The Tooth
Page 14
The old ambulance was fairly full when it made its second trip to the hospital in Hastings. Grandad was driving, with Mits and me sitting in the back. Sam was asleep on the stretcher, with Damien sitting beside him. My view of the man was changing a little. He could have taken off and left Sam for others to look after, yet he hadn’t. He had insisted on staying with Sam, even though he knew he would be arrested when he got to the hospital. Obviously there was still some humanity buried in there somewhere.
It was dark by the time we reached the hospital. After a long wait in A and E, I had my ear stitched and Mits was checked over for concussion. Both of us were cleared to go home. Sam was put in a bed, awaiting surgery to rebuild his shattered shoulder.
There was a bit of a celebration going on when we got back to Pounamu. The stockmen were relaxing after helping to tidy up at the canyon. Everything was now back at the station, including the two Pounamu mares. Nobody knew where the two wild horses had gone, but the general view was that they could easily survive on Sarah and Fred’s place for a while, possibly for years. There’d be no hurry to find them. I agreed—the stallion could do with a rest before he met up with humans again. I hoped that, given time, the demons in his head would fade and he’d regain the free spirit of a Kaimanawa wild horse.
I didn’t immediately join in with the celebration, as there was an important job I still had to do. After collecting two apples from the kitchen, I headed off towards the horse paddock.
There was no need for a torch: I knew the path, and also the first-quarter moon gave enough light to avoid tripping over. Finding Phoebe was no problem—she was waiting at the gate.
‘You remembered,’ I whispered, as I handed her an apple. ‘I knew you would.’
After the apples had gone, we had a long talk. I cuddled her neck as I told her about saving the stallion and how he’d got to be so crazy. I talked about the dinosaur and why it was important. I told her about the pitchfork and how frightened I’d been when the man had attacked me. And lastly, I thanked her for saving my life and said how much I loved her for it. With that done, we stood and enjoyed each other’s company in silence, appreciating the beautiful night and all the things that were good about that part of the world.
I don’t know what Phoebe thought about, but I thought about my mum and what she would think of me if she were alive. I recalled the hug that Nanna had given me when we’d got back from the hospital. It had been long and tearful. She had told me she had been so worried about me, and yet so proud. Maybe her daughter would have felt the same? Mum had cuddled the same horse and gazed at the same sky. It made me feel closer to her than at any other time in my life; and that by itself made everything worthwhile.
It must have taken more than an hour for me to sort all that lot out, but I felt a lot better because of it. I gave Phoebe one final hug and headed for the house—now I, too, could celebrate.
Sunday was a glorious autumn day. Dad and Karen left early to take the truck and van back to Napier. They were to return with a side-loading container truck to pick up the dinosaur.
Grandad, Mits and I had the job of getting the container to dry land. Jim, the station owner, loaned us his boat, and we put it into the water by the park where the whole story had begun.
As we motored towards the canyon, it occurred to me that my trip down the river this time was a whole lot different to what it must have been like on that fateful day almost a decade before. What had once been a raging torrent was now a peaceful lake. In a way, it reflected the changes my life had undergone over the previous few weeks. In the past, I had felt that there had always been an unknown undercurrent to my life—that there were things that weren’t quite sorted. Now, I felt at peace, both with my thoughts and the people around me.
The container had floated clear of the cliffs. As we slowed to a stop, it bobbed up and down in our wash, with a good metre or so poking above the water. Hitching it to the boat and towing it back to the park took several hours. There’s no need to go into the details, except to say that Mits and I ended up in the water on more than one occasion. It was a lot of fun.
Getting the container out of the water and onto the truck took the rest of the day. The equipment we had wasn’t really designed for the job. No equipment would have been: never before had anybody transported a dinosaur using a refrigeration container as a barge.
While the day had been without the stresses of the day before, it was still a great relief to see the container safely locked down on the truck. There were hugs all round. Even Grandad and Dad hugged; although nowhere near as long as Karen and Dad did—they almost had to be pried apart.
Mits and I watched as the truck slowly ground its way out of the valley. I turned to him and said, ‘Well that’s it, Mits. We did it.’
‘Yeah,’ he replied without much enthusiasm.
I clapped him on the back. ‘It’s all over, eh? I knew we could do it.’
He turned to me and said seriously, ‘It’s not all over, Tiny. Not yet.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked. Then I realized what he must be talking about. ‘Yeah, well, I suppose you’re right. It won’t finally be over until it’s on display. But that won’t be too long.’
‘No!’ he said crossly. ‘It won’t be over until we find the missing bits.’
‘What missing bits?’
‘The missing bones, idiot.’
I blinked a couple of times. ‘Who said there are bones missing?’
He snorted. ‘Everyone could see they were missing.’
I looked at him blankly.
‘Well?’ he asked with the hint of a smile. ‘Did you see any wing bones?’
‘Wing bones?’ I began, and then I rolled my eyes. ‘Yeah, of course! I should’ve known. All dragons have wings, don’t they?’
‘Of course they do, Tiny. Everybody knows that.’
‘So when shall we go and find them?’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ he said dreamily. ‘Maybe if we wait long enough they’ll find us. After all The Tooth managed to find you, didn’t it?’
