by K C West
“I know what you mean. If they prove to be the Amazons we seek, whether from Greece or Anatolia, they were a long, long way from home. To have died in a strange and hostile land far away from friends and loved ones is tragic.”
We finished our work with a minimum of words.
When I consulted with Kim the next morning, she indicated that the dagger should remain in place for the time being. I wondered if she might be thinking of bringing in an expert on weaponry to advise us. Her participation in the excavation had been brief, but supportive, so I didn’t ask any unnecessary questions.
One day merged with another. We worked and slept, slept and worked, a routine that seemed to go on forever. Though Kim worked along side us, she seemed to slip in and out of a mental fog. She was distant at times, as if in another place altogether. When she was lucid and aware of our efforts, she favored me with nods and smiles. I was pleased with her confidence in me, but bothered by the fact that she was not leading us, not experiencing the same excitement of discovery. It was her triumph; I wanted her to relish it.
When all our material was collected, boxed, zip locked in baggies and tagged in black marker with identifying codes, I supervised the loading of it into the minivan, for transport to the labs at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Kim gave us minimal hands-on assistance, but it was the crew that pulled together to get it all packed. Sandy, Mike, and Donny would take our precious cargo to the labs and conduct the tests. I hovered about them in the parking lot at the trailhead, offering last minute admonitions, which they listened to for as long as their patience allowed.
“Listen Sandy, you’re in charge, but if it takes more than a few Accelerated Mass Spectrometer tests for some of those specimens, then go for it. I’ll pay for them myself. They require fewer grams of sample material—”
“I know, PJ.” Sandy put his hand on my arm. “It will be fine. Don’t worry, okay. We can handle this.”
I exhaled and nodded, feeling sheepish. “I’m sorry. You’re right. You know what to do.”
“We won’t let any of it out of our sight,” Mike said.
“Right,” I added. “You can sleep in the dorms next to the labs.”
Donny grinned. “Well, at least we get to sleep. I was afraid you’d make us stay awake the whole time.”
That broke the tension and even I joined in their laughter.
“Sorry, guys. I guess I’m a little stressed out about this.”
“Just a little,” Sandy admitted. “You’ve done a great job, PJ.” He gave me a quick hug before climbing into the driver’s seat. “Just take good care of Doc for us, okay?”
“I’ll do my best, Cowboy.” I smiled confidently. “Now you take care of yourselves and call when you have some results.”
“You can count on us.” Mike took his spot up front in the navigator’s seat.
“That better be true or I’ll skin all of you alive with my dental picks and a very rusty pocketknife.”
“Ooo! So cruel!” Mike clutched at his heart.
Donny gave a quick wave. “All that power has gone to her head, guys. Let’s get out of here while we still have our hides.”
I watched them pull out, leaving a cloud of pale dust in their wake.
Well, that’s that. Now we wait… for results. God, I hope it will be good news. Kim deserves it. We all do.
Chapter Thirteen
It bothered me that I was relying so heavily on PJ. Not that she wasn’t doing a great job … she was. She had far exceeded my expectation, having taken the helm while I was brooding in the background. Brooding is a harsh word. The fact that I haven’t been feeling too well can hardly be described that way.
What do you think, PJ? Am I brooding, and if so, about what? I wish I could describe to you the way I feel. But how can I when I can’t describe it to myself? It’s like I’m standing on a precipice, knowing that soon the ground is going to give way beneath my feet, but I can’t move … my shoes are lead weights. I can’t go anywhere. Not that I really want to go. There’s something, a premonition perhaps…
I was sure the remains we had discovered were those of the Lost Tribe of Amazons, but I’d have to await the test results to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that these were the warrior women I had sought for so long.
I wish I knew why I feel strange whenever I approach the cave. It has some connection to those damn dreams. But what could they have to do with the facts before us? Dreams are nothing more than tricks of the mind. The tenants of the cave are the reality.
