Erastus: Replacing a lost story

2011-07-25T00:38:18Z

Replacing a lost story

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{{title|name= Serving the Sentence - Part 1/14|author=Erastus Centaur|user=Erastus}}

Copyright © 2010 Erastus Centaur -- all rights reserved

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"Here we are," said Rose, pulling the jeep to a stop. It had been a long flight for David -- four flights over a twenty-four hour
period, actually -- to get from Cincinnati to Mongolia. That was
followed by a jeep ride that felt just as long as it bounced over
the bad roads and rough terrain. And now, with the camp before him, David expected to feel a sense of wonder at the start
of an adventure. Instead, he felt his heart sink. Perhaps he could blame his mood on lack of sleep.

This was David's first job at an actual paleontology site. His
advisor at the University of Cincinnati had assured him it was a
wonderful opportunity to work with the top-notch team from the
University of Montana. Looking over the camp here in northern
Mongolia, he had his doubts about whether this opportunity was all
that wonderful. The job might be to do a paleontology survey -- his
area of study -- and it might look good on a resume, but northern
Mongolia was out in the middle of ''nowhere''.

David tried to keep in mind that it would only be for the summer,
May through August, a mere four months. Then he would be back on a
modern American university campus in the fall with all the amenities
of modern civilization. The scene now before him made him seriously question why
he thought paleontology was an ideal major.

He had to repeat to himself, "Dinosaurs are cool," as he surveyed
this desolate outpost, "Dinosaurs are cool and a lot of dinosaur
bones are from Mongolia." Perhaps if he repeated it enough times
he might actually believe it -- at least until he got home.

There were perhaps ten tents scattered around the site, though they
didn't look like the Boy Scout variety. They had canvas tops and
sides, of course, but they were big enough so one could stand up
inside and large sections of canvas could be opened for ventilation.

The tents were on the edge of a grassy plain, the Steppes of Central
Asia, nestled against the foothills of a mountain range. When he
looked across the plain, David was reminded of the prairie of Kansas
-- or what the prairie might have looked like before it was divided
into farms. Much of their work, however, would be in and around the
hills.

They hadn't taken a dozen steps from the jeep when a man appeared
from a tent, eyed David critically for a second and turned to Rose.
"Rose, I thought we told you this wasn't a nursery. What are you
doing bringing a child to camp?"

David felt himself shrink before the onslaught. He has just turned
21 and had completed his junior year! He was not a kid. His face
had given him away again. As he had learned through encounters with
the police and bartenders, he was treated like he was 15, official
documentation to the contrary notwithstanding. His height -- five
foot seven -- his pale complexion, his brilliant red hair, his
inability to grow a satisfactory moustache or goatee -- though his
latest attempt at a moustache was still on his face -- all
contributed to the impression of lingering childhood. His mother had
tried to tell him it would work to his advantage when he was 42, but
that was still a long time away and no help at the moment.

"Oh, shut up, Jack," said Rose. She turned to David. "Don't mind
him. He's our resident grouch."

Jack had a burly physique and cultivated a tough-guy image, a
combination that made many people -- not just David -- fearful. He
wore cutoff jeans, a bright red tee-shirt, whose message was
thankfully obscured by a leather vest. Both his hair and beard were
brown and short, his visible face tan and weather beaten. His forearm
tattoo did ''not'' say "Mom".

Jack grunted, but with a bit of a sneer on his face. He disappeared
back into his tent as Rose steered David into a second one. Another
man was inside, this one with better manners. "Hi, I'm Zane. You
must be the new kid."

Though not great manners. According to David, if he had great
manners there would be none of this "kid" nonsense. David shook
hands anyway -- at least ''he'' was polite -- as he briefly considered
if it was worth the effort to protest, "But I'm not a kid!"

Zane had nearly black hair with a neat salt-and-pepper beard. He was
tall enough to be respected, but not so tall as to intimidate. He
was slender, but David could see his strength.

David claimed the empty cot and proceeded to unpack his backpack and
stow his few belongings. He was suddenly glad his brother Matt had
offered the backpack, allowing him to avoid showing up lugging a
suitcase and looking even more out of place.

As David approached the mess tent an hour later he had no trouble
hearing Jack talking to Rose. "How 'bout you coming over to my tent?
Say nine-thirty? I can even guarantee some privacy."

"Give it up, Jack," said Rose. "The answer hasn't changed from the
other hundred times you've invited me to your tent."

