Sketches inbetween Classes

Every once in a while between classes I'll start doodling and sketching to pass the ten minutes. 

As of recent I've had sugar gliders on the brain!

The Fossil

Hogback, South Dakota

Summer of 1899

            I pulled at the buttons the men’s vigorously wished for. The cold plains air of night washed over my sweat drenched body. A four inch claw sat on the ground next to me. It had once belonged to the fiercest of all dinosaurs, the Tyrannosaurus. Fr shirt I had been wearing for the last two months, allowing my breasts the freedom they soesh blood shimmered along its sharp edges, in the light of the moon above the badlands. Tonight the badlands looked like the arched back of the dinosaur I had spent the last two months of my life devoted too. The dinosaur that had led me to this moment. The claw had led me to the events that came before.

            The summer bore had the sun of a thousand worlds; the only reprieve from the scorching heat was my canvas tent and that barrel of sparkling water it hid. I would splashed my face letting the droplets run down my neck and descend my bosom, cooling me underneath the khaki men’s shirt that trapped sweat against my womanly figure. As the only women in the camp I hid any port of me that set me apart from the men. There had been no way to even the score, twenty men and me.

            I had to charm my way into the camp, bureaucratic rule that kept women oppressed had done everything it could to keep me out. It was a man’s idea to keep women in the house and in the kitchen or bedroom, I refused. I had found my first fossil fair and square. There was no reason I could not hunt for dinosaurs like the men, but the men said otherwise. My find had changed their mind temporarily and they had given me the opportunity to try.

            Dinosaurs had entered my life less than a year ago; I was harvesting carrots from my father’s garden in front of our homestead when I came upon an oddly shaped rock. It curved with a dangerous beauty that sent shivers up my spine.  Abandoning my task of harvesting carrots for stew, I polished the rock till the dirt had all fallen away. I had seen something like this before. At the Corn Palace in Mitchell, there had been an exhibition of the terrifying lizards that had lived before Adam and Eve. This beautiful rock was a claw. I knew it. I had seen one identical to it in a display at the Palace. Rolling it into the top band of my apron I hid it as a treasure and a secret. The next day I took it to the University in hopes of confirming what I already knew.  The professor of paleontology confirmed my discovery and sent me on my way immediately after warning me against my interests. His lack of confidence in me fueled me, and I began watching for the next dinosaur hunting group to come through Hogback. I would join them, even if it killed me.

            My opportunity arrived a month later as the month of May started in on the badlands. A young, well dressed man came into town on his snow colored horse one afternoon looking for the same professor I had gone to. I pointed him in the direction towards the university then engaged him in conversation. He was a dinosaur hunter, and was in need of a local to help him in his hunt of the surrounding area. This was my opportunity.

            “I’ve lived here my whole life, sir. I know these badlands better than anyone else in this town.” I said, hoping he caught the obvious. He looked me over his brown eyes deep and soulful. I felt myself falling into them but resisted, if I were to get this opportunity he would need to see me as an equal, not a woman.

            “I don’t know,” he said a little taken back by my boldness, “I was hoping for a young man, some one to help me around the camp and with the actual digging. Someone with even the tiniest experience with fossils. And someone who can man a horse.”

            I had seen this coming, my argument already prepared. “Well sir, I was riding before I could walk, I’m the only child of my father, leaving me to do the work of the sons he never had. I can dig and hoe better than any boy you’ll find in this town.” I pulled the claw from the band of my apron, “And I have experience with fossils.”

            His hand darted forward towards the claw, but I was faster. I held it just out of his reach. I asked his name and he responded quickly with “Aaron.” I introduced myself and offered to be his guide and employee for him at a decent rate a month, ten dollars. He asked for the claw, this time without such urgency. I put my faith in him and allowed him to hold it. Aaron turned it over and over in his hand, his eyes sparked. His interrogation was fast and harsh, keeping me on my toes. After twenty or thirty questions had been fired at me I was sure he didn’t want me, I hadn’t been in school longer than the 8^th grade, he on the other hand had graduated from Montana State University this spring.

            “Have found a fossil. You seem to know these parts better than anyone I’ve talked to so far. But I must take into account that you are a young woman of eighteen, and will be looked down upon by the other men in the camp. I fear more for your safety among the men.”

            I pulled the Colt 45 Peace Maker from my boot. “I’m not too concerned about the men. You should be more concerned about me hurting them.”

