Hill Of Maud

Hill of Maud
By John Swanson

Doctor Samantha Glenn tried to shake her sleepiness away as she guided
the Land Rover along the uneven terrain. Tiredness had a way of
creeping into the bones in these parts, joining the already present
cold.
A bitter wind, blowing in off the Moray Firth whipped across the
headlands bound for the Grampians. The early morning sky cast a feeble
light on the dirt track road ahead.
She yawned, stretched and rubbed her eyes.
It seemed as if she had been here for years. It was, in reality, just
over ten months. Ten months since the discovery and ten months of
exhaustive and painstaking yet rewarding work.
All feathers in her cap. A trained anthropologist and palaeontologist,
she had left University after her final degree and set off on a sort of
working holiday by way of celebration. Upon her return to the States
she planned to join a series of digs in North America.
Samantha was a tall and lanky blonde in her early thirties. Those that
knew her well said she was a girl that had her head screwed on right.
It was true that she had a balanced and analytical mind. She had even
invested two years of her life in the city pursuing, as her mother put
it, "A good job with good prospects". It had not taken long for her to
realise that she hated the environment of the office world almost as
much as she hated the petty politics. Much to her mother's chagrin
Samantha ditched her city life and went back to school to study
archaeology. It was here that the inquisitive part of her mind got her
into a good deal of trouble with the dyed in the wool professors,
however, her sheer academic brilliance shined through and she graduated
with honours. Even her mother was pleased, after all, her daughter was
now the proud possessor of an "ology". She had given no thought to
romance during her college years, preferring to devote her time and
effort to her studies and anyway any prospective suitors were just that
little bit younger than her. In any event, after her experiences
evading the wolves in the city, she was not altogether sure she ever
wanted anything to do with men again.
Many in her field toiled away their working lives in the vain hope that
they would discover something of singular importance, a discovery that
would guarantee them the immortality afforded by awards, text books and
history. More often than not, however, the "event" never happened,
there was no miraculous find and they were destined to slave away in
rewardless anonymity, piling more and more offerings at the feet of the
great god Data.
Samantha hit pay dirt in the second month of her sabbatical.
The itinerary she had planned for herself included a tour through the
Highlands with the intention of having a gentle relaxing holiday
soaking up the local atmosphere and studying one of her favourite
subjects, Celtic ruins. The Celt civilisation had fascinated her almost
since childhood. It was while travelling along the Moray Coast before
moving on to her next set of digs in the area that she had found
it.
It had been a work free day, walking around the Buckie region just
east of Spey Bay, when she became fascinated with one of the local
landmarks. A blunt mound that loomed above the coastal headland,
denuded of all but grass, it stood a serene vigil on the immediate
shores and dominated the horizon for miles. Intrigued, Samantha climbed
to the summit, partly for the view and partly for reasons she could not
explain. It was almost as if the hill was calling to her. Hill of Maud,
as it was known locally, was completely exposed to the wind at its peak
and after a short while Samantha was forced to seek the shelter of the
leeward slope. It was here, sheltered from the wind by the hill itself,
that she noticed the hollow in the ground. There was an unusual feel to
the depression, a certain degree of angularity despite the general
overall smoothness of its oblong outline. She became intrigued and a
short while later, after a few repeat visits and some surreptitious
poking around, she found the first evidence of the house.
She booked into a bed and breakfast in nearby Cullen, wrote some
letters, made some phone calls and waited. Permission was finally
granted and the all important sponsor money received. Some of her old
friends and faculty members from University arrived and the dig was
on.
The house turned out to be one of the best preserved of its kind ever
found; a large Viking Longhouse with the remains of two similar smaller
structures, various outbuildings and an odd shaped stone wall set apart
from the rest. Countless other small artefacts were later unearthed in
a similar state of preservation and Samantha's name soon became a
regular feature in the various scientific journals and papers as well
as being freely quoted in the higher echelons of the academic world.
Hill of Maud became something of a esoteric attraction despite the
protestations of the locals. Even the most obstinate of them soon
adapted their perspective on the situation when they discovered that
the visitors who came to see the "auld hoose" had money to part with
and a small tourist industry soon blossomed and flourished.
Samantha considered herself fortunate indeed to have made such a
noteworthy discovery at such an early stage of her career and immersed
herself investigating whatever unexpected little wonders the site had
hidden away beneath the surface.
What she hadn't expected were the dinosaur fossils.
