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He clambered out and rushed into the house, dripping water all the way. In his room he tugged the camera out of his wet pocket, dried it as best he could on the bedspread and hid it under his pillow. Then he hastily changed, grabbed his towel and went back to the pool. Grinning stupidly at her he jumped in again.
Tammy was shaking her head in bemusement. “Randy, you are such a larrikin! I never know what you’re going to do next.”
“Heh, yeah,” he admitted, “me neither.”
He swam for a bit, trying to think of what to say next. But there wasn’t much to say. Now that they had the photos the next step was obviously to contact Reinhold and get on with it. And that would soon mean having to dig up the fossil. And that was the point in the plan where Randy’s busy little brain always ground to a halt. How was he going to get a tonne of rock out of the bush? How? How? How?
“You’re awfully quiet,” said Tammy right then.
“Oh. Um, just thinking... of a problem.”
“Anything I can help with?”
“Errrrrrr ... no. Just some big life-decision type things. Nothing important.”
“Big life decision things? That sounds important to me.”
“Errrr...”
“Come on. I need a drink anyway.” She slithered out of the pool like a sleek wet shiny teenage girl and wrapped herself in a towel. Dancing lightly across the hot paving stones she disappeared into the house. Randy followed. She was in the kitchen, pouring drinks. “Now, what about these life decisions, Randy?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye, passing him a drink and sitting at the table, “Might they just possibly involve me?”
“I, um, ... yeah! Sort of, yeah, definitely.”
She smiled and drew her chair closer to his. “What like?”
“Well, um, I’m thinking of doing something for our future, you know. Something that will make everything possible. Like, it’ll pay for my... for our education, and... um, and our wedding and all that too.”
“Wedding?”
“Ergh ...” He was really confused by this twist in proceedings.
“Randy, are you proposing to me?”
Randy’s mind was a total blank, wiped clean like the memory of her camera. All he could do was look at her and say, “Ahhhhhh ...”
Her eyes sparkled, she was slowly shaking her head in bafflement, her lips were slightly apart in that special way they had because of how they got pushed forwards by her crooked front teeth. And she also appeared to be wearing nothing but a towel. All in all it was a combination that Randy could not resist.
“...ahhh yes!” he finally stuttered, “Will you m-m-m-marry me?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be on your knees?” she said with a chuckle.
“Oh, sorry.” He went down on his knees on the hard tile floor, “Ouch!”
“Oh I’m sorry. I forgot about your injuries. Come here.”
He knee-shuffled his way to her for a comforting hug. They hugged a long time until he thought his knees were going to rupture, and all the while Tammy breathed heavily beside his ear, almost like she was about to cry. Then she gave him an extra firm squeeze and eased him away.
There were tears in her eyes as she said, “It’s a lovely idea, and I’m so glad you asked, and a part of me just wanted to shout ‘Yes, yes, yes!’. But ...oh, it’s all a bit sudden, and ... and we’re really still very young and, well, we have to be a certain age to get married anyway and I guess I’d like things to be a bit more settled, y’know with us finishing high school and having careers and all that.” She went angry for a moment, banging her dainty fist loudly on the table, “Arrr; moving here has really mucked us up!” Then she softened, “And it’s also lovely to see you again and I still love you very much. But...”
“But?”
“Ask me again in a few years time. I mean ... I think we have to be sensible right now,” she finished quickly, “Don’t we?”
“Oh, yes!” He nodded, he smiled, he breathed a huge sigh of relief inside. He also planned to ask her again as soon as he was a millionaire.
“So,” she said, dragging the topic right back to where he didn’t want it to go, “what’s your little scheme this time? You can get so secretive, Randy. I think maybe if you just told a few people what you’re doing a bit more often then there wouldn’t ever be so much trouble around you.”
He looked away, uncomfortable about what she was saying. Her hand came and gently dragged his face back to face hers.
“Randy,” she said, her eyes very serious, “I’ve got to say something right now that I guess I’ve been meaning to say for some time.”
“What’s that?”
She sighed, and a tear even came into her worried eyes, “I’m afraid, like, with all your schemes and things that one day you’ll end up doing something illegal, probably without even knowing it, and then you’ll be in big trouble.” Then she finished all in a rush, “And I never want that to happen. Understand?”
“Oh yes, quite.” His brain was still slowly spinning from all that talk of marriage and stuff, but this seemed like safe ground. “I was just thinking about our future, and like what I want to do when I grow up and all that.”
“Right. Good. And?”
“And ... what?”
“And what are you going to do when you grow up?” she said in exasperation.
After a long thoughtful pause he said, “I want to be happy, with you.”
It was definitely the best answer. And to make things even better; it was true.
#
TAMMY SEEMED VERY CONTENT that evening. She went around with a big secret smile on her face, kind of like the Mona Lisa but with buck teeth. Nikki came by and took Piho out on a date. Mr Turinger fussed around distractedly, studying lots of plans he had brought home from work and occasionally making calls to some other engineer about some pump thing that was apparently on one plan but not on another. Randy didn’t pay that much attention. His own plans featured a lot more than one missing item. In fact he was missing a truck, a jackhammer, a chainsaw and a bulldozer; to name but a few.
Mr Turinger turned to Tammy at one point and said, “I’ve got a big installation on tomorrow at the new plant so I’ll probably be home late. But I’m sure you guys can manage.”
“Sure,” yawned Tammy, “we’ll put on some dinner for you.” She yawned again, “Oh, too many late nights for me. I’m turning in.”
“What are you turning into?” asked Randy by way of a joke.