            “Well, Kay. I’ll give you a chance. We leave in one week. You’ll be out there for two weeks unless something happens so prepare accordingly. You’ll need a horse, and a tent. We’ll meet at the university.”

            “Thank you sir. One week from today.” I put away my Colt and nodded at him. He clucked and spurred his horse. As he trotted away I couldn’t help but notice his posture, the posture of a man who knew he had power over women. My heart had raced as he talked to me, and I fought not to flirt. I knew it would be a fight within me to keep myself an equal to him, and not fall to love.

            I returned home and told my father of the news. He congratulated me and went to the attic to pull out his old Calvary gear. A canvas tent, saddle, and a sleeping roll, each had seen its own battle. My father was always supportive of my boyish attempts. He had never had a son, and had never remarried after my mother’s death.  My horse was penned behind the house; he had belonged to me since I could remember. His white body was splotched with brown, his eyes a blue that seemed to pierce your soul. I told him about the adventure we would soon join, his eyes telling me he understood everything I said.

            One week later my horse packed we left from the university. I led them through the tall grasses of the prairie out to the badlands, their points piercing the early morning sky. We rode for about an hour before Aaron found a spire of the badlands he liked, and felt “good” about. Our party set to making camp, I set out for buffalo pies for the fire, something my father had taught me and none of the men I was with seemed to know. Returning with thirty or forty dried pies I placed them in a pile. I was praised by Aaron for my wilderness smarts. The other men rolled their eyes. Returning to setting up I pitched my tent a little farther from the men’s. I wished not to be in their company in the intimate moments of night.

            We searched for the first two weeks, dusk to dawn. No dinosaurs revealed themselves to us. I felt in my gut that if we only moved two miles down towards another spire, we would find something. Revealing these intuitions to my fellow hunters, and Aaron I was met with laughter and mocking. My animosity towards the men had been growing for the past two weeks, but after Aaron’s invitation to let me stay I had suppressed it. Once again it roared its ugly head within me. I shrugged my shoulders around the campfire, and planned my early morning descent as the men poked fun at me for my “womanly intuition.” By this time I had started wearing my father’s old shirts, and flattening my bosom with a wrap. My hair was pulled tight into a bun and hidden under my cap. My attempts at being more manly had been noticed, and gave the men more to poke fun at.

            The next morning I was up and gone before the sun had even peaked its first flame over the horizon. I stopped many times to do a preliminary dig along the bottom of many spires. After what I guessed was two miles I stopped to find a cylindrical rock of approximately five inch diameter. I dismounted my horse and began to pull away the dirt from around the rock. I was met with the rounded end of a bone. I had found another fossil, but this time it was big. The sun had risen to midway in the sky as I remounted and galloped back to camp. Not stopping to say anything I grabbed Aaron’s horse and tacked him up. Yelling for Aaron to come with me, I sprinted my horse back out of the camp and towards my find. I could hear the pounding of many horse’s hooves behind me. Most of the men in the camp were following me.

            My find was marked with my bag of tools. Stopping and nearly jumping off my horse I returned to my find as a pirate with his treasure. I was soon joined by fourteen men, including Aaron. They all stood in shocked quiet. Aaron was the first to speak.

            “I do believe that is a leg bone… of a very large animal.”

            “And its right where I said it would be.” I said almost angrily, “Where my intuition said it would me.”

            The men all looked dumb-founded. Pulling Aaron to the side, one of his assistance, I had always called Big Foot, talkied in hushed voices. The men gathered round and all began nodding and looking back at me with smirks I would have liked to slap off their faces. I returned to my horse and drank heavily from my canteen. Foam had collected at my horse’s mouth. Taking off my cap and filling it with water I allowed him to drink heavily.

            The men returned and examined my fossil closely. They all seemed a little suspicious, but I hadn’t really thought anything of it. My personal achievement clouded my thoughts.

            “I do believe this is a tyrannosaurus.” claimed Big Foot, looking up at me with an almost surprised look.

            I felt shocked, a tyrannosaurus? The king of these terrifying lizards, I so desperately loved. I had found one. These men were experts, I trusted what they said. Aaron called for everyone to return to camp and tear down. We would return to this location with our camp. Aaron smiled at me, my heart pumped faster.

            “Congratulations on such an amazing find.” He laughed, my face turning red.

