The Dinosaur Four (8 page)

Morgan
banged the door continuously, laughing out loud as the rest of the group joined him, most of them clanging away on whatever they could find. Lisa held a pair of metal espresso filters by their handles. William clapped two ceramic saucers together until they shattered.

“Run you fuckers!” Morgan shouted
, watching the last dinosaur disappear into the forest. He turned to the rest of the group with a wide grin. “That was awesome!”

Hank
raised the kettle and slammed it down into the mud. He stood in a wide stance and balled his hands in tight fists.

“
Listen, dude, I’m sorry about that earlier.”

“Sorry doesn’t begin to cover it. You
almost got us all killed.”

Callie
moved to her fiancé’s side and wrapped herself around one of his arms. “Leave him be, Hank. He’s not worth it. He’s just a dumb little prick.”

Morgan nodded
. He had been called worse.

“Prick?” said Hank. “He’s not a prick. He’s an asshole. Because nothing but shit comes out of him.”

William called down from the sidewalk. “Hank, if he hadn’t pissed you off enough to make that racket, we’d still be stuck inside, you know.”

Hank looked up, noticing his
audience. He relaxed and opened his hands. “Our actions here affect one another,” he told Morgan, jabbing his chest with a pointed finger. “Do not do anything like that again.”

Morgan nodded. “You got it
, bro.”

T
he morning sun felt good on William’s face, even in the muggy heat. He squinted and examined the scene around the café. The area looked and smelled like a stockyard. Most of the mud had been trampled flat and was land-mined with wet piles of dung.

“Everyone stay within sight of the building,” William
directed. They all carried their pots and pans, ready to restart the racket at a moment’s notice.

“We should
keep together,” Beth suggested. “In horror movies, the people who wander off alone always get killed.”

William nodded
. “Sounds like a good idea to me. What other advice do you have?”

“
Usually, the biggest danger isn’t the monster. It’s the other people.”

Hank
spun around. “Please tell me that was not directed at me.”

Callie
took his arm. “Hank, it’s ok. You don’t need to prove anything.”

“I do. Right now, we need to
be able to trust each other.” He looked around at the group. “Do you all know where I was supposed to be this morning?”

“Anger management training
?” Beth had her arms crossed, but William thought he saw her tremble. She looked defiant and frightened at the same time.

Morgan snickered.

“Very funny. I was supposed to be at a domestic abuse hearing. A guy with a rolling pin pulverized his girlfriend’s face. A fucking rolling pin. You should see the photos from the emergency room.” He pressed his lips together and breathed through his nose. “I’m lead prosecutor. I’m the guy that was going to make sure that cocksucker never hurt anyone again. That’s what I do. I keep people safe. I’m not the bad guy.”

William thought that Hank might be protesting a bit much, but there wasn’t any point in arguing about it.
“We hear you, Hank. It’s all good.”

Hank crossed his own arms and breathed heavily through his nose, nostrils flaring.

William walked over and met Helen at the end of the sidewalk. She had finally come outside. He offered her a hand and helped her down. Helen peered across the clearing.

“They’re all gone,” he assured her.

“I’d like to build a fire. Lawrence taught me how.” She wrung her hands together. “Oh, he used to take me on some cold, dreary trips. I never could get warm. I made him teach me how to build a fire quickly, even in the rain. The trick is to leave plenty of room for air.”

Callie
took Hank’s hand. “Come on. Let’s get the lady some firewood.”

“Hey, maybe I can put my mad barista skills to work,” Beth said. “
I’ll get some water and brew us some coffee.” She disappeared inside.

Callie and Hank returned with
several dead branches from the tree line and within minutes, Helen had a small blaze going on the ground near the café. The wet wood produced thick smoke as it burned.

Helen
sat on the square of sidewalk that had broken off under the juvenile hadrosaur’s weight. She beamed at the flames. “A fire always made us feel safe, no matter where we were. I guess those trips were good for something after all.” She looked up at the sky. “Thank you, Larry.”

“He ain’t up there,” Morgan said.

Helen looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“
Your old man. He ain’t died yet, so he ain’t up there. He won’t be up there for a million years.”

Helen frowned and looked down at her fire.

“That was helpful Morgan,” William said. “Come on, let’s have a look around.” He gave Morgan a shove.

“I’d like to come too,” Tim said.

The three of them began walking downstream. As they approached the lone boot on the bank, William saw something that looked like road kill which had been passed over again and again until the animal could no longer be identified. He decided he didn’t want to see any more and cut inland. He wondered what had happened to Patricia’s soul. Would she be alone in heaven for millions of years? He decided he did not really want to find out the answer to that question.

When they reached the tree line, they
stopped and looked back. White smoke rose from the front of the building chunk. Broken beams and concrete jutted from each edge of the café, as if all of the other parts of the building had been knocked away by a wrecking ball.

“What is that on the roof?” Morgan asked. “Is that air conditioning equipment or something?”

“That’s not the roof,” Tim explained. “We were in an eight-story building. That’s whatever was in the room upstairs. We should see if there’s some way to get up there.”

William pointed upstream,
“First, let’s go have a look from over there and see if we can tell how much of our little building is still on solid ground.” The bank jutted out into the water near the upstream edge of the clearing.

As t
hey started walking, Morgan pulled out a cigarette and lit it with a flip-top lighter. The metallic chirp of the wheel scratching the flint triggered an old yearning William felt right behind his eyes.

