by Geoff Jones
“And the Tyrannosaurus?”
“With any luck, the Tyrannosaurus ate his fill and he’s long gone. And there could be ten Tyrannosauruses in the other direction. We have to head toward the river.”
Al stared.
Tim broke the silence. “I’m with you, William. You’ve gotten us this far.”
Callie thought about it. “Me too,” she said. Anything to stop the arguing. She moved closer to Tim and William and instantly regretted it. She didn’t want to alienate Al any further. They needed to work together.
Al held his hands open and shrugged.
William’s face softened. “Let’s go,” he said. “And let’s all be a bit more quiet from here on.”
Al gestured at the football. “Tim, give me a turn.”
Callie saw hesitation on Tim’s face. “Come on. Let him help out,” she nudged.
Al took the device and held it under one arm.
They proceeded silently along the base of the cliff for another half hour before they found their answer. Callie pointed out the giant boulder they had once hoped to pry off the wall and onto the tyrannosaur. It had tumbled to a stop in the center of the clearing.
William stopped the group next to a large evergreen that had been upended by the Triceratops when it chased Buddy into the clearing. The roots of the tree were pried up from the ground at a forty-five degree angle. Underneath, dozens of large black beetles scurried about. They made a clicking sound, like the noise made by insects in the movies. William shuddered and kept his distance.
Beyond the boulder, halfway to the end of the clearing, lay the Triceratops corpse. A row of meatless ribs curved up into the air. The group huddled near the upended tree, trying to stay close to the shadows. The smell hit them after a moment.
“That could be a source of meat for us,” Al noted.
“Who wants to eat that?” William asked, grimacing.
“It won’t smell so bad once it’s been cooked. Have you ever smelled a cow?”
“Do you think he’s still nearby?” Callie whispered. Then she heard the noise. Her heart raced. “Quiet. Listen.” A raspy rumble came from up ahead. “There.” Callie pointed. “He’s asleep.”
The tyrannosaur slumbered in the trees at the lower edge of the clearing, near the Triceratops corpse. Lying motionless on its belly, it looked like another boulder.
William laid out their options: “Ok, we can sneak along the bottom of the cliff and stay in the shadows or we can circle down through the woods below him. Or I suppose we could backtrack and try to find a way up top.”
“We should have done that in the first place,” Al pointed out.
Callie looked around the upended tree roots. Once they reached the far end of the clearing, it would be an easy ten-minute hike to the café. She wanted to collapse behind the counter until the timer expired. She didn’t even want to look at this world any longer. “I want to take the straight route,” she said. “The way the sun is right now, you can’t see anything in those shadows at the base of the cliff.”
“Oh my God,” Al said, as if it was the dumbest idea he had ever heard. “Walking across this clearing will leave us completely exposed if that thing wakes up. Do you remember how easily it grabbed Beth?”
“Then let’s go through the woods,” Tim said. “At least we’ll have some cover.”
“What cover?” Al spat. “The tyrannosaur chased us through the woods before. The trees didn’t slow it down at all.”
William made a chewing motion with his mouth. “Why don’t we split up, Al? You go around your way and meet us back at the café.”
“Will you let me carry the time machine?”
“Not a chance.”
“I didn’t think so.”
Tim held up his hands, clearly annoyed by their bickering. He gave Al a sidelong glance and turned to William. “What do you think we should do?”
Callie wondered what would have to happen before Tim would start taking action on his own.
William stepped away from the stump and looked around. “Let’s go down through the woods. If we don’t go too far out of our way, it won’t take all that much longer. And let’s be quiet about it.”
“Fine by me,” Callie said. “As long as we get moving.”
Before they could start, Buddy walked up behind them. Callie gave the dog a quick pat on his head. He sniffed at the beetles under the tree roots and then started off, straight across the clearing, following the same route he had taken earlier, when the Triceratops had chased him here.
“Buddy!” Callie whispered. “No!”
The dog ignored her, but lurched to a stop when it noticed the sleeping tyrannosaur. He hung his head low and sniffed. The fur at the base of his neck stood on end. Buddy started up again, walking just as steadily as before, but now he moved to the left. He disappeared in the shadows along the bottom of the cliff wall.
“Would you look at that,” William whispered.
The dog trotted daintily at the base of the cliff. They heard a few rocks roll under his feet, but the tyrannosaur did not wake up.
Finally, the dog reached the point where the cliff tapered down to a low ledge. Buddy turned and looked back at the others, as if to say, what are you waiting for, and then continued on in the direction of the café.
[ 46 ]
William watched Buddy disappear into the woods at the end of the clearing. “Okay then, if he can do it, we can do it.” The dog proved they didn’t need to loop around through the woods. The café was close. His sons were close.
Tim said, “Are you sure?” He looked pale. “I’m as eager to get back as you are, but this will take us less than fifty feet from that sleeping Tyrannosaurus.
“If we keep quiet, he won’t hear us. If we stay in the shadows right at the base of the cliff like Buddy, he won’t be able to see us.” William inhaled deeply. “And the stink of the rotting Triceratops will mask our smell.”
