in Palaeobiology. Much like Dave, over there, I'm here just to get a feel for what it's like to dig up prehistoric things for a living."

Alan smiled, and then caught another glance at Ellie, smiling even more. Then he cleared his throat and went to the next name.

He went through all the names on the list, except for two. He looked down on the roster and said the second to last person's name aloud.

"Ellie Sattler," he said, looking at her.

She raised her hand, and took a few steps away from Allison.

"Hi there. I'm Ellie. I'm from Georgia and I'm working towards a degree in Paleobotany. I'm here to get some information for my thesis."

Alan stared at her. He just stared without saying anything. And then suddenly he snapped out of it.

"Sounds like you have everything well planned out, Ms. Sattler."

"Oh, please, call me Ellie."

"Very well, Ellie."

Ellie smiled at him. This man whom she met only a few nights ago. She already felt as though she had known him longer. She made an effort to look around, noticing that people near her were staring at her. Clearing her throat, she resumed her place next to Allison.

Alan took the queue and looked back at the paper in his hand. There was only one name left. His mind was suddenly taken elsewhere when he read the name to himself.

"Logan Valner," he finally said.

"Yes, sir, Dr. Grant. I'm Logan. Logan Valner. I'm 17 and I'm going to be a senior in high school this year, sir. I'm from Iowa and I'm very happy to be here and I'm very happy that you picked me, sir."

Alan slightly laughed.

"Well, first of all, you don't have to call me sir. Dr. Grant will be fine. And welcome to Montana."

"Thank you, s--, I mean Dr. Grant," Logan stuttered.

Alan stared at the young man for a few seconds. Rob was picking up on Alan's strange behavior now, too. He moved a little closer to the group, and then stopped as Alan began to talk again.

"By any chance, are you related to a Thomas Valner, of Colorado?"

"Uh, no . . . I don't believe so."

Alan shrugged and then directed his attention toward the group as a whole.

"Okay, well there you have it. Now that we all know each other, we can begin the process of getting to work. I'm going to explain several things to you all, but first I need to check on something, so I'll be right back," Alan said, as he turned to leave.

Rob was left there, alone with the students. He looked at them.

"Okay, then. I guess we'll take a little break. I suggest everyone come right back here in ten minutes, complete with notebooks. This is the part when Dr. Grant explains the details and the technicalities of what goes on here. So see you all in ten."

Rob waited for the small crowd to disperse, and then he went in the direction Alan had gone. He caught up to him in about a minute or so, as he watched him go into one of the trailers. He went inside.

"Uh, Alan?"

Alan was looking through a file cabinet that was up against the wall on the far right. He looked up at Rob, as he called his name.

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm just looking something up. I'll be right out."

Rob took a few steps closer, slightly amused at his old friend's behavior.

"What are you looking for, my friend?"

"That Logan kid. I think he's related to someone I know. I mean someone that I knew."

"You need to know right this minute?"

Alan stopped looking long enough to think about what he was doing. Rob continued.

"You were right smack in the middle of orientation there, Alan."

"Well, that's going to have to wait. I need to know about that kid."

"Why is it so important, if you don't mind me asking?"

Alan looked at him. He wasn't sure if he wanted to relay the reason to him, but he did anyway. Eventually, he knew that if Rob thought about it, he'd figure it out on his own.

"I think he might be related to . . .," Alan stopped, as he suddenly didn't want to say the name out loud.

As Rob thought about the kid's name, it hit him. Valner was the maiden name of Alan's deceased wife, Kathryn. She had passed away a few years ago, from Cancer. And Robert Valner was her father, if he was remembering correctly. Alan didn't talk about her much these days, but Rob had been friends with them both for quite a few years and that's how he knew her maiden name.

"Kathryn?" Rob asked.

Alan nodded.

"Yeah."

Alan finally found what he was looking for. In this particular filing cabinet, the names of everyone who had ever volunteered at the dig site were there. Alan began to reminisce.

Kathryn had filled one out when she had talked Alan into letting her do little jobs at the dig site. He remembered the day she had filled it out very clearly. He had handed her the pack of papers and she had laughed at him, thinking he had been joking. Only he hadn't been joking, as he was always doing things by the book. She had filled the papers out and later that evening, they had gotten into quite a fight about it. They had made up though, before going to sleep and all was well with the world. Fighting was always bad, but the making up part more than made up for it. One of Kathryn's favorite sayings was "never go to bed angry", and so they never did.

Alan came back to the present, and began to thumb through the folders until he came upon "V". He removed Kathryn Valner's folder and began to go through it. In the back of his mind, Alan wondered why he had never re-filed the folder under "G", for Kathryn Grant. Rob was next to him by now, reading it over, as well.