‘Yeah,’ I agreed with a chuckle. ‘It sure did. But I hope your dragon wings have a lot easier way of doing it.’
Chapter 24
Almost half a year later, the dinosaur was ready for display. I won’t go into the details of the opening, mainly because much of it passed in an emotional blur. However, I will include the newspaper article that appeared the next day in the Hawke’s Bay Beacon. It covers the basic facts as I remember them.
Dinosaur Goes on Display
In a glitzy opening ceremony at the Hawke’s Bay Museum, a dinosaur skeleton recovered from the banks of the Waitea River was revealed for the first time.
The new display is the climax of five months’ work involving dinosaur specialists from this country, Australia, China and the United States. Assistant Curator Karen Marshall said that everyone wanted to have the fossil available for public viewing as soon as possible. She hopes that the display will become a major tourist attraction.
The exhibit is dedicated to the work of Rebecca Thomas, a previous curator who drowned tragically in the Waitea River in August 2000. A feature of the display is a backdrop painted by Mrs Thomas, but never previously displayed. It is a beautiful panorama showing the Waitea River and surrounding hills.
It was the tragic death of Rebecca Thomas that led her then four-year-old son, Tim Thomas, to find a single dinosaur tooth embedded in a cliff face. In April of this year, the now twelve-year-old Tim and his friend Mike Smithson set out to locate the tooth. The story of their search and the subsequent battle against time and criminals is told in a series of panels that sit alongside the skeleton.
Last month, there was a sequel to the boys’ adventures, when the Hastings District Court sentenced two brothers, Damien and Leon Williams, to twelve months’ imprisonment for horse theft and threatening grievous bodily harm. A younger person was the subject of a family group conference.
In opening the exhibit, Mayor Mary McD
onald praised the efforts of the boys and their families for ensuring that such an important part of New Zealand’s geological history was not lost for ever. ‘The land of Hawke’s Bay has a history that stretches back more than two hundred million years. Major finds, such as this, help us to understand this long history. But more than that, they give us a better appreciation of the wonderful land in which we live.’
The exhibit will begin a tour of the country after Christmas. It is expected to return to its permanent home in Napier in about ten months’ time.
What the newspaper article doesn’t say is that, after the opening, the Smithson and Thomas families went to a hotel to celebrate. It was a wonderful evening. Everyone welcomed the chance to relax after the emotions of the formal occasion. Nanna and Grandad were booked into the hotel and stayed up well past their bedtime—both of them got a bit tiddly.
When everyone was preparing to leave, Karen took me to one side and gave me an envelope. ‘Please don’t open it now,’ she said. ‘Leave it for later. It just says some things that I think you should know.’
I nodded and tucked it into my pocket. Later, when I was back in my room ready for sleep, I took it out and opened it. There was a single sheet of handwriting.
Dear Tim,
Tonight, for the first time, you saw the wonderful painting that your mother created when you were very young. As everyone said at the opening, it was almost as if it was made to go with the dinosaur. None of them knew it, but what they said was exactly right.
When I took the painting out of storage, I was told that Rebecca had painted it just before she died, although nobody could tell me how she intended to use it. I now know that was because no-one ever looked at the back of the painting. If they had—as I did—then they would have discovered an envelope glued to the back. In it I found the sketches used in the original design. There were also sketches of possible displays with the heading: ‘The Waitea River Dinosaur’. Below were more drawings, and it was one of these that made my heart stand still. It was a dinosaur tooth—not just any dinosaur tooth, but The Tooth. Others showed the overhang with outlines of the skeleton. Alongside, in pencil, was written:
The fossil as I remember it from long ago. It seems right to me, but will need checking when I find the thing again.
From this I gather that your mum found the fossil when she was a child and only realized its significance when she was much older. She must have been planning to search for it when she did the painting. I think it remarkable that the event that led to her death also led you to The Tooth. I can’t help but think that maybe some things are just meant to happen in the way that they do.
In the final display, I have completed the work she started. In doing this, I feel I have learned enough about her to be able to say that she would have been very proud of what you have done. Not only did you rediscover The Tooth, but you also reunited your grandparents with your father.
From a personal point of view, you also introduced me to the man who will be my husband. Tonight, Bill asked me to marry him and I happily accepted. We will be making a public announcement next weekend. The wedding will be just before Christmas.
I, too, am very proud of you, and I am excited about becoming part of your family. I think we will get on very well together. While I will never try to replace your mother, I hope you will come to love me as much as you must have loved her.
Karen
I smiled as I folded the letter away and tucked it under my pillow. ‘Yes,’ I said to myself, ‘and that’s what I hope for, too.’
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Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published 2008
This edition published in 2010
by HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1, Auckland
Copyright © Des Hunt 2008
Des Hunt asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
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National Library of New Zealand Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Hunt, Des, 1941-
The tooth / Des Hunt.
ISBN 978 1 8695 0638 4 (pbk.)
ISBN: 978 0 7304 4358 2 (epub)
[1. Fossils—Fiction. 2. Dinosaurs—Fiction. 3. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 4. New Zealand—Fiction.] I. Title.
NZ823.3—dc 22
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