            Our excavation began that day and continued feverishly. I poured my heart into this dig. Every waking moment dedicated to it. I didn’t eat, I slept only when it became too dark to dig safely, I talked to no one. Even Aaron faded from my mind. I was obsessed. The men laughed at my dedication, but kept out of my way. I was consumed by this animal, we had finished unearthing the first leg, and had found the beginnings of a leg. The hot sun scorched my body underneath the khaki that had now become a uniform in the camp.  Cook would occasionally bring me biscuits and gravy to keep my strength up. My body shriveled as I refused to eat until this ancient animal was brought to the surface. The muscles in my arms and shoulders bulked up and I began to look more like the men.

            Big Foot urged me on. Our relationship was filled with animosity, and he joked about whipping me like a slave to the get the dinosaur out faster. I retaliated by aiming rocks at him. I shattered his knee cap one day after he made advances towards me of a sexual nature. His hands on my shoulder and neck, the whispering in my ear; I responded to his advances with the sacrificing of the dinosaurs’ tibia against his knee. He never talked to me again after that. None of the men did. Aaron talked to me only in professional manner, and to urge me to eat. I was wasting away, my ribs obvious even under the baggy men’s shirt.

            The spine was finally exposed in the afternoon and we began on the head. When I say we I mean Aaron and I. The other men had come across another animal a mere fifty feet away and had given themselves to that project. My progress on this animal had been fast but efficient. It had been two weeks since we had started.

            Skull began to emerge from the red dirt, and my heart pounded harder than it ever had before. Slowly, and eye socket emerged and a jaw. The jaw was long with square flat teeth. My heart stopped. I had learned a lot in the past month and I knew just from the teeth this was no tyrannosaurus.

            Big Foot walked over slowly, his foot steps deliberate. “What’s wrong, Kay? You stopped.” He mocked me, every part of me wanted to kill him.

            “You knew.” I said, beginning to shake. He had known, from the very beginning, I could see it in his eyes.

            “Knew what? That this was an omnivore? You can’t tell a lot from a fibula…” he ridiculed, standing tall and proud.

            “But you knew it was no tyrannosaurus. You scum bag.”  My heart raced once more, I felt weak. I felt conquered.

            “Well, yes.”

            “You scum bag…” it was all I could say.

            I walked back to my tent, betrayed by even Aaron, who stood their laughing with the rest of them. He had known too, he had lead me on too. My whole body shook, my withered body feeling weak for the first time. I lay down in my bed roll, waiting for the sun to finally set. The men’s laughter haunted me as I drifted between sleep and consciousness.

            I awoke to the call of a coyote on the plain, my body in overdrive. I knew what had to be done. Slipping off my boots I walked barefoot from my tent. The claw in my hand, it glinted in the prairie moon.

            Creeping silently into Big Foot’s tent I stood over him. He slept peacefully, his face worn by year of hunting dinosaurs. The claw slid swiftly through his throat. His eyes shot open and panic filled them, he opened his mouth to scream but no words came out. I left him lying in there in his own blood. He would die by what he had searched for.

            I entered each tent after that and continued my massacre. Each man’s throat slit silently, the same panicked look, the same silent scream.

            The last tent in the row was Aaron’s. I entered as I had entered the last eight tents.  I kissed his lips, and he awoke.

            “Kay, what are you doing?” He seemed shocked, but barely awake.

            “You knew. You lead me on.” I whispered.

            “It was all in good fun. Nothing to be mad about eh?”  Aaron responded, unaware of the blood that dripped from my finger tips and the claw down to the red dirt floor of his tent.

            “I loved you silently.” I said, “I admired your ability to see me as an equal, but all of it was a sham.”

            “What?” he seemed confused but more awake. “You loved me?”

            “Yes. Good bye, Aaron.” With a swift movement I slit his throat. The panicked look never appeared in his eyes. Only remorse. In that instance I realized he loved me in return. As his lips moved for the last time in the words “Good bye, my love.”

            I left the tent silently and returned to my horse. I left a bloody handprint on the white of his coat. Riding with the wind I road to the top of the closest ridge. There I sat watching the stars move through the heavens. I pulled at buttons of the men’s shirt I had been wearing for the last two months, allowing my breasts the freedom they so vigorously wished for. The cold plains air of night washed over my sweat drenched body. The claw glinted in the dirt next to me.

            Screaming into the night Aaron’s name I pulled the claw swiftly across my own throat.

*Originally written 2008 for a Senior Writing Project at Bothell High School*