Amanda in Alberta: The Writing on the Stone (6 page)

“You girls sure are quiet,” said Gordon as they rattled along the road. “Cat got your tongue?”

Sarah shrugged her shoulders. “We're just tired, that's all.”

“Hope you don't mind some music then.” Gordon turned on the radio and tapped his hands on the steering wheel to country and western tunes for the rest of the trip back to the city.

Amanda's mom arrived home from work just as the weary travellers drove up. She invited Gordon and Sarah in for a snack.

“Sorry, Aunt Evelyn, but we have to get back to the farm to do the chores. Dad's busy in the fields baling hay right now, and Mom needs our help.”

“Thanks for driving the girls to the ranch and back, Gordon. Say hi to your mom and dad.” She turned to Amanda and Leah. “You two look like you could use a shower and an early night. Tomorrow we're driving to Drumheller. Do you like dinosaurs, Leah?”

* * *

The next morning, while getting dressed, Amanda noticed the stone on her bookshelf. She picked it up, examined it closely and thought, ‘I wonder why Hank wants this stone so badly. What does it mean? Why did Ed have it in his pocket the day of the parade? If only I could talk to Aunt Mary about it.'

“Penny for your thoughts?” Leah appeared behind her.

Amanda slipped the stone in her jeans pocket. “Nothing…really.”

“I'm glad we'll be far away from the ranch and all that. I don't imagine dead dinosaurs will be interested in silly old rocks.” Leah flashed a smile.

“Gosh, I'm glad you're not mad about what happened yesterday.”

“Now it just seems like a silly old dream.” Leah raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes. “Life is never dull with you, Amanda.”

* * *

The drive to Drumheller took them past endless flat fields of pale golden wheat. Cows grazed in green pastures, kept safely from the traffic by prickly barbed wire fences. Giant rocking pump jacks dotted the countryside taking oil out of the ground. They looked like nodding donkeys.

“We call those, cow-chow,” said Amanda as she pointed to a field of round bales that looked like steamrollers.

Leah giggled. “What is that?” She pointed in the distance to a bright yellow streak that looked as if someone had run a highlighter over the land.

“That's a canola field,” answered Mrs. Ross. “Canola is grown for its oil. The plant is a bright yellow like that when it's in full bloom, ready to be harvested. The ‘can' part stands for Canada and ‘ola' refers to oil. Canola is grown primarily here, in the prairies of Western Canada.”

“You sound like an encyclopaedia, Mom.”

“I live and work in the city, but I grew up on a farm. My dad taught me all this stuff. I thought Leah would like to know, that's all.”

Soon the wheat fields gave way to rugged hills with flat tops, layered like a cake in various shades of brown, beige and grey.

“Now that we can see the badlands, we're almost at Drumheller,” said Mrs. Ross.

“Why are they called badlands? Do bad people live there, like outlaws?” asked Leah.

Amanda laughed, “We don't have outlaws here anymore. That's just in the movies.”

“It's true, outlaws used to hide in the badlands. Horsethief Canyon is so-named because it was used by American horse thieves in the old west for hiding stolen horses to sell in Alberta,” answered Amanda's mom. “As for the name badlands, apparently the French-Canadian trappers used to call them
mauvaises terres pour traverser,
which means ‘bad lands to cross'.”

“I forgot that you speak French here in Canada,” said Leah.

“We learn it in school but many of us aren't fluent, especially here in Western Canada.” Mrs. Ross turned into a town nestled between the badlands.

“OMG! What is that!” Leah pointed to a looming Tyrannosaurus Rex in the distance. “Is that the dinosaur museum?”

“No, we're not at the museum yet. That's just an oversized replica by the Visitor Information Centre.”

As they drove into town they noticed dinosaurs of all sizes and colours everywhere they looked: on signs, in front of shops, in the playgrounds and on street corners.

“Look at that cute one!” Amanda pointed to a pink creature with purple polka dots.

“This sure is a dinosaur town,” said Leah. “Look at that one painted white with red horns and red maple leaves on its side.”

They pulled up in front of the Visitor Information Centre.
The World's Largest Dinosaur
stared down at them. His mammoth mouth opened wide displaying sharp teeth. People looked out of his mouth as if he just had them for lunch.

“I just need to stop in here for a minute,” said Mrs. Ross.

“And I need to take a picture of this monster.” Leah pulled out her camera. “My mates back home won't ever believe this.”

“Can we go inside the dinosaur, Mom? It says on the sign we can and it doesn't cost much,” Amanda asked when her mom returned to the car.

“Not now, maybe on the way back. I'll drive you to the museum to look around while I drop off some paperwork at a client's office. He's expecting me soon.”