The house itself was a magnificent example of the classic Longhouse
design, although it was considerably longer than any example found to
date by about six metres. Essentially one large room, one end of the
house was subdivided into two smaller rooms. A fair proportion of the
structures walls had withstood the test of time and in places reached
almost waist height. The corners of one of the two smaller rooms had
proved strong enough to still boast sections of the stone shelf that
had run around the insides of the walls. Primarily used for sitting and
sleeping, the shelves also provided a convenient storage area and it
was beneath these remnants that they had found the minutiae of day to
day living. Pots, jugs, spoons and other utensils were freed from the
ground on a daily basis; some of traditional design and others that
were less familiar. There was a huge fire pit in the middle of the main
room and it was while clearing out this pit that they had found the
first fossil. Careful excavation revealed a complete skeleton and some
thorough research led them to the belief that it was one of the
Ornithisocous family, although a previously undiscovered variant.
Accurate identification had been hindered at first because there had
been too many bones and it had taken even more delicate digging to
establish that there were two fossils.
The discovery of just the one dinosaur fossil in this part of the world
was big enough news in itself, but two together and in the fire pit of
a Longhouse at that was incredible. It was a combination that simply
should and could not exist, yet here it was right in front of her eyes.
The fossilised remains of a species that had died out over sixty
million years ago buried in a dwelling that had become fashionable in
only the last fifteen hundred years.
Samantha was forced to draw a veil of secrecy over the most recent
discovery and contact only those she could trust. The casual site
visits by locals and passing tourists which had become routine were
halted. A story was spun about concern for the sites preservation now
that the dig had entered a delicate stage and it seemed to work. The
team seized the advantage of this quiet spell to run a few Potassium
Argon dating tests and then run them again because they were
incredulous of the first set of results. The second set only served to
confirm the first, however, and they were forced to come to the
remarkable conclusion that the house had been here for sixty two
million years. Give or take.
It had taken some time to adjust to this revelation and Samantha, who
had recently moved into a rented house in the fishing village at the
foot of Maud, took to taking long walks along the coast or standing
where the end of her street met the sea. Often the weather, landscape
and Samantha were as broody as each other. Standing there watching the
waters of the firth crashing upon the rocks she would sometimes find
the answers to her troubles. But not his time. This was a secret with
which the ageless waters of time would not part.
She was sure of two things.
The data was incontrovertible. Argon dating was reliable, even if the
results they produced demanded a suspension of reason.
She also knew they would not be able to keep this a secret for any
length of time and when word got out the site would be inundated.
Initially by members of her own profession, all eager to postulate and
share or assert their own particular views and theories and she would
be pushed out, no longer in control of her own discovery. Later, she
supposed, the authorities would arrive, discreetly cover up and subtly
make the whole situation disappear; at the same time making sure the
real answer, even if established, would never be known. In many ways
that would be worse than merely losing control.
Much worse.
The Land Rover bounced to a halt at the end of the track and Samantha
got out. The road did not stretch all the way up Maud and the last
segment of the journey had to be made on foot. She slammed the door
shut and pulled her wax jacket tightly about her. The wind whipped
through the openings in the jacket and made her teeth chatter. She then
set off to walk the remaining distance to the dig.
Graham Fletcher had been left on the site overnight. It was standard
practice to leave someone there now that the site was so well known. No
one seriously expected trouble, but there was always someone who would
be curious enough to try and have a look and ignorance could cause
irrevocable damage. And of course, their secret would be out.
Graham was in his late twenties and the personification of Nerd. He
had spent most of his time at University when not at lectures,
ensconced in his room, the library or on one of the many digs organised
by the faculty. He lived to dig.
She had got his call from the site cell phone just past five in the
morning. He sounded excited and had just said to come out as soon as
possible, which was Grahams way of saying immediately. Samantha had
dragged herself out of bed, dressed and emerged into the wet and windy
pre-dawn light. She locked the front door and moved to the drivers side
of the Land Rover. Lying on the road was a dead seagull. She inhaled
sharply with surprise then recovered enough to pick up the bird and
take the carcass round the back of the house to the rubbish bin.
That's the third one this week, she thought as the bird joined the
bodies of its two predecessors at the bottom of the bin.
Then she drove out of the village and along the single track road to
Hill of Maud.
