Dinosaur Hideout (11 page)

“I suppose I’m not that great at keeping secrets, either,” Jed admitted.

“You’re telling me,” said Daniel, shaking his head and recalling times when Jed had let it slip about some of their plans. “We’d have made it to town on our bikes to see that Arnold Schwarzenegger movie that time, if you hadn’t told your sisters what we were up to.”

“Heh, that was three years ago,” Jed said, laughing. “Besides our parents would have grounded us for a week if we’d actually made it.”

“The weekend was bad enough!” Daniel chided him.

“I’ve learned my lesson.”

“Okay, then, so make sure you keep this place quiet!” Daniel insisted.

“Not a problem,” Jed gave Daniel a thumbs-up sign.

Daniel pulled over the rolled-up sleeping bag and sat on it beside Jed. He might as well get right to discussing his ideas.

“Do you remember our class trip to the T-rex Discovery Centre at Eastend?” Daniel figured this was the best way to start. Several classes had travelled on a bus to the centre, which was located outside the town and built into the side of a hill. The place was huge, with all kinds of paleontological activities to do and plenty to see in the viewing gallery. They’d even gone to an active dig site.

“Sure! That was way cool,” said Jed. “That fossil-finding stuff was really neat.”

“Yeah!” Daniel agreed. “Well, I think we could do something like that here.”

“Get real,” said Jed, staring at his friend in surprise. “We don’t have anything special like the T-rex to show off.”

“But what if we did? Wouldn’t that be great?”

“Sure, but first we have to find something fantastic, then we have to convince someone to build a place.” Jed eyed Daniel curiously. “Do you know something I don’t know?”

Daniel shook his head, but he kept his eyes lowered. Keeping big secrets from his friend was going to be harder than he thought. In comparison, not telling him about the location of the hideout was easy, because there really wasn’t much to tell. But with Pederson’s discovery there was so much he wanted to discuss with Jed. It could change their whole lives.

“You’re not basing this on finding the taculite, are you?” Jed asked in a mocking tone.

“No,” Daniel answered. “But I do think it shows there could be possibilities.”

Jed’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “You’re keeping something from me, aren’t you?”

“Not really,” Daniel denied, squirming. “If there was something I could tell you, I would,” he said truthfully.

Jed shrugged. “Okay, but unless you unearthed something really major, they’d never build a huge place like that here. Eastend isn’t that far away.”

Daniel’s body tingled all over. Pederson
had
unearthed something major! “So, maybe they’d have something smaller here, like a research outstation or a town museum. But we could charge people to come,” he waved his arms about, excited.

Jed grinned. “Yeah, and people could go on hiking trails, and excavation sites, too. That would be fun!”

“And field camping trips, just like at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, or the T-rex Discovery Centre,” Daniel added, envisioning busloads of people arriving in their driveway. “My mom could serve coffee and donuts, or maybe sandwiches. Then she wouldn’t have to drive into town to work all the time.”

“Speaking of food,” Jed interrupted. “I’m hungry. I’d better get home soon for dinner.”

“Can’t you stay?”

“No, I promised,” Jed shook his head. “My aunt and uncle are coming. And my cousins.”

“Not the aunt and uncle from Calgary? Where you might have to move?”

Jed nodded sadly.

Daniel sat glumly for a moment, and then he grinned at his friend, who was always hungry. “Okay. Race you back.”

They pushed each other playfully out of the way, jostling to be the first out of the hideout. Dactyl squeezed between them, and won the struggle. Once outside, Daniel carefully covered the opening and adjusted his string with the bones and tins on it. “This is my intruder alarm,” he explained. Then they headed for home.

At the barn, Daniel’s Dad offered Jed a ride home.

“It’ll save your dad coming over.” Dad held a tool in his hand. “Besides I need to return this pipe cutter to him anyway.”

Jed nodded, and Dad went to start the truck.

Mom, stirring a steaming pot of his favourite homemade chicken noodle soup, greeted Daniel in the kitchen. He washed his hands quickly at the kitchen sink, and grabbed a couple of ham and cheese sandwiches from the plateful on the counter. He chomped into one and slid into his usual seat at the table beside Cheryl. He rubbed his fingers gently over her face, making her laugh and grab at his hands. Mom placed a bowl of soup in front of him.

“Slow down,” she tapped him gently on the top of his head. “There’s plenty of food.”

He smiled at her and kept chewing. “I’m starving,” he said, remembering that he’d hardly eaten any breakfast.

Being with Jed had almost made him forget about the horror of the night before and the decisions his family faced. He tried not to think of it now. Soon enough his dad would return from driving Jed home, and the tension in the house would be back. He took a small sip of the tasty soup. She’d made it with flat noodles and big chunks of chicken and carrots, just the way he liked it.

“Mom?” he said, suddenly remembering Pederson. “I was wondering about angina.”

“Angina?? What about it?” she asked, surprised.

“What causes it?” Daniel wanted to be sure Pederson was going to be okay.

“Usually, it’s triggered by too much physical activity that increases the heart’s demand for oxygen. So if they don’t get enough oxygen they suffer an attack,” she answered.

“Can someone have it for years and still be all right if they have an attack?” Daniel asked.

“Sure, if they have stable angina, and as long as they take their pills or puffer and have regular checkups,” she clarified. “Why?”