"So, is he?"

The answers had all been carefully handwritten by Kathryn. Alan simply put a finger over the top of the handwriting, wishing he could somehow communicate with her. Then he began to read some of it, causing him to frown. Each file had various facts about that person, but there was no mention of a Logan in the file. There was a Lucas Valner, who was supposedly one of Kathryn's cousins. That must have been what Alan was thinking of, since the names were sort of similar.

"No, I guess not. There's a Lucas, not a Logan. My mistake."

Rob put a hand on his shoulder.

"Everyone makes mistakes, Alan. Don't worry about it, okay?"

Alan nodded, but was still a little upset with himself for getting so emotional toward the situation. The fact remained that he still missed Kathryn very much. She had passed away almost 3 years ago now, and he still longed to talk to her. To laugh with her. Even getting into an argument with her sounded good to Alan, at this point. He just wanted her back.

"Thanks, Rob."

Alan was about to put the folder back, when he decided to change the last name on the folder. He grabbed a pen, scratched out Valner and wrote in Grant. Then he filed the folder in with the "G's". Alan just stood there next to the cabinet, almost in a trance like state. Rob cleared his throat, causing Alan to glance in his direction.

"Uh, you ready to face the worker ants?"

This made Alan laugh. Rob was always coming up with new and interesting names for the new volunteers. This was a new one, as far as Alan could remember.

"Yeah, sure. Let's go."

Alan made his way back to the meeting point, where the students were already gathered. He tucked the thoughts of Kathryn into the back of his mind and put on a smile.

"Sorry about that folks. Now where were we?"

Logan answered.

"You were going to explain some things to us."

"Oh, yes. Okay, well first of all, if and when you find something that you think might be a prehistoric bone, just call one of the instructors over. Those people would be either myself, Rob, " Alan pointed at Rob, "or two others that are not here right now. Dr. Frederick Harper, our paleobotantist. Or Dr. Carl Porter, our geologist."

Alan looked to make sure everyone was paying attention. They were. All of them were writing down the information quickly.

"So to repeat. Find something worthwhile. Find Dr. Grant, Dr. Harper, Dr. Porter, or Mr. Tandy."

"I'm the only one with no scientific title. I feel left out," Rob complained.

This got another laugh from the group. Rob was always well liked by the volunteers.

"All I can suggest is that you get your lazy self back to school, mate."

"Point well taken, DOCTOR Grant," Rob said, smiling and nodding.

After the group quieted down from laughing, Alan continued.

"Fossils are the remains or traces of ancient life. Fossils can be mineralized bones, teeth, shells, wood, or actual unaltered material from an organism, like frozen mammoth flesh, bones and fur. Eggs, nests, footprints, leaf impressions, burrows, and feces are examples of trace fossils. One thing all fossils have in common, they are at least 10,000 years old."

He paused to let everyone write. When most everyone was looking up at him again, he continued.

"And now onto the tools of the trade. Fossil finding tools are neither fancy, nor expensive," Alan said, as he walked over to one of the digging areas. He pointed to the tools, scattered on the ground. "Shown here are typical tools for a paleontologist in the field. A butter knife and a toothbrush may be all you need."

The area had various other tools scattered about; a rock hammer, a couple chisels, dust brushes, a few magnifying glasses, some newspaper (to wrap the fossils in), and finally, a small journal.

"And don't forget dental picks, camel-hair brushes, and the fanciest tool of them all . . . the spoon," Rob added.

"My God, it seems you do pay attention a little, now doesn't it?" Alan teased.

This got another laugh from the students and a slight chuckle from Rob. Alan noticed the students trying to write and look at the same time, so he slowed down some.

"Okay, why don't you all take a closer look at this particular digging area."

The students gathered around the area, some of them kneeling down, some of them just leaning over. Ellie was the first one to kneel down and start to handle some of the tools. She looked up.

"Dr. Grant, what are some of the methods used to identify a fossil?"

"Good question. You want to look for unusual shapes, textures, and coloration. Objects that are clearly different from the rock around them."

Ellie nodded and stood up, brushing the dust from herself.

"How long is a typical workday?" Allison asked.

"Well, I'd say about four hours for each shift. It gets very hot here, so it's wise to search in shifts."

"We don't want any of you wonderful volunteers to fall down from heat stroke," Rob added.

Allison nodded and smiled, while Alan lost of train of thought for a second.

"Where was I?" He asked Rob.

"Don't ask me. I stopped listening to you about 2 years ago," Rob stated.