The Royal Tyrrell Museum sat in a valley surrounded by badlands. Greeting visitors at the entrance stood replicas of Triceratops. A sign explained that the name meant three-horns-on-the-face.

“One, two, three.” Leah touched each horn as she counted. “The perfect name for him.”

“Look at the babies by this one. She must be a mommy Triceratops.” Amanda shouted. “They are super cute!”

“I'll see you in two hours at this entrance,” said Mrs. Ross. She waved out the window as she drove away.

The girls entered the museum behind a group of children, led by a nurse. Some of the children were in wheelchairs. A couple of them had no hair. Amanda thought one girl in the group looked familiar.

They entered a dark hall with a swampy smell. Four life-sized replicas of dinosaurs, with massive heads and dozens of sharp teeth, were displayed in a dry riverbed. They stood about eleven feet tall and thirty feet long, with long thick tails and tiny useless arms. A sign explained the dinosaurs were called Albertosaurus, which meant Alberta Lizard.

“This is what Alberta looked like 70 million years ago,” read Amanda.

“Scary. Glad I wasn't around back then. Imagine running into one of these.” Leah grimaced as she stared at a huge beast baring his teeth, ready to take a bite out of her.

Amanda took a picture of Leah in front of the enormous creatures. Then they took a couple of selfies making faces as if they were about to be eaten alive.

They moved on into another gallery called Dinosaur Hall, full of skeletons of dinosaurs that had been unearthed in the area.

“This is totally brilliant,” exclaimed Leah. “Did they really dig up these bones here?”

“You bet. Look at this one called Black Beauty; it's the head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex found by a couple of teenagers.”

“How exciting would that be if we were to find dinosaur bones!” Leah's eyes sparkled.

Against one wall, beside a ruler, hung the skeleton of a dinosaur foot. The sign under it said:

How do you measure up?

The group of children with the nurse took turns standing beside the foot to see how tall they were in comparison. One boy measured five feet and barely passed the first joint past the toes of the dinosaur.

Amanda and Leah waited their turn. A First Nations girl smiled at them as she walked up to be measured. Amanda smiled back and wished she could remember where she had seen her before.

A guide began a presentation. The children crowded around him as he explained about the dinosaurs and how they were discovered. The man held a rock six inches long and four inches wide, flat at the bottom and curved at the top. He asked the group if they knew what it was. He handed it around for everyone to examine. No one could guess.

Amanda asked, “Could it be a toe?”

“You are right! It is a toe from a T-Rex.”

“If the toe was this big, imagine the rest of him.” Leah shuddered.

The same young girl smiled at them again. “Do you remember me? You watched me at the Pow-wow when I did the Jingle Dress Dance.”

“That's right. You're Dan's sister, Sharon.” Amanda grinned. “I didn't recognize you without your Jingle Dress Dance outfit. What are you doing here?”

“The hospital arranged for all of us in our ward to go on an outing. We got to pick where we wanted to go for a day and we chose this museum. I love learning all about dinosaurs, don't you? You were clever to guess the stone was actually a petrified dinosaur toe.”

The nurse waiting with the rest of the children motioned to Sharon.

“I must go and join the others. It was good to see you guys again. Hope you have a nice time here in Alberta, Leah. It's a cool place isn't it?”

“Oh yes, it's totally amazing. There is an awful lot to see and do.”

Sharon ran over to the other kids from the hospital, turned and waved.

“She sure is nice.” Amanda waved back and then turned to Leah. “I wonder why she's in the hospital.”

The girls proceeded from one room to the next taking in all the amazing artifacts, fossils, bones and entire skeletons found in the area. Each discovery had a story. They stopped in front of a window displaying a small, complete skeleton embedded in a rock.

Amanda read from the display board under the window. “It says here this was a young, swift-running, long-legged dinosaur called a Gorgosaurus.”

“Why is its head flung back almost touching its tail?” asked Leah.

“Apparently this is what is called the classic death pose.” Amanda scrunched her nose as she read. “The poor thing died like this.”

Nimble raptors, with killer claws perched on top of pedestals, followed the girls with stony eyes as they walked by. Skeletons of slow moving Stegosaurus with bony plates on their backs and four lethal spikes in each tail, stood beside duck-billed Edmontosaurus and three horned Triceratops. A Dimetrodon with a huge sail on its back was dwarfed by the gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex in the centre of the room.

“Can you believe these things used to roam this very area!” Amanda exclaimed.

Leah continued to snap pictures. “I have never, ever, seen anything like this.”