“Very funny,” she replied, getting up, “A pumpkin of course. G’night, sweetheart.” She kissed him briefly on the cheek and went off to bed.
After she was gone Randy said goodnight to Mr T, went to his room, closed the door, and anxiously went to where he had left the camera drying behind the curtains in the late afternoon sun. Holding his breath he switched it on, and was greatly relieved when it lit up in all the right places. That was some money saved, then.
Next he unwrapped the egg, laid in on the bed and gazed at it for a long time. He felt a bit sad about having to sell it. He still longed to give it to Tammy instead.
No! He was doing the right thing! This was his big break. This was his chance to prove to her once and for all that he was a reliable sort of guy: enterprising; together; thinking of the future; being a good provider. All that mature adult stuff.
And since she was never going to see it, he lifted the camera and took about ten photos of it, trying to get the angle right so that the little fossil face was visible – that little dino-baby that never quite made it into the dinosaur world.
He felt sad about that.
Suddenly the yellow phone rang. It was loud! He lunged for where it was hidden in his bag, stuck his head in there with it and hit the ‘Talk’ button. “Hello?”
“This is Klaus. Meet me in half an hour, same place. Goodbye.”
“Hey, wait, wait...” But it was already too late. He pulled his head from his bag. Where was Piho? He needed him. Arrrrgh, that’s right; he was out with Nikki! Unbelievable! How could he, at a time like this!
Panic stricken, Randy slipped on his shoes, rewrapped the egg, and slunk through the deserted house. Soon he was hurrying around the pool to the sleep-out. He knocked. Waited. Knocked again. “Piho?” Nothing. That’s right! The date!
“Damn him,” hissed Randy through half clenched teeth, “he’s got no right to go falling in love right now, no right at all!” He slipped inside, found the laptop under the bed, and hurried off into the night.
#
IT TOOK HIM TWENTY minutes of jogging to reach the meeting place. The big Mercedes was there, and so too was that big SUV across the road. Coincidence? Randy was too flustered to give it much thought. He knocked on the car window. It whirred smoothly down.
“Where’s your friend?” asked Reinhold suspiciously. No other greeting.
“He, ah, he’s on a date. You know, girlfriend?”
“Have you got the item?”
“Yes.”
“Get in.”
Once again they drove, and once again Klaus had his mobile phone pressed to his ear. But this time he drove towards a very different part of the town. Randy began to feel afraid. He had seen entirely too many movies where the very same thing had happened, and it always went bad for the hero. Real bad.
They arrived in a deserted industrial area and Klaus put the car into ‘park’. He left the engine running. “Okay. Let me see it.”
Nervously Randy unzipped his little bag and drew forth the egg.
Klaus took it lovingly. “Ah,” he whispered, gazing closely at it for a long while.
“Um ... the money?” said Randy after about a minute had passed in silence.
“First the pictures,” said Reinhold, “You did take the pictures, ya?”
“Ya.” Randy fumbled open the lap top and waited for it to get itself running. Struggling with the unfamiliar mouse thing he managed to click on the folder on the desktop where he knew Piho had put the photos. He clicked on an icon at random and to his relief one of the photos appeared. He passed the whole thing to Klaus who had to ease back the driver’s seat to view it. In silence, except for his laboured breathing, the museum buyer quickly clicked through a number of the photos. He seemed mildly pleased, but less excited about it than Randy had expected.
“So,” said Randy finally, in a small nervous voice, “that’ll cost you the million, you know, that we mentioned earlier? Uh, like, not now, of course. Maybe Friday?”
“Yes, yes,” murmured Klaus, unexpectedly co-operative, “I’m sure I can persuade the museum to meet your price. It’s a... uh, a very fine specimen. Yes. I’ll take it, sure. Just give me a couple of days to confirm the funding, okay?”
“Okay, sure!”
It was all like a dream.
Reinhold folded the laptop shut and passed it back to Randy, moved his seat forwards, put the car into drive, and took Randy back to the restaurant street, all the while keeping the egg wedged between his not inconsiderable thighs. Randy made no attempt to get it back. He didn’t dare.
“Ah... the money,” said Randy in a barely assertive voice when it seemed obvious that the meeting was nearly over. Klaus merely grunted, reached under his knees and brought up a plain brown paper bag. He tossed it to Randy.
“It’s all there. What you asked for.”
Randy opened the bag and reached in to make a count when Klaus snapped impatiently, “I haven’t got all night, youth! You want to deal with me further, you trust me now!”
Randy closed the bag, having at least seen that it did contain an awful lot of money. “Okay. Um, so about later...”
“I vill phone you. You still got the phone, ya?”
“Yes. Still got plenty of charge in it.”
“But not here?”
“Oops, no. Left it at home.”
Reinhold didn’t seem happy about that. “Okay, so I will phone you. Goodbye.”
Randy got the message. The show was definitely over, and how strange it had been. Glancing once again into the bag to make sure it really did contain money, he opened his door and got out of the car. As he stood up his toiletries bag dropped to the footpath with a sad empty flop. Fumbling with the paper bag and the laptop he pushed the door closed. Reinhold immediately drove away.
That was it! The egg was gone, and Randy had a sudden terrible feeling he had just done the wrong thing. He turned and started for home, the night air still pleasantly warm. So why did he feel this way? Everything had gone exactly according to plan. He’d sold the egg! Reinhold had given him the money. And the million was on its way. Wow!
Then Randy realised what he had done wrong.
He should have asked for a million for himself, and another million for Piho.
“Arrrrrgh!”