After crashing in a freak electrical storm, Janet Delgrange and three other passengers find themselves trapped in the past. They are not alone, traveling amongst long-extinct, giant creatures and the Clovis people, who are primitive and fierce. In order to survive, they must adapt, joining a close-knit tribe, whose alpha hunter, Gundre, frightens and fascinates Janet. Although the language and cultural barriers are extreme, they form a bond … and find a love ten thousand years in the making.
“Hey, babe, how are you?” asked my
fiancé, Bradley, over the phone.
“I’m good. It’s hectic here.” I stood
by the mobile office, watching as a group of volunteers arrived, being escorted
to their worksite by William.
“How many more days are you gonna be
out there? We were supposed to meet my parents this weekend.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” I swatted at a
flying insect. “I just … we’ve just had a major discovery. I want to tell you
about it, but I’ve got to get back to work.” Uncovering the artifacts in the
cave had taken priority over everything else, because we suspected that, once
word got out, there would be a firestorm of media coverage. We had managed to
keep it under wraps, but for how long?
“Will you stay the weekend then?”
“Probably.”
“That really stinks, Amy.”
“It does, but it’s not forever. We’ll
just postpone stuff a little. Tell your parents I said sorry. I did want to get
together with them.”
“My mom wants to go over wedding
planning. We still haven’t set a date.”
“We will.” Professor Pine arrived,
parking his car by the trailer. “I need to go. Talk to you later.”
“Okay. Love you.”
“Yes, love.” I dropped the phone in
my pocket, as Stephen approached. He wore brown trousers and a light blue top.
A wide-brimmed hat shaded his face and neck. “Hey.”
“Good morning.” He grinned. “Anybody
at the site yet?”
“Two volunteers.” We discovered
something extraordinary yesterday, but the recovery process remained
maddeningly slow. “I was going to head out to see if they’ve made progress.”
“So was I, but I gotta check on a few
things. Professor Burdoff ran radiocarbon tests. He’s arriving this morning
with the results, which I expect to be the same as ours.”
“No doubt.” Two nights ago he had all
but asked me to sleep with him. I had been horribly tempted, stunned by the
fact that I hadn’t really gotten over him yet. It was something I would have to
work through, but these reactions bothered me greatly. “I put a fresh pot of
coffee on.”
“Bless you.” He took to the steps.
“Come keep me company, while I make a cup.”
“I … I’m going to the site. Somebody
needs to supervise.”
“Suit yourself.” He stepped into the
mobile office, closing the door behind him.
Having rained last night, wetness
lingered on the ground, the humidity stifling. I longed to be in the cave,
where it felt cool. Hurrying towards the worksite, I followed the little path,
which wandered through a thicket and down an embankment to the opening. A cable
from a portable generator ran inside to power the lights, the sound of music
playing. Someone had a radio on, which made the hours of work far more
enjoyable.
I entered, seeing a volunteer in the
far corner, brushing sand from an artifact on the floor. “Morning.”
She glanced my way. “Morning,
Professor Sandhurst.”
I came to stand over her, eyeing the
bone fragments she had uncovered. “Good work.”
“It’s nice in here. It beats being
out in the sun.”
“I know. It’s awesome. Who’s in the
back?”
“Rudy.”
“Okay. I’m gonna see what he’s
uncovered.” Squeezing through the tight opening, I emerged into the next
chamber, where a volunteer sat in the center of the room, a brush in hand.
“Morning.”
“Hey, Amy.”
“How’s it goin’?”
“It’s coming along.”
The caves had been photographed and
measured, sectioned off in a grid pattern. Professor Pine had brought in a
metal detector, finding nothing in the first room, but it had gone off in the
center of this one. “I want to help.”
“Absolutely. Grab a brush.”
This was what I lived for. This was
why I became an archaeologist. The thrill of uncovering long-forgotten objects
that might shed light on the past made all the endless weeks of scraping away
at nothing worth the effort. Hundreds of hours of class time, thousands of
hours in the field, hoping, searching, and waiting for a glimpse of archaic
treasure. Something metal lurked beneath the surface of the floor, which defied
all logic, because the Clovis culture had not obtained that technology.
Oh, Janet. What did you leave behind?
Two hours later, we had made
progress, small, rounded shapes appearing beneath our brushes, and we knew they
were coins. Professor Pine had joined us, taking over, while I sat nearby,
eyeing the find with excitement. “God, this is killing me.”
“Patience, grasshopper,” said
Stephen. “We’re nearly there. I’m seeing something.”
Getting on my hands and knees, I
stared at the assortment of artifacts. They lay scattered together. “It’s a
modern coin, isn’t it?”
“That’s what I’m thinking. I believe
there’s a penny as well and a quarter.” He brushed away the last bit of dirt.
“In God we trust.” Sitting back on his heels, he glanced at me, his expression
less than pleased. “We’re never going to be able to prove this is Clovis
culture. Unless we find some bone or charcoal that dates back, this is
impossible. It’s a total waste.”
“Because people will assume someone
buried it recently.”
“Yeah.”
“There’s more there, Stephen.” Small
objects jutted, although they remained covered in dirt. “So, the money can’t be
proven, but we all know who put it there.”
“That’s a theory.”
“I know it was Janet. She probably
buried a bundle of things, hoping we’d find them.”
“And we have.”
“But there’s more.”
“Let’s see what else comes up. Grab a
brush.”
It wasn’t long before the edges of a
shiny object appeared, rounded and glowing like gold. “I’m guessing it’s a
ring.”
Stephen nodded. “That’s my thought.”
“She’d been engaged. I bet it’s her
ring.”
“Which, unfortunately, does not prove
a hill of beans either.”
