I guess that time is now.
2
Anna
I’m on my knees in the dirt when the call comes through. Fleur brings my phone out of the tent, waving it my way.
“Look at this,” I tell her. “Nearly got the skull free.”
“You’re going to want to take this call,” she says, holding the cellphone down toward me.
“I’m busy,” I reply, lifting the edge of the jawbone gingerly so I can clear a portion of dirt from the lower corner, the only part of the skeleton still remaining stubbornly attached to the surrounding rock. “Who is it?”
“It’s your father.”
I curse, getting up carefully and stepping back from the skeleton. I pull my gloves off as I step out of the trench. “Seriously, who is it?” I ask.
“I’m not kidding. Take a look.”
On the screen a name is visible. My heart sinks. “Do I answer it?”
Fleur shrugs. “Should have blocked it years ago if you want my opinion.”
“Maybe I should.” My hand hovers over the end call button. Cursing a second time, I move my finger, answering the call and ruining my life. “What do you want?” I ask.
“Anna, it’s Dad.”
He sounds terrified.
“I know who it is. What do you want?”
“Have you got any money?”
“What?”
“Are you fucking deaf? Have you got any money?”
“A couple of hundred bucks in my account. Why?”
Fleur mouths to me, “You don’t need to tell him shit. He’s not in charge of you anymore.”
“I know,” I mouth back, wishing I’d never answered. Already I’m submitting to him like I never left. How am I a twenty-five year old successful paleontologist on the dig of my life yet still terrified of my father? I haven’t seen him in person for eight years.
“That’s bullshit,” Dad says. “I know you’ve got shitloads of cash. You’re running your own business. The last skeleton you found was worth a million. You’ve got to lend me some money.”
“What’s going on, Dad? I thought you never wanted to speak to me again.”
“Your dig. The Gorgosaurus or whatever the fuck it’s called.”
“What about it?”
“I read that a full sized Gorgosaurus skeleton went for eight million at auction last year.”
“Yeah, so what?”
“So can you sell that one in the next two days? I have a buyer lined up ready to take it off your hands.”
“What? No, it’s going to the museum. Why?”