“Speak for yourself,” Callie said, sniffing her armpits. “I could really use a shower.”
William wondered what would happen if their plan worked and they prevented themselves from going back in time in the first place. Would they all suddenly smell better? He rubbed a scratch on the back of his hand. He wasn’t sure when or where he had gotten it, but he knew it had not been there in Denver. If they prevented all of this from happening, would the scratch disappear? He vowed to check the back of his hand as soon as they got home.
William looked at Tim. “Listen to him snore. He’s fast asleep. That thing is in a food coma. Look how much of the Triceratops is gone. It has to have eaten several thousand pounds. And honestly, there’s no telling what we’ll run into if we circle through the woods. Are you up for it, Tim?”
Tim nodded. “I guess so. Buddy made it look easy.”
“We should go one at a time,” Al suggested. “We’ll be less likely to wake it up.”
“I’ll go first,” Callie said. “I want to get it over with.”
William saw that she was trembling. He put his hand on her shoulder and looked her straight in the eyes. “You’ll be fine. Step on the larger rocks. They’ll be more stable. They won’t move on you. And take your time.”
- - - - -
Callie walked over to the base of the cliff, stepping across large gashes where the earth had been torn open by the two giants in their earlier battle. She listened for the snoring of the tyrannosaur, but could not hear it over the sound of her heartbeat pounding in her ears.
When she passed out of the late afternoon sunlight and into the shadow below the rock wall, her skin still felt hot. She realized that she was sunburned. Her shoulders would be screaming at her in a few hours, and then after a day or so the itching would start.
Callie put her left hand up on the wall as she walked. The cold rock helped her stay steady. She felt a sneeze coming on and froze in her tracks. She grabbed her nose with her free hand and wiggled it until the need passed.
The sleeping tyrannosaur was about forty
feet away at the closest point. Callie stared at it as she grew closer. Hank returned from wherever he had disappeared to and yelled at her. Pay attention, babe. Watch your step, not that fucking thing.
I know you mean well, Callie thought back at him, but could you please be quiet?
After she passed the tyrannosaur, she could no longer see it without turning her head over her shoulder and she knew if she did that, she would trip. So she listened instead. She listened for the sound of it waking and rising and coming after her. A creature that large could not get up quietly, could it? Her body tensed, ready to sprint. If she heard anything at all, she would bolt for the woods. She would zig and zag around the widest trees. She would weave in and out until she lost it in the underbrush.
At the far end of the clearing, Callie allowed herself to turn and look back. The tyrannosaur lay in the same spot, a motionless gray-brown hump. A wide grin formed on her face and she wanted to break into giggles. Callie clamped one hand over her mouth.
They hadn’t discussed what she should do once she reached the woods. Should she wait or move on? Looking around and feeling unprotected, she decided to continue the short distance to the café. She held up her hand and gave a brief wave, even though she could not see the others. Then she turned and disappeared quickly into the trees.
- - - - -
William turned to Al. “You wanna go next? Be good to see Lisa again, right?”
Al stared. “Tim should go. I can wait.”
Tim’s eyes darted down to the football in Al’s hands and William understood immediately. Tim did not trust Al with the football. William gave him a very small nod.
“Fine by me.” Tim said. He started off.
Al did not seem to notice the exchange. William thought that something was definitely strange about Al, but he was willing to chalk it up to the situation. He wondered how each of these people acted in their normal lives. Al was probably ordinary and boring.
They watched in silence as Tim chose a route a little farther out from the wall, just barely in the shadows. Careful, William thought. Tim struck him as someone he would like to be friends with once they got home. He would be a good influence for his sons.
When Tim came even with the Triceratops carcass, he dislodged a rock. It shifted a half turn against another rock, which fell over with a slap.
The tyrannosaur let out a long nasal snort.
William stopped breathing.
Tim scampered over to the wall, dislodging more pebbles along the way, and tucked himself into a shallow depression. He disappeared in the shadows.
[ 47 ]
“Why didn’t you finish college?” Julie had asked over a plate of scattered pizza crusts. She locked her gaze on Tim, her turquoise eyes never glancing down or away.
“I didn’t see any reason to, I guess. I took a summer job in construction, building houses. When fall came and school started back up, I just didn’t see the point.” The answer was true, but it wasn’t the whole truth. The construction work came easy to Tim. College, on the other hand, was difficult. He could spend lots of money doing something difficult, or earn lots of money doing something easy. At the time, the choice had been pretty simple and Tim had often bragged about it. Now he felt embarrassed.
They sat in the pizzeria that Tim’s softball team, cleverly named “The Runs,” patronized after every game. The rest of the team had departed more than an hour earlier.
“What were you studying? Had you picked a major?” She twirled her straw absently, but she did not look down at it. Those eyes stayed locked on target. They were the color of the ocean from a tropical resort on a travel photo.
“Architecture. I took a drafting class in high school that I really liked.” He shrugged with a sigh. “But the outdoors, the sun... I learned so much on the job. Stuff I could put to use.” He looked around the near-empty restaurant. It wasn’t often that a girl put him off his guard and Julie had him on the ropes. To his surprise, he loved it.