After another chuckle from the students, Alan continued.

"Oh, yes. Okay, you are all going to be allowed to roam around, to get a feel for the place. Please try not to disturb any of the existing areas, as they belong to the other instructors. Tomorrow morning, we'll begin searching in a few new places that I have mapped out. There are about ten volunteers running around here, too. Most of which have been here for quite some time, so feel free to take a look around and ask any questions that you may have."

The group began to spread out, going in a couple of different directions. Ellie and Allison stayed together, with one of the other students, Greg, following behind them. Greg was talking to the women, but Ellie was pretty much ignoring both of them, as she kept her eye on where that certain scientist was heading. She watched him shake hands with Rob and then he jogged toward one of the trailers. The trailer seemed to be the biggest on the site. She was still looking in that direction, when her attention was diverted by Allison.

"What do you think, Ellie?" She asked.

Ellie looked at Allison and Greg. She saw that they were both staring at her, waiting for some kind of an answer.

"What do I think about what?"

Allison laughed.

"Pay attention, will ya?"

"I'm sorry, I have a slight headache, that's all," Ellie said, totally lying.

"We were wondering how much money it would cost to fund a place like this for a month," Greg answered.

"I have no idea," Ellie answered.

"Well, I think it's probably a lot. And I don't even think this much equipment is even needed for this. It looks like there's a lot of waste."

Ellie suddenly became irate at this young man. What did he know about the amount of money and effort that went into running a dig site. Nothing, she figured.

"What would you know about it? You're just an amateur, like the rest of us," she shot back at him.

"Any amateur can see that this place is big money."

"Oh, shut up, will you?" Ellie said.

Greg waved her off and began to walk away from them. Ellie didn't really care for him, for some reason, so she was glad he decided to move on. She waited for him to get ahead, and then she began to walk again. Allison was still next to her.

"What was that all about?"

"I don't know. I just don't like that guy." Ellie said, realizing that her anger toward Greg was just a defensive move, since he had been questioning Alan's decisions earlier.

"Well, that's obvious," Allison said, laughing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ellie was slightly disappointed that she wasn't able to catch another glimpse of Alan the rest of the day. He had stayed away from the students and volunteers. When 4:00pm rolled around, Rob came out and called a dinner break. Allison and Ellie had become fast friends and had decided to leave the dig site to get something to eat. Logan came along, as well.

They pulled up to a diner close by and they all got out of Ellie's car.

"So what do you think of this place? I mean Montana, in general." Allison asked, as they approached the door of the small diner.

"I think I'm going to love it here."

"Yeah, me, too," Logan spoke up, "It's been my dream for a few years to be on an active dig site. And with Alan Grant. You can't ask for a better expert. I still can't believe he talked to me."

Allison laughed.

"He's not a God, you know," she said.

Ellie didn't respond, as she kept on thinking about Alan. How he had been there for her when she needed him. And how he was very gentlemanly. And how he seemed to be attracted to her. And how intelligent he was. She came out of her daydream and realized that they were already sitting down at a table. The waitress was staring at her, obviously waiting for her to give her order.

"I'll have a grilled cheese sandwich, please," she said.

The waitress nodded and walked away. Logan and Allison looked at her strangely.

"You okay, Ellie?" Allison asked.

"Yeah, I'm just a little tired. I didn't get much sleep last night. I guess I was too excited about today."

Logan took a sip of his soda.

"I didn't sleep at all. I've been supercharged for days now."

Ellie smiled.

"You need to relax some, Logan. You're young, but you're not invincible," Ellie commented.

"Yes, Mother," he teased.

"So, where is everyone staying?" Allison asked.

Logan was the first to answer.

"I'm staying at a ranch with some family friends."

"I have an apartment in Jordan," Ellie answered.

Allison nodded and then added her own information.

"I haven't found a suitable place yet. I was just planning on staying onsite, in a tent or something. I've already got approval from Dr. Grant and Dr. Porter to do that."

"Is that really what you want?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah, for now it is anyway. It'll be interesting living with nature."

Ellie nodded, but she couldn't imagine wanting to do that. She didn't mind volunteering there. That part sounded fun. But it was in her to need some privacy away from the job, every once in a while. That's where the apartment came in. She was really happy that her mother was able to find it.

When they were finished eating, they returned to the dig site. It had grown terribly windy in just that one half an hour they were away. Rob told them to go home and come back bright and early in the morning. On the drive home, Ellie could think of nothing but Alan. She was sort of angry with herself, as she wasn't able to concentrate on paleobotany at the moment, which is what she was here to do. She smiled to herself, as she drove herself home, thinking about coming back the next day.