David wondered if Jack had issued his invitation because he though
Rose was beautiful or because he hoped she was an easy target. In
David's eyes, Rose was rather plain looking with brown hair styled
for the sake of minimum fuss.

"Couldn't have been that many," said Jack. "We've only been here
two weeks."

"The answer is still no."

He reached a hand towards here cheek. She swatted it away and
marched into the ness tent.

At dinner, Rose introduced David to the rest of the team. "This
is Amos," she said of an imposing black man. "We think of him as
our camp philosopher. You won't find anyone more practical than
him. He got his doctorate from--"

"Rose," Amos interrupted, "you don't have to go into that." He
glared at David, "And please ''don't'' call me Doc Amos."

"You got a doctorate?" David was impressed.

"What's the matter?" teased Amos. "You didn't expect me to be
smart?"

David glanced away. "Sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

Amos chuckled. "Long ago, I learned people rarely mean to offend.
There's no use getting upset about it."

Rose directed David's attention to the man beside Amos, who seemed
to be quite the opposite--pale skin and definitely not imposing.
David had never seen hair such a brilliant golden-yellow, though
David wasn't one to talk when his own was such a bright red. "This
is Piet."

"The Swedish spelling," said Piet, tapping the embroidered name
above his pocket. "Having it on my clothes can save so much hassle."

"You don't seem to have a Swedish accent," said David.

"Actually, I have a Wisconsin accent. Grew up in Madison."

"Piet's our mechanic," said Rose. "When you can't take a jeep to
the corner garage," she waived an arm to indicate the emptiness
around them, "someone like Piet is a necessity.

"This is Taki," said Rose indicating the Asian guy next to Piet
who wore a Laker's shirt. Taki must have been the one David heard
at the makeshift hoop while he was unpacking.

"Pleased to meet you," said Taki, rising to shake hands. So much for
stereotypes of small Asian men; David guessed he was at least six
foot three.

"Is Taki an Japanese name?" asked David.

"Sure is, though I didn't see the country myself until I was
twelve."

"Taki is our expert on ''really'' old fossils. You can ask him
anything about trilobites," said Rose.

Next was a guy that looked to be about David's size and age. "This
is Ivan, our foreigner."

Ivan responded with the mock indignation of an old joke, "I'm the
foreigner? My home in Moscow is so much closer than yours that I'm
almost a local."

Rose turned to David, "'Foreigner' is so much easier to say. He's
the only non-American. I'm sure the two of you could swap stories
about college life -- Ivan will finish with his Masters next
spring."

Rose steered her charge to the other side of Amos. "This is Chaz,
our translator with the locals."

"Howdy," said Chaz.

Piet leaned over in front of Amos, "Not only does he look like a
Texan, he ''is'' a Texan. That hat," he pointed to the Stetson Chaz
was wearing, "only comes off his head when he's asleep, and then he
uses it to shield his face."

The brown Stetson Chaz wore was a good match for his hair and
moustache, both of which were carefully trimmed. David saw that Chaz
was only a couple inches taller than himself.

"Do you spend all your time translating?" asked David.

"Nah," drawled Chaz. "I'll be out at the worksites just like
everyone else."

Rose turned to the only other woman in camp. "This is Lily, our
camp nurse."

David thought she was rather pretty, with long hair bleached by
the sun. "Hi," he said.

"Hi," she replied. David watched her look him over. Alas, it was
with the eyes of a nurse or a mother, not of someone who might think
he was handsome. "You did pack sunscreen, didn't you? Your skin
looks like it will burn to a crisp in fifteen minutes flat."

She even sounded like a mother. David looked away. "Um, no. I forgot
the sunscreen."

Lily got up from the table and scurried away. A moment later she was
back with a large bottle of sunscreen and thrust it into David's
hands. "I do ''not'' want you in my tent with a burn. Apply this
generously after breakfast and again after lunch. Every day."

About then, the last member of the team entered the tent. His hair
was white, his face had become lined, his beard was bushy, his
head and general physique were round. If he had been sitting in a
classroom instead of a tent, he would have been wearing tweed with
elbow patches. Rose said, "And this is Professor." David turned to
her to prompt her for the rest. She saw his expression, "Yup. Just
Professor, though don't believe him when he says that it's the name
on his birth certificate."

Professor winked at her than shook David's hand. "Welcome to my
team, son. I hope you have a good summer. Did anyone happen to tell
you what we're doing here?"