Julie had shown up as a substitute player at that night’s game, filling in for her friend who was out with a cold. They barely spoke during the game. Julie coached first base each inning, aggressively sending runners to second if they had even a remote chance of making it. They always did. Tim watched her from the bench, captivated. He caught her stealing a glance in his direction more than once. Somehow, for reasons he couldn’t explain, she wasn’t a score. He wanted her, sure. But first he wanted to find out all about her. He wanted to know her.
They stayed at the restaurant long into the night and everything he learned made him want to learn more. She told him about her job as a flight attendant and her goal to move up to the cockpit. She had a son named Joe from a fling nine years earlier. She regretted the fling, but not Joe. She lived with her younger sister Stacie, who took care of Joe while she was away for work, sometimes for several days in a row.
Everything about her seemed interesting, but that wasn’t what truly captivated Tim. It was the way she challenged him with probing questions. “What country would you visit if you could go anywhere in the world?” Argentina. “What language would you like to learn?” Spanish. “What’s stopping you?”
Tim went to the library the very next day and checked out an audio book called Learn on the Run: Spanish. It was marketed as something to listen to while jogging, but he listened to it on his commute. He quickly found that he knew more Spanish than he realized, from years of working alongside immigrant laborers.
On their second date, Tim took Julie to a Rockies game. Midway through the fourth inning, he took her hand. Holding hands on the second date! For Tim, the second date usually meant a few shots in a bar and then a rowdy one-night-stand back at his condo. Now his big move was holding her hand. She smiled and gazed at him. It brought a rush he had never felt before, certainly not from the weekend scores.
“Tienes los ojos mas bonitos del mundo.” He had memorized the phrase from his audio book. It was cheesy as hell, but it was also real. How could anyone argue with real? She laughed, impressed by his follow-through. He could not tell if she understood what it meant.
You have the most beautiful eyes in the world. Tim repeated the phrase in his mind as he huddled in the crevice on the side of the cliff. He could hear flies buzzing above the ruined body of the Triceratops. Only one full haunch remained. Round shapes nestled in the folds of its skin and Tim realized that they were more of those giant ticks.
The tyrannosaur did not move.
After another breathless minute, Tim heard the snoring resume. He stepped out of the hollow and moved on, choosing a path closer to the wall and deep in the shadows.
When he reached the woods and looked back, Tim noticed how heavy the air had grown. He looked to where William and Al should have been, but couldn’t make them out. The haze and humidity obscured the view. Tim took off his cap and ran his hand through his choppy blond hair which was soaked with sweat. He was ready to get back to the high desert air of modern day Denver.
We split up, he thought, remembering Beth’s comment about horror movies. We should have agreed to regroup here at the edge of the forest. He thought about going on. Callie had probably reached the café by now. It was only five or ten minutes from the clearing. He started to follow, but then realized that getting back to the café wouldn’t do him any good if the football wasn’t there. He decided to wait and crouched down behind the trunk of a large tree.
[ 48 ]
In the shadow of the overturned tree roots, William studied Al’s face. The stocky man’s square jaw clenched and unclenched as he watched Tim disappear in the distance. What is your problem, Al? Was it the race thing all over again? William’s boys scolded him for blaming racism on everything. He was glad they didn’t see it as much as he did. He wondered if Al took issue with having a black man in charge.
“You know,” William began, “I never really wanted to be the leader here.”
Al turned to face him, but did not respond.
“It just sorta happene
d.” He paused, waiting for an answer.
Finally Al said, “You’re doing a good job. This whole thing is just pretty fucked up. I haven’t given you enough credit. You got us this far.” Al inhaled. “And I really believe you can get us home.”
William could see that Al meant it. “I appreciate that.” He looked at the device in Al’s hands. There was no way on God’s green Earth, and this was still God’s green Earth as far as William was concerned, that he was going to leave the time device with Al Stevens. “Here. Let me carry that for a spell.” William took the football and handed Al the shovel without waiting for an answer.
- - - - -
Al squeezed the handle of the shovel as William walked off with the device. He thought about Lisa’s kiss, right before they had left on the raft. Once before, in the eighth grade, a girl had kissed him in the school library. He had gotten in trouble for it. Every kiss after that had been paid for. Until today. Today, Lisa had kissed him because she wanted to.
Al put down the shovel and picked up a round rock the size of a grapefruit.
In his mind he imagined two different Lisas. He saw one who was polite to him every day in her café. He pictured her safe at home after all of this was over, surrounded by the press. She smiled at him as lights flashed from all of the cameras. But that was it.
The second Lisa was the one he had pulled from the river, her wet blouse clinging to her body. The one holding his hand. The one who kissed him behind the building and pulled his crotch against hers. She was his. He imagined exploring this exotic world with her. Learning what plants were safe to eat and when to harvest them. Learning to hunt. They would be conquerors. He pictured her safe in a cave, cooking a haunch of meat over an open fire. They would feast and fuck every single night.
William reached the cliff wall and began to make his way along the base. He walked slowly.