A young palaeontologist with a small pointed knife that looked like an old fountain pen meticulously chipped bits of stone away from a recently unearthed bone. The girls stopped to watch.

Amanda noticed a sign under a bone in a case that read:
Discovered by Mary Johnson, 1997.

“Look at this, Leah.” She pointed to the sign. “This dinosaur bone was discovered by my great aunt Mary.”

Leah took a picture with Amanda pointing at the sign.

The young palaeontologist put down his tool and said, “Mrs. Johnson is your great aunt?”

“Yes,” said Amanda. “She's my mom's aunt; my grandma's sister.”

“I was honoured to be mentored by Mrs. Johnson during my studies at the University of Calgary. I learned more from her than I did from the courses I took. She sure knows her stuff.”

“She loves fossils and dinosaur bones and things, that's for sure.” Amanda thought for a minute and then pulled the stone out of her pocket. “You wouldn't know anything about the mark on this stone.”

The young man took it from her and held it close to one eye. “This is interesting. It could be the footprint of a small dinosaur but I think it's more likely a petroglyph. It could be part of a larger picture. That's not really my field of study.” He wrinkled his brow. “Where did you get this? You are aware that it is illegal to take any fossils or artifacts you find around here?”

“Y-yah, I know. I didn't really find it. It found me.” Amanda's face turned red.

“Perhaps you should take it to the office and turn it in. It could be very important and also valuable. Does Mrs. Johnson know about this?”

The young man directed the girls to the office and returned to his chore.

As Amanda and Leah approached the door it swung open, almost knocking them over. An older gentleman in a tweed suit barged out of a large room full of papers and boxes piled up everywhere. Following him was a man in a cowboy hat.

Amanda's mouth fell open when she recognized Andy Rowlands. ‘What is he doing here,' she wondered.

Unaware of their presence, Andy said, “I only need a few more pieces and then I can bring the entire set to show you. I will be willing to sell them to the museum for a fair price. I figure you'll be mighty impressed when you see what I've stumbled upon.”

“We will want Mary Johnson to look it over first. She's the expert in these parts when it comes to that sort of thing. No decision will be made without her approval.”

“Fair enough.” Andy shook the gentleman's hand and strode off.

The man returned to his office and closed the door without noticing the two girls behind it.

“Well, aren't you going to go in and give the stone to that man?” asked Leah.

Amanda shook her head. “No, I really think I need to show it to Aunt Mary first. Something just doesn't seem right. I wonder what Mr. Rowlands was talking about?”

“I think you're making a big thing of it. I figure you should hand it over to the museum and then no one will be trying to get it from you anymore. Remember, just yesterday we were locked in a smelly old cabin and left for dead?”

“I've got to think about it. I'm not handing it over just yet.” Amanda put her hand in her pocket to ensure the stone was still there. “Besides, I'm starting to get attached to it.”

She looked at her watch. “It's almost time for Mom to pick us up. Let's quickly look through the Cretaceous Garden before she gets here.”

“I don't blooming believe it!” Leah stomped after Amanda.

The Cretaceous Garden smelled earthy and damp with humidity. Some weird ferns and shrubs were scattered amongst the evergreens. One looked like a large question mark.

Amanda read from a sign that explained the garden was designed to give visitors a chance to experience a natural environment similar to what the dinosaurs lived in millions of years ago. The girls wound their way through the display of prehistoric looking plants until they came across a huge footprint.

“Oh my, this is an actual dinosaur footprint found right next to this museum.”

“Are you sure it's real?” Leah pulled out her camera.

“It says so on the sign right here.” Amanda pointed. “And this is a fossil tree stump. Imagine how old it is.”

Someone in a cowboy hat rushed past the girls almost knocking Leah over.

“It was nice and peaceful in here until he showed up. How rude to push us aside like that. Are you OK, Leah?”

“Yes, I think so. I may have taken a picture though. I hung onto my camera because I didn't want to drop it. I think I accidently pushed the button.”

“Let's see what you took?”

Leah and Amanda looked at the screen. The picture was on an angle and bit blurry. They both gasped when they saw the back of the intruder. Red hair stuck out below his cowboy hat.

“Do you think it was…”

“Maybe. But why was he rushing to get out of here?”

“I thought we'd seen the last of him,” said Leah.

“It's time to meet Mom anyhow. There's an exit sign right over there.”

Leah looked both ways when she got outside. “I sure don't want to meet up with Hank again.”

“I don't think he even saw us. He was in too big of a rush to notice. I wonder who he was running from.”

“Maybe he was afraid the T-Rex would get him.” Leah laughed nervously. “There's your mom pulling up in front.”