The wind was gusting across the peak. The driving horizontal rain was
mixed with hail now and the small icy pellets stung her face leaving
tiny red welts. She pulled her jacket tighter and kept as much hill
between herself and the wind as possible. Rain clung to the lenses of
her glasses and a brief regret about not putting in her contact lenses
was banished from her mind by the realisation that the tiny balls of
ice now bouncing off her spectacles would otherwise have been besieging
her unprotected eyes.
She heard Graham before she saw him. Despite the wind bearing its
brunt away towards the site, Samantha could just about make out the
strains of Guns 'N' Roses blaring from Graham's Ghetto-Blaster.
The huge marquee came into view as she rounded the hill. The tent had
been erected soon
after the topsoil had been removed to protect both dig and digger alike
from the elements. The wind was strong enough to make re-pegging a
regular chore. She noticed as she approached that the far corner had
worked loose yet again and was flapping furiously in the wind.
Samantha recognised the song now, Paradise City, the batteries were
running down and the music pitched and warbled adding an incongruous
edge to the morning air. She smiled at the irony in the lyrics. Graham
would probably be more impressed with Paradise City if the girls were
green and the grass was pretty.
She untied the tent flap and let herself in, experiencing immediate
relief from the lashing rain and sweeping wind. She made the flap fast
again.
The music was much louder.
'Morning,' she shouted at Graham.
Graham, who had been bent intently over the fire pit with his back to
her, span around in surprise.
'So, what's all the excitement about?' she asked.
'What?' he shouted.
'I said, what's all the excitement about?'
'What?' he shouted, louder.
'Can't you turn that off?' asked Samantha, pointing at the source of
the dying music.
'What?' Graham asked again. 'Oh, yeah, sorry. Wait a sec.'
He shuffled over to the player on his knees and switched it off. The
howl of the wind returned.
'There, that's better.' he said, shuttling back. 'I kinda forget it's
on when I'm working, but I notice if its not there. It helps me
concentrate.'
Samantha rubbed some sleep out her eyes and looked at him. What she
saw was a different Graham to the one she was used to. Before her knelt
a wide eyed, tousled haired wreck. He was wearing jeans and a faded
Runrig T-shirt, both were covered in dried earth and she got the
distinct impression they had not been changed in some time. It dawned
on her that she had not seen Graham for a while and had not been to the
site herself for several days, caught up instead with the implications
of the recent find. He looked like he had not slept for most of the
intervening time.
'Did any one follow you?' he asked.
'Did what?' she asked, thrown by the abnormality of the
question.
'Did any one follow you?' he repeated.
'Follow me? Graham its just gone five thirty in the morning. The only
thing awake enough to follow me was the rain and my shadow if the sun
had been bothered to get up yet.'
He looked at her for a few moments, digesting her answer.
'Yes. Yes, of course,' he said. 'I'm afraid I've not slept much.
Everyone buggered off to do loads of talking, so I thought I'd just
carry on up here. Then I found it and I've been pretty much in my own
little world since. Just digging and brushing.'
He got slowly to his feet, blood pumping its painful course back into
his legs.
Samantha reached out to steady him.
'Are you alright?' she asked.
'Yeah. I'm Okay, just tired. Tired and hungry,' he replied.
'So, what did you find?'
'Do what?'
'You said you found an "it". What is the "it"?'
'Well, as I said, I just kept brushing stuff away and there it
was.'
'There what was?' she asked.
Graham smiled and began to turn around.
'What is it Graham,' she asked with a degree of irritation. 'Another
fossil? Graham, listen to me.'
'Well, kind of&;#8230;' he trailed off. He would be sleeping like a
log before long.
'Well, kind of what?'
Graham had completed his turn and was now facing the fire pit in the
middle of the Longhouse floor.
'It's really easier if you just take a look,' he said and pointed
down.
She followed the pointing finger with her eyes. Graham had indeed been
busy these past few days. There in the pit were the dinosaur fossils as
they had always been, joined head to tail over all these years. Now
more of the material between them had been removed, revealing the top
portion of another fossil. This new fossil was tucked between the other
two as if cradled between them.
Samantha stared in disbelief. The cold sharp reality of that she was
seeing chilled her to the marrow. She knew now that she could never
contain the secret. In her minds eye she saw control of the dig
slipping from her grasp while at the same time she struggled to come to
terms with the image her eyes saw through the rain drop prisms on her
glasses. The matter of the fossils and the house faded into
insignificance in the shadow of what Graham had discovered.
This fossil was different than the other two.
This fossil was human.