"My advisor only said you were doing a fossil survey. Will that
include dinosaur bones?"

"Sorry, David," said Professor. "Probably not. Not in this part of
Mongolia. Yes, we're doing a fossil survey in the hills nearby. We
will be recording the type and age of rocks and looking to see if
there actually are fossils in the rock. We have Taki on the team as
these rocks tend to be older than the dinosaur era."

Ah, well. His advisor back in Cincinnati had assured him that
working as a grunt at this site for a summer would add appropriate
luster to a resume, something about "paying the dues". Next time,
David would be in more of a position to choose a site with higher
chances of finding dinosaur bones. Always next time.

Over the next few days David settled into camp life with its lack of
privacy, barely tolerable food -- he figured out the reason for the
bottles of ketchup at every meal -- and the camaraderie amongst
fellow sufferers.

David got his first real taste of local culture when the trader
pulled his truck into the camp just after breakfast at the end of
the week. There weren't any nearby stores this far from the nearest
town, so the trader had volunteered to bring supplies to them -- at
a price, of course. He was a local that visited many of the area's
nomadic tribes as a roving general store and news service. Chaz
translated for Rose as she listed the supplied she needed, then
translated the stories the trader had to share as they sipped
coffee.

{{Separator|stars}}

David's first encounter with Jack was a mere glimpse of what Jack
could dish out. David frequently heard, "Come on, ya wimp!" or "Real
men would just do it," or "I don't know why we even bother with a
child like you." These comments came whenever David showed the
slightest hesitation about climbing rope ladders, carrying any kind
of a load, or simply getting his hands dirty.

Rose was the one David felt most comfortable around due both to the
chance to talk in that long ride from the airport and to her faint
resemblance to his Aunt Beth. After watching Jack's fourth dinner
proposal David finally got the nerve to ask, "Why is Jack so mean to
me?"

She sighed. "The way I have it figured is that Jack is obsessed with
being macho."

"That much is obvious even to me," said David. "But why?"

"You would have to ask Jack -- and asking Jack is like talking to
a brick wall. He'll only get annoyed that you asked. All I can tell
you is how you fit into it."

"How I fit in?"

"Yeah. Jack is obsessed with macho, but it was obvious to me at
first glance he'll never get there. Then he has to look at Zane
every day. Zane can embody Jack's macho ideal simply by opening his
eyes in the morning, something Jack won't ever accomplish in a
lifetime. My guess is that Zane's physique and personality just
happens to match Jack's goal. Jack has to work at it, and is
undercut by his own personality."

"So Jack hates Zane for being what Jack can't be. It makes some
sense, but I still can't see why Jack bothers."

Rose ignored the comment. "And now we come to you. What do you think
about the macho image."

"Not very much," said David. "Everyone I've known that has talked
about macho has been a bully -- usually attacking me."

"And why attack you?"

"I'm short and look young." David shook his head. "They're bullies."

"In other words, it is because they know you can't defend yourself."
She held up a hand to stop the protest that wasn't coming. "Whether
you really can or can't usually has nothing to do with it. As you
said, you look like you can't. How many of the fights after those
attacks have you won?"

"None."

"Why?"

"I wish I knew." David let out a sigh. Rose waited. "I think about
it a lot. I'm not very big or strong. I think it is wrong to fight."

"And on a macho meter, how would you rate?"

"Zero."

"How important to you is that macho meter?"

"Like I said, it isn't."

"That's why Jack hates you. You're the opposite of Zane. You want to
have nothing to do with the macho ideal and Jack doesn't understand
why you don't and thinks that you mock him in your refusal to
attempt it."

"So what do I do about it."

"Endure it. There's not a lot you can do. It is Jack's problem. I
know that understanding is supposed to bring compassion, but I'm
afraid understanding the group dynamics doesn't bring us much closer
to understanding the man. I know it is going to be a long summer for
you, but it will be for all of us, at least when dealing with Jack."

"If Jack is such a pain, why is he even here?"

"Because he's good." Rose saw the answer didn't quite satisfy David.
She sighed and looked off into the distance. "Because he can
identify fossils faster than anyone else on this team and do it with
greater accuracy. It is strange that he can put up with someone not
knowing their stuff, but not with someone that he thinks isn't doing
the work."

Part 1 * [[User:Erastus/Serving the Sentence - Part 2|Part 2]]

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Erastus: Replacing a lost story