He thought quickly. “Ah, I’m doing a health project for school on the human heart and I just wondered.”

Mom nodded.

“So,” he repeated, “if they had an attack, took their medicine and rested, they’d be fine then?”

“Yes, as long as they were healthy otherwise,” she confirmed, placing the plate of sandwiches on the table in front of him.

“They’d take nitroglycerine, right?” he asked.

“Yes.” Mom seemed pleased that he knew the right term. “But, if they have unstable angina, which means they have increased and unpredictable attacks, then they probably need to be hospitalized when an attack hits.”

Daniel nodded, digesting the information as he slurped his soup and finished his sandwich. Pederson called his condition angina and said he had just done too much work. Surely scraping and digging in the tunnel with not much fresh air had triggered his attack. But maybe he’d better check on him as soon as he could, just to be sure.

Just then Dad came in and joined them at the table.

“So how was your ride?” he asked quietly, reaching for a sandwich.

“Good,” Daniel answered. “Thanks for taking Jed home.”

Dad said, “I had to return the cutter to Mr. Lindstrom anyway and it seemed like a good time.”

There didn’t seem to be much else to say, so with Cheryl’s constant babbling and his parents’ strained silence, Daniel excused himself and went to his room to think things through.

Absentmindedly, he paged through his dinosaur books, but now that he’d told Jed about his ideas, there wasn’t much more he could do, except try to convince Pederson to tell people. Why was the old man still being so secretive? Anyone could see that he’d made a major discovery. Daniel would have to find out more next time he was there.

In the meantime, he moved over to his desk and picked up his math text. He had a pile of homework to do. At least it would take his mind off losing the farm. As he worked, he heard Mom put Cheryl down for her nap and go to her own room to sleep, so she’d be rested for work later. Sometimes she looked so tired these days.

Between doing homework and staring out the window, he managed to pass most of the afternoon. He’d finished his math and had just started on his essay about the rain forests in South America, when he heard Cheryl gurgling to herself. He tiptoed into her soft yellow bedroom and over to her crib.

A mobile of dancing clowns hung over her, and she was kicking at the bottom crib pad to make them move. She looked so cute, and determined. As he lifted her out, she snuggled into his neck and chewed on his hair. He whispered to her and picked up her favourite toy, his old blue teddy bear, and took her downstairs. They sat in the big armchair in the living room. When she squirmed too much, he sat her on the blanket on the floor and passed her some colourful rings and other noisy toys to play with. He liked watching her.

It wasn’t too long before his Mom appeared. Daniel swept Cheryl up and handed her into Mom’s outstretched arms. Cheryl obviously needed her diaper changed, but he’d leave that to the expert.

“I’m going out to do chores,” he said, before Mom could even suggest it.

She smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “Thanks, Daniel!”

He joined Dad, who was already in the barn milking Lily. They did their chores in silence, except for the clanging and scraping of buckets and rustling of the cattle in their stalls as he fed and watered them. Dad’s face was strained, with deep furrowed lines across his forehead. Daniel didn’t want to provoke him in any way.

Later at the supper table, and afterwards when the family watched
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
together on television, it seemed to Daniel that everyone was avoiding any mention of their problems. Only after he’d gone to bed did he hear the voices of his parents deep in discussion.

There was no way he was going to listen to their conversation tonight. He’d only hear more bad news. His thoughts wouldn’t stop churning around in his head as it was. What would it be like if they had to move away? When would they have to go? They just couldn’t! How could he convince Pederson to speak up before it was too late? But even if he did announce his discoveries, would it be soon enough to do anything about their farm? Would his parents or the bank manager understand the possibilities for their own place?

He slept fitfully all night, working himself into a fevered state. He woke up sweating at four a.m. and threw the quilt off. Exhaustion took over again and he eventually fell back asleep, but only when he turned his thoughts to when he was little and doing fun things with his grandparents. On the farm, of course.

Chapter Eight

O
n Monday morning, winter daylight came,
frosty and bright, as Daniel hurried up the lane to wait for the school bus on the access road. A brisk wind made his cheeks sting. He juggled his armload of books with his skates and eased the lunch box from banging against his left leg. He already knew this was not going to be a good day.

He was trying to imagine not living on the farm anymore, and failing miserably. He shook his head. He couldn’t envision not being able to roam in the nearby hills, couldn’t imagine not being able to visit his secret hideout. This place was so much a part of him and who he was, how could he ever leave it behind? How could he leave Gypsy? And just before Christmas, too. With impatience, he brushed a wave of hair out of his eyes. If only none of this were happening.

Everything was changing, everything that meant so much to him. Would Dad really sell the land? That would destroy everything Daniel had been dreaming about. He took a deep breath to calm himself. Maybe he was worrying for nothing. Maybe they really wouldn’t do it. Dad had said it was just a possibility, if things didn’t improve financially.

But Daniel knew his dad had been having meetings at the bank for the last several months. Each time he returned home, he looked glummer and glummer. But Daniel had figured that it wasn’t critical and somehow they would make everything come out all right. They always had before. A queasy feeling told him that this time was different. His parents were definitely serious about selling the farm.

He took another deep breath to quell his stomach’s lurching. Slowly exhaling, he surveyed the yard as he waited for the bus. His eyes caught the trees along the edge