We had heard nothing yet from Sandy, Donny, and Mike. The tests would take time and I had to exercise a little patience, something I had very little of these days.
The next evening, after an especially hard day, Laine and Josie appeared back at the site with steaks. “We thought you guys would like a real meal,” Josie said, grinning.
Their thoughtfulness overwhelmed me. “Thank you.” A lump formed in my throat. It concerned me that I was getting way too sentimental about things. “It was kind of you to think of us.”
“Twas nothing,” Laine said, “it’s known as kissing up to the boss.” PJ and I exchanged glances, she with a silly grin on her face.
It wasn’t long before the four of us were sitting around our blackened, well-used, portable grill watching the meat sizzle and splatter. The sparks created, in their few seconds of brilliance, a vision of fireflies. Corncobs wrapped in foil cooked on one side of the grill, potatoes baked on the other. The aroma was delicious. Our kisser uppers had thought of everything.
PJ speared a thick, juicy steak and plopped it on a plate, removed the corn from its foil wrapping, and the potato, arranged them beside the steak, and handed me the plate.
“Hey, I can wait on myself.”
“Of course you can, but right now I’m doing the honors. Call it kissing butt.”
My response was something between a snort, choke, and a giggle.
With a lop-sided grin, she passed the tub of soft butter. “You can slather.”
After serving Laine and Josie, PJ loaded her own plate and sat close enough to me that the warmth I felt was not totally from the grill.
“I can’t get over how much you’ve changed,” I said to PJ. “Whatever happened to the salad-eating, cholesterol watching?”
She nudged me with her shoulder. “Someone I know corrupted me. Now, hush up and eat.”
PJ, you’re a good friend, one whose strength is buoying me through difficult times. But that’s not all, there’s something about your smile that makes me desire the unattainable. I cannot turn fantasy into reality so I’m not going to dwell on it. Just having you on the team, being here at my side is enough. It has to be.
“You okay, Doc?” Laine asked. “You seem far away and we’ve noticed that you haven’t been yourself lately.”
“I’m fine, Laine. But thank you for asking. I haven’t been up to par, but it’s nothing to worry about.” I was aware of PJ’s sidelong glances. “Besides, things are progressing nicely with PJ at the helm.”
“PJ’s doing just fine, but this is your project and we want you in there with us.”
PJ reached over and squeezed my arm. “You know, don’t you, that you’re the one in charge … I’m just helping out here.”
“You tell her, PJ.” Josie said, reaching for another cob of corn.
“Let’s not forget that I’m the one who put you in charge,” I said, smiling at PJ.
“Right you are, Doc.”
I couldn’t resist chuckling because she rarely called me Doc any more.
Later, after we had eaten, cleaned up, and stowed everything neatly away, Laine and Josie picked up their sleeping bags. “We’ve found the neatest side canyon, just down the hill, that way,” Josie said, pointing east. “We thought we’d camp there for the night.”
“Sounds great,” PJ said, “but watch out for biting critters.”
“Well, you’ll be close enough that if you get lonely, you can always pick up your stuff and join us back h
ere.” I smiled and added, “Bacon and eggs will be served at five o’clock in the morning.”
Josie rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t consider making that noon, would you?”
I lay back in my sleeping bag and studied the night sky. “PJ, look at the Milky Way. It’s so bright tonight.”
“The Ancients believed that every point of light is a soul departed.”
I watched PJ open and spread her sleeping bag, close to mine, but far enough away that we couldn’t touch. She crawled in and lay on her back, staring skyward with her hands behind her head. She appeared delicate, as she lay so close and yet so far, protected by the dim light of the waning moon. She reminded me degf a doll I had once seen, an heirloom, made from the finest Dresden china. The vision was false, for in reality, she was as strong as they come. I felt the urge to reach out, invite her into my space, hold her in my arms and kiss her, but I knew I could not.
If I don’t stop now and focus on another subject, I’ll never get to sleep.