“But it’s hers. It’s over ten
thousand years old. The oldest known gold find in the Americas is four thousand
years. The beaded, tubed necklace from Lake Titicaca in Peru. That dates back
to 2100 BC.”
“Yes, but I’m sure we’ll discover
this one was crafted in 2012.”
William’s face appeared in the gap in
the wall. “Hey, some guy is here to see you, Amy.”
“What?”
“Brian Lutz.”
Stephen seemed puzzled. “Who’s he?”
I was almost too stunned to speak.
“Janet’s fiancé.”
“This will be uncovered soon.” He
brushed away at the dirt, revealing more gold.
I got to my feet. “I’m coming.”
William waited for me to squeeze through the opening; I emerged in the other
chamber. “This is Janet’s fiancé. I’m shocked he came. He wasn’t too receptive
to the idea that she time traveled.”
“It sounds … crazy, doesn’t it?”
“We’re collecting enough evidence.
When you put it all together, it won’t be so crazy.” Emerging into sunlight, I
glanced at the tall, slender man before me, holding out a hand. “Amy Sandhurst.
I’m really surprised you came.” I grinned.
He did not return the smile, but he
shook my hand. “Brian Lutz. I’m surprised I came. I don’t know what the hell
I’m doing here.”
A volunteer had brought him over.
“Thanks, Marlene.”
“No problem, Professor Sandhurst.”
She turned to leave.
“We’ve just made a new discovery. You
should come in and see it.”
“I suppose I should, but I think all
of you are nuts.”
“You almost have to be to work in
this profession,” I giggled. “We’re all questioning our sanity nowadays.
Nothing’s making any sense, but the evidence speaks for itself. You can’t argue
with the science of radiocarbon dating. It’s not negotiable. You can assume
everything else is just coincidence or hypothesis, but when something is tested
and it comes back with a date, it’s irrefutable. It’s like a DNA sample.”
He followed me into the first
chamber, gazing around. “You people go through a lot of effort to dig in the
dirt.” It had been painstakingly sectioned off in a grid pattern.
“We do. It’s our job to be as
thorough and accurate as possible. It’s this way.” I squeezed through the
opening, and he followed.
Stephen glanced at us. “It’s an
engagement ring all right. Quite a bit of the gold’s worn off, but everything
else is intact.”
“This is Brian Lutz, Professor Pine.
He bought that ring.”
Brian came to stand beside me, and
then he crouched, glancing at the floor. “I see dirt.”
I squatted next to him, pointing.
“Those are coins. Modern coins. The ring’s modern as well, since Clovis man
didn’t have the technology to craft metal. They were stone and bone people.”
“Anyone could’ve buried this stuff at
any time.”
“Very true,” agreed Stephen. “We
won’t be able to prove anything with these artifacts. They’re more
circumstantial, but the cave paintings are authentic. The message on the
ceiling dates back. I’m one-hundred percent certain Janet Delgrange and three
other people lived in the Clovis period.” He brushed away at the ring,
revealing it completely. A round diamond sat in a six-prong mounting,
surrounded by small diamonds on either side, although two had fallen out, lying
nearby. The metal had disintegrated with age, looking frail.
Brian pulled out a cell phone,
scrolling through pictures, finding one of a ring. “I gave this to her.” He had
photographed it at the store, sitting in a velvet-lined box. “It’s a carat and
a half with another half carat of small stones. The diamond itself is laser
engraved with a serial number, which I have.”
I stared at the picture, looking at
the ring in the dirt. “Could be one and the same, but we won’t know until it’s
out.”
Stephen stared at the image.
“Interesting. Nice ring, by the way.”
“Thanks.”
“We’ll need that picture, if you
don’t mind. You can send it to Amy. Once we remove the artifacts, we’ll examine
everything thoroughly. If it’s laser engraved, we’ll find the number.”
“Would you like to see the drawings
she did?” I indicated the ceiling. “She was a busy woman. She must’ve been
bored.” I grinned, but Brian wasn’t smiling.
“Yeah, I’ll have a look.” But I
sensed it was more to humor us than out of genuine interest. I gave him a
flashlight, although there was sufficient lighting. “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
He glanced overhead, eyeing the
artwork.
“She would have drawn things she saw
in her everyday life.” I pointed. “Those are clearly turtles. There are about
twenty drawings of deer. They were probably a staple in their diets. The
mastodons are impressive. Can you imagine seeing one of those in the flesh?
They grew to over nine feet in height and weighed nearly five tons. They were
prevalent at the time and were hunted.” He pointed the light on an image we had
not been able to make out. “I don’t know what that is.” It looked like a
mistake, a messy paint spot.
“She was working on design logos for
her website. One of the ideas was a paint splotch. She was going to write Janet
Art on the inside. I’ve her notebooks at home. She did a few variations of that
idea.”
“You think that’s what she drew?”
“Looks like it.”
“When you get back, can you take
pictures of those drawings and send them to me?”
“I will.” He continued to stare at
the paintings overhead.
“What do you think? Clovis man wasn’t
known for cave art. This is extremely uncharacteristic, but it wasn’t done by
any Paleo-Indian. It was done by Janet.”
“It could be.”
“Do you have any other examples of
her artwork?”
“Lots.”
“I’d really love to see them. I can
give you an address to send stuff to. We can compare it to these, but I’m
certain they’re from the same artist.”
He took a deep breath. “This is
impossible.” He glanced at me. “What you’re suggesting is … crazy.”
“It is, but for some insane reason,
she was here ten thousand years ago.”
Having grown up on military bases and traveled the world, Avery Kloss is happily settled now, and ready to pursue her dream of writing. Her first effort is the time travel romance trilogy "Caveman", which will be followed shortly by "Caveman 2" and "Caveman 3".
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