Sandy took Mr Lieber up on his offer, moving directly into the small house in town. It wasn’t super large, it was a two bedroom ranch style home, so he only had just enough room for himself. With nothing but the bike and the clothes on his back, he immediately took advantage of the dominance that Amazon had taken over delivery, giving himself a new wardrobe out in the desert.
Starting with his clothing, he ordered most of what he wanted, but he knew he’d need a job for the time between now and when he could work on his doctoral project once more. So he took the help wanted sign from the bar and got a job slinging drinks for anyone who needed one.
That’s the thing about a truly small town. There aren't that many people who won’t go for a drink or two, and when there’s only one bar everyone in town goes. The atmosphere made him happy, and he was glad to be himself for a year, on his own and without much in the way of social obligation.
Everyone loved the place. There were just so many small town worries that looked a lot better through the bottom of the bottle, or a glass as the case may be. The only people that knew more gossip than him by the end of the year were the hair dressers, small towns are just like that.
After about a month John came to pick him up. Sandy didn’t want to not go when invited, so he and John ended up spending a few good days together. They’d go out drinking, ride horses, and generally relax. It was a vacation for the stressed out college student, though he was loath to admit it.
“Hey, Sandy, you know the site’s opening up next week right?” John asked on one of the days, after several months. They were sitting in the pasture, and it was dark out. The stars were so pretty out in the desert, with little to brush them away.
“No, I can't say that I do.” Sandy said with a sigh. “They don’t want to tell me, I don’t think they trust me.”
“Figures… Well, I thought you ought to know. You’ve gotta finish your fancy degree and everything.”
“Yup. Thanks bud.” He said, sighing as he stood up. “I’ll just have to be ready.” He drunk from his flask, and grabbed the reigns of the horse he’d come in on, riding back away from the old rancher.
***
When he arrived he was instantly looked at with a level of contempt. “Hey, big guy, what the fuck are you wearing?” One of the student researchers asked, looking him up and down. Sandy wasn’t that big, only barely over six feet, but he was broad of shoulder and a little heavy set. He looked bulky and his outfit didn’t help much.
“You trying to compensate for being too city? You look like you’re dressed up for a spaghetti western by way of mad max.” Honestly, that wasn’t too far off. He was wearing a bulky brown duster he’d copied out of Fallout, along with a black cowboy hat. It was better than his chainmail project though, at least for this kind of work.
“Well, I figured I’d give your mom a treat.” Sandy said with a grin. “She loves John Wayne movies.” He said, although a part of him knew it was a little too far. The guy storming off and flipping him off certainly agreed with that.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Harsh man, harsh. Try to make friends, boy.” John said, his voice an odd velvety tremor not dissimilar to Sam Elliot. “You have to work with these fellows, and I ain't gonna be your daddy and make sure they don’t bully you all the time.”
Sandy tipped his hat, trying to be respectful. “Look, it’s better he remember me as a snippy asshole than being the ‘big guy’.”
John shook his head and left. “You're overthinking it. Just get to work, and everything will fall into place.”
Sandy nodded, packing his duster away and walking to the dig site. “Hey! So, what have you guy’s found?”
“Pff, shut up man. Like you’d understand.” One of them said, glaring at him.
“No, seriously, I want to know…” He said, walking up and picking up an obsidian arrowhead that Sandy could tell wasn’t Clovis point. “Wow that’s really-” He was cut off as one of the others slapped him in the face and grabbed the bone chip.
“Let go of that before you break it you big oaf. If you want to do something then go excavate in the left passage and send up the materials you find.” He pointed.
“Fine.” Sandy said curtly, turning to leave. As he walked away he heard a hushed conversation behind him.
“Isn’t that the cave that we got to the bottom of the materials of last time?” One asked.
“Shut up you idiot.” Another said as Sandy walked away.
While in the hole sandy continuously dug and sieved and went further into the depths to try and recover artifacts. They were right about one thing, the cave was almost empty. It took him hours to find even a few bone chips, much less a single stone flake, all of which he brought back to the academics where he was met with more ridicule and sent back down again.
When the sun was setting Sandy caught a glimpse of something shimmering. With a brush in hand he brushed off the object and found that it was a gemstone. It wasn’t large, about the size of his thumbnail, but it was perfectly spherical and red. He marked where it had been found in the small plot he had set up and returned above ground to show the object to the academics, setting it in the tray.
“There’s no way this gem could be down there. Either you're trying to hoax us or you're just an idiot with more bulk than brains.” The doctor said with ridicule. “There’s no way anything like this could have existed at the time, and the artifacts we’ve found are far and away in a different league.”
“I swear. It was down in the dirt like the other artifacts.”
“Other artifacts on my ass. We’re looking for ecofacts, more DNA. If you found some ancient feces I’d commend you but this? This is just some ridiculous shit.” He threw the gem back at Sandy. “Go the fuck home. We’re marking down your dumb idea in the log, and if that happens you’re gonna get punished if we find it to be fake.”
“I mean, you guys found arrowheads right? This has got to be similar, just some more artifacts that were hiding farther than anyone had looked.” Sandy scratched his head. “I swear, I’m not going to base my doctoral thesis on a hoax. I don’t want to be blackballed by the academic community just for some dumb clout.”
“No, the only physical objects are from this completely separate shaft than where you were digging. And they didn’t have the tools to make an object like that. So you’d better just get out of here with that plastic marble.” His expression changed. “Unless you have something to say?” It was hard to express but the scientist was smug.
Sandy shook his head and silently walked back to his bike. He wasn’t going to lie, no matter how much it would make everything better. As he walked away he heard the other students grumbling. “Damn jock trying to get into our research? Fuck that shit. Probably made this shit up just like he made up all the rest of his credentials.” He tried not to listen, but it was tearing him up inside. “A thug like him couldn’t have gone through school without some kind of incident. Maybe we can have him cut off from the site for negligence or something.”