“PJ, I’m thinking of bringing in a forensic anthropologist, a trusted friend and colleague, to work with us on the remains.”
She sat up and turned to face me. “Tell me more.”
“Have you heard of Doctor Samuel Westermeyer?”
“Yeah, who hasn’t? He’s kind of an outsider though.” PJ assumed the lotus position. I wondered if I could do that any more. “As I recall, he made some enemies in the scientific community. Several years ago, he sided with the Native Americans who were demanding the return of ancestral remains, locked away in museum vaults.”
“That’s Samuel.” I chuckled, remembering the controversy.
“You know him well?”
“Yes. I’ve worked with him on occasion. And furthermore I trust him.” I sat up, supporting my head and resting my elbow. “We don’t have all the answers and we don’t have access to the scientific equipment we’ll need to solve the riddle of these women. Samuel is an independent, not subject to the rules and regulation of the University labs. There’ll come a time when I’m ready to share my Amazons with the scientific community at large, but that’s down the road apiece.”
“I understand and I’m with you … whatever you decide.”
“The remains themselves have to be scrutinized scientifically and I’m afraid if word leaks out before we’re ready, we’ll be overrun with people wanting bits of this bone or that. The integrity of the site will be destroyed and I’m not going to allow that to happen to our Amazons.”
PJ’s eyes glinted in the moonlight. “You love those women, don’t you?”
I laughed. “When you’ve lived with them as long as I have, you have to feel something. They’re close, like family.”
“Kim, that’s the way I feel about y~” PJ stopped in mid sentence. “What was that?”
I turned toward the sound to see a pair of yellow eyes as Pup bounded across the clearing toward me. “Pup! My dear, dear Pup, where the devil have you been?” He knocked me flat on my back into the sleeping bag and washed my face with his tongue. After a minute or two, he left me to greet PJ in much the same manner.
I watched them roughhousing. It delighted me to see the two of them playing together … the wolf and the heiress. I laughed to myself. That would be a great title for a movie.
“This calls for a celebration,” PJ said, disentangling herself from Pup’s puppy-like greeting. “Earl Grey for two coming up and some doggie biscuits for the prodigal Pup.”
When the phone rang the next morning, it was Sandy.
“Well,” I teased, “I thought you guys had taken off on vacation.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. It took longer than we thought. We called.”
“I know, PJ told me. So what do you have for us?”
“Good news. We’ll be back tonight. It’ll be real late though before we’re done here, so if it’s okay with you we’ll wait until tomorrow to come out to the site. We’re all kinda tired … we had to keep on those guys to get the tests done quickly. I think they thought that if they procrastinated we’d share more with them, like the location and the who and the what of this operation.”
“You didn’t…”
“Gawd, no!”
“You’re a good man.” I took a deep breath. “The results, Sandy, are they promising?”
“Better than that, Doc. We’re right on time-wise. It looks good … real good.”
I exhaled and nodded at PJ. “All right, Sandy. You drive safely and we’ll see you up here in the morning.” PJ and I seldom went home at night any more, preferring instead to stay close to the Amazons.
PJ’s grin turned to shouts of joy when I repeated what Sandy had said. She hugged me with such exuberance that I had to caution her against wild speculation on the topic until we had gathered all the data. In truth, however, I had trouble containing the happy bubble of excitement that swelled in my chest.
We spent most of the next morning in the tent studying and discussing the reports, which, as Sandy had indicated, appeared promising. The remains themselves would tell the tale.
I told the crew about Doctor Westermeyer and they all agreed that his expertise would prove beyond a shadow of doubt that these were our Amazons.
Samuel Westermeyer’s thinning gray hair and sun damaged skin made him appear older than his years. Since I had last seen him, he had grown a beard, which he kept neatly trimmed. I watched him work with gentle precision around the remains. PJ was at his side. It was still difficult for me to be in the cave, but I forced myself, despite the gnawing sensation of unrest in my nether regions. I put it down to the atmosphere in the cave, that I might be allergic to something there. Surely the fresh air coming in from outside would clear whatever it was that was bothering me. I hoped that would happen soon.
