“Break’s over. Back to work. We need to get this section done before dark.” The job foreman tossed his empty Coke can in the back of the pickup truck and put his hard hat on. The half dozen other men on the crew reluctantly stood and stepped out of the shade of a front-end loader. Even though it was only June, the temperature was already in the upper nineties, promising a brutal summer ahead.
Two men wearing orange vests moved their surveying equipment into position. One of them peered into the laser level, then straightened. “This would be a lot easier if you guys could move that pile of brush out of the way,” he called.
The foreman waved at the loader operator and pointed to a twenty-foot-tall stack of dried mesquite, scrub oak, and cactus. “Load that into the dump truck. We might as well get it out of here.”
The dump-truck driver backed up next to the pile, and the front-end loader moved into position. The rest of the crew stood back and watched as, chunk by chunk, the debris was lifted and dropped into the back of the dump truck.
One of the surveyors looked around at the one-hundred-acre tract that they were subdividing. “I can’t believe they’re putting in another neighborhood…especially way out here in Dripping Springs.”
“Yeah, the Austin area’s booming,” the foreman confirmed. “I heard the guy who owns that vineyard over there offered big bucks for a piece of this property, but the owner knows he can make more by building luxury homes on small acreage.”
The two men studied the vineyards that stretched along the boundaries of the land they were clearing. Row after row of well-groomed vines, loaded with clusters of green grapes, were planted north to south to soak up as much sun as possible. A split-rail fence divided the two vineyards, which otherwise looked identical. In the distance, several large stone buildings were visible on the property directly in front of them.
“Me, I’d rather live on a place like that. Can you imagine looking out at that every day?” the surveyor asked.
“Not to mention all the wine you can drink,” the foreman added with an envious chuckle.
The operator scooped up another bucketful and had started to lift it when the supervisor glanced over his shoulder. He turned and ran to the front of the machine.
“Stop, stop! What the fuck is that?”
That got everyone’s attention, and they gathered around the bucket, peering inside. There, nestled among the broken branches and twisted tree trunks, was what appeared to be a human skull. It was dark brown, stained from being buried under a layer of dirt and rotting plants for years. The jawbone had separated and slid off to the side in a macabre grimace.
“Fuck!” The foreman shook his head. “If this is some sort of ancient burial ground, we’re screwed. The boss is going to shit bricks.”
“I heard of a project down at Marble Falls that got completely shut down,” the surveyor commented. “What was supposed to be a new Walmart is now a historical dig site swarming with archaeologists and historians.”
“Damn shame. I like Walmart,” one of the laborers commented.
“Yeah, well, I like my job, and finding a body is a fucking ballbuster,” the foreman grumbled.
“I could dump this and cover it back up,” the loader operator suggested. “Someone will find it later, but by then we’d be through here. Besides, it’s probably an illegal that didn’t make it to the promised land, which will make him just another Juan Doe in the morgue.”
The foreman seriously considered the option. It would definitely buy them time. Dozens of Mexicans who managed to make their way across the border died before reaching family or friends. Their bones littered the Texas countryside all the way to El Paso, so this could easily be an unfortunate traveler. Besides, this looked old. He hadn’t seen any other skulls in his life to compare it to, but he knew this one wasn’t fresh. What harm would it do to delay discovery for a few more months?
But in the end he was an honorable man. This was a human, and whoever the poor sap was, he or she didn’t deserve to spend another day out in this field.
“Hey, look at this,” the surveyor said as he bent over and picked up a small object. He held it out on his open palm. “I think this rules out an ancient burial ground or an illegal.”
Even after countless years in the ground, the huge diamond in an elaborate platinum setting captured and refracted the sun’s rays into a thousand rainbows.
The foreman stared at the ring and felt a little less sympathetic. Whoever could afford an expensive rock like that wasn’t some transient who wandered out in the brush and died. With an unenthusiastic sigh, he pulled out his cellphone. “I’m going to call the local authorities, but I know this is too big for them. I’m sure they’ll turn it over to the Texas Rangers. Shut it down, boys.”
The loader operator shut off the engine and climbed out of the cab, and the dump-truck driver did the same. All the men migrated back to the shade of the huge machinery and dropped to the ground. They waited until the foreman ended the call.
“I’ll stay here, but you guys might as well leave,” he told them. “Check with the office tomorrow for your job assignments. This site is closed indefinitely.”
The dump-truck driver tossed his hard hat into the cab and slammed the door. “I’m heading to the Broken Spoke for a beer.” Several men murmured their agreement, and he led the mass exodus toward the crew pickup truck. The foreman pulled a bottle of water out of an ice chest and settled down for a long wait.
Inside the bucket, the skull stared with empty sockets at the blue sky above. He couldn’t speak, but he had a story to tell.