Morgan
offered up the smoke. Tim shook his head. William accepted. “I haven’t had a cigarette in sixteen years, since my first son was born.” He drew in a long drag and let out a small giggle. “And I have missed them every single day since.”

Morgan took back the cigarette. “I gotta be stingy with these. I’ve only got two more after this one. Then I guess I’ll have to
quit whether I want to or not.”

Al extended an empty coffee cup over the camp fire. “What’s the charge?” he said, trying to sound clever.

Beth
poured from a French press. Water bubbled in a stainless steel carafe at the edge of the fire. She gave Al a coy smile. “Well, since you saved the owner’s life, I think maybe it will be on the house.”

Beth
’s smile was beautiful. He had seen that smile directed at other customers and yearned for it. Never mind the fact that he was twice her age. Not sure what to say, he took a long sip of coffee. It was strong and bitter. Perfect.

“You’d jump in and save me if
I fell in the river, wouldn’t you?”

Al nodded.
“Of course I would.” He felt his heartbeat race and his face flushed. He hoped it wasn’t noticeable.

Helen
coughed and poked at the fire with a stick. “We’re going to need more firewood.”

Al looked
up at the café. Lisa had disappeared inside and he had been hoping to go in and check on her.

Beth winked at him. “Don’t worry. I’ll get the firewood.”

Al nodded again. It felt as if she could tell what he had been thinking. It made him uncomfortable and excited at the same time. “Thanks for the coffee.” He stepped past Helen and climbed up onto the sidewalk.

Inside, Lisa
worked in the back corner, in the collapsed hallway that led to the restroom. She crouched by the light of several small votive candles. A few thin slivers of sunlight bled through from where the ceiling had fallen in.

“Candles, huh
? I’ve never seen candles in here before.”

“Well, I was hoping to class up the
joint.” Lisa hefted a fist-sized chunk of concrete off to one side. “I’m trying reach a storage pantry right over there.” She pointed to a door. Debris blocked all but the top edge. “It’s mostly sugar and coffee beans, but there are two other items I wanted to find.”

“Is one of them a hunting rifle? ‘Cause I’d be in favor of that.”

She laughed. “Afraid not. The first is oatmeal. I usually add it to the menu in the fall, and I’m pretty sure I’ve still got a few cases left. The other is wine.” She turned around and looked at Al. “It dawned on me with singular clarity that I could use a glass of wine right now. Or four.”

“You running a speakeasy back here?”

“Ha. Hardly. I spent far too many afternoons sitting alone in the café waiting for a customer to walk in. Waiting and wishing I had a glass of wine at hand. Wine always makes waiting easier. When I realized I could operate a wine bar in the afternoons, it felt like a light bulb going off overhead. I submitted the application for a liquor license several weeks ago.”

Al wondered if drinking something that dull
ed the senses was really a good idea, but decided not to bring it up. It looked like she had a long way to go before she would reach the pantry anyway. “How much do you have?”

“
Two cases from a trip to Napa Valley with my sisters last year and a few samples from one of my vendors.”

Lisa looked back at the pile. “Oh, hey. Come have a look at this.” She picked up a
silver box the size of a toaster oven and held it in the candlelight. “I found this in the rubble. It must have fallen through from the floor upstairs.” Heavy wires sheathed in thick metal bands protruded from one edge. “You were in computers. Stevens Information Systems, right? Can you tell me what this is?”

Al studied the
box, moving close to her. “It’s not anything I’ve ever seen.” Circuit boards were visible through a crack on one side, but there wasn’t any sign of a keyboard or monitor, and the cables coming out of it were nearly two inches in diameter. “That isn’t your normal office computer. I wonder if much of the second floor came back in time with us. How do you get up there?”

“I don’t know. They
have their own entrance in the other side of the building. There must have been an elevator back there.” Lisa put the box back on the floor. “There were some strange people working upstairs,” she explained. “They were very secretive. They would always stop talking any time you got too close. I usually saw them out in the alley smoking cigarettes.” She studied Al. “You don’t smoke, do you?”

He smiled. The answer to this one was easy and he could see that it would earn him some points. “Never touch them. Barely drink, either.”

“Yeah, well, if we find the wine, you gotta have a drink with me, ok?”

Al took a risk. He reached out and touched her chin with his thumb. He wanted to move in for a kiss, but
he was terrified she would pull away. After the smile from Beth, he already felt aroused. Was that clouding his judgment? The candlelight added to the mood, but it was too dark to read her expression. She
owed
him a kiss, didn’t she? He had saved her life and risked his own in the process. She owed him a hell of a lot more, when it came right down to it, but for now he would settle for a kiss. Al looked at her lips, wondering if he should move quickly or slowly.

Before he could take a chance with either approach,
Helen clambered inside through the front window. “One of them is coming back,” she called across the room.

Lisa pulled away.
“Come on, let’s go show him who’s boss.” She picked up a pair of metal travel mugs.

Al wrenched his jaw in frustration.
As Lisa pushed past, she seemed to notice. “Hey.” She tilted her head down while looking up at him. “Why don’t we continue this conversation later?”

Al
swallowed her promise and followed her out of the building.

“Be careful out there,”
Helen called as they passed by.

Outside, Beth
stood at the far edge of the jungle, holding a half-dozen sticks under one arm and her serving tray under the other. She leaned this way and that, peering into the depths of the forest. Something big moved around in the trees.

Beth
dropped the firewood and pulled a long serving spoon from her back pocket. She raised the spoon and banged on her tray like a gong.