“You know, I would really like to take the skulls back to the lab in Los Angeles.” Samuel paused, knowing the reaction I would have to his words.
Before I could open my mouth, he held up his hand. “I know you’re reluctant, Kim, but you know me. I’d prefer to let these two rest in peace. But, knowing you as I do, you’re going to demand answers, and to provide those answers I must have them at the lab. You have my word that I’ll be the only one working with them and that they’ll be returned to you in the same condition they’re in now.”
I reluctantly nodded agreement. “I trust you, Samuel. And I’ll let PJ help you prepare them for their journey. I trust her completely. She knows what I want and you can tell her what you need.” PJ flushed at my unexpected compliment. I turned my back and headed up the slope away from the site with Pup close at my heels.
“Where were you for so long?” I asked my four-legged friend as I sat on the hillside overlooking all the activity. I held him close to me, needing to hold a living, breathing entity. I knew Pup would provide the comfort I sought and ask nothing in return.
I watched Westermeyer leave with Sandy and Mike carrying their precious bundles. Shortly afterwards, PJ joined me on the hillside. “Kim? You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I worry about them though.” I smiled, more to myself than at PJ. “Here I am worrying about a bunch of bones like they’re my kids or something.”
“In a way they are … like your kids. You’ve been chasing them for a good part of your life.”
PJ sat down beside me on the dusty ground and reached for my hand. “Westermeyer took the knife, too. I hope that’s okay. He’ll bring it back so don’t worry, okay?”
I nodded. “He’ll take care of them … I know that.”
Pup wriggled out of my arms. He sniffed around, checking out new and different smells. Soon, he was out of sight. Twenty minutes later he returned, agitated and wanting us to follow him. PJ leapt to her feet. “I’ll go.” I watched her jog after Pup.
I dozed in the warm sunshine, but awoke concerned. PJ and Pup had been gone for over an hour. I was getting ready to go look for them when PJ returned with a strange expression on her face. Her arms were scratched and bleeding. “What the hel
l?” It looked as though she had fallen into some Cholla.
“There’s more.”
“More what?”
“Bodies, remains, like the others.”
I stood up. My stomach cramped. “Damn! Where?”
“Over there.” She pointed toward the ridge. “You’d better come and see for yourself what Pup was so excited about.”
“Show me.”
I followed PJ to where she had commanded Pup to stay. He was lying beside a dense thicket of prickly desert plants but got up and whined when we arrived. I could see parts of what appeared to be a cave entrance that had been overgrown and concealed until Pup discovered it. PJ, in order to see what Pup was excited about had scrambled up toward the opening, pulling just enough of the thorny brush to one side to get through … not an easy task. It was no wonder her hands and arms were in such a mess.
“You’d better go tend to those.”
“I will, but first, you’ve gotta see.”
The cave was much larger than the first one, but higher up, possibly chosen for visibility and protection. I climbed and scratched my way to the opening, thankful that I had on a long sleeved shirt. Though not total protection from the thorny bushes, it saved a little of my flesh. The sleeves though were being shredded.
The three skeletons were in sitting positions, their backs to the rear wall of the cave, their bony hands laced together as if trying to provide comfort to each other.
“Three,” I said. “Two and three make five.”
PJ stared at me. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“There were five, don’t you see, five in all.”
“How do you know there were five?”
“I just know.”
I felt better after Westermeyer’s visit and PJ and I fell easily into the routine of being co-directors of the operation.
“Kim,” PJ said, taking my arm and moving us out of earshot, “you feel better about Site Two, so while we’re waiting for Westermeyer’s reports, I’ll take Laine and Josie and we’ll manage Site One. There’s still a lot of delicate work to be done in there and that’ll free up the rest of the crew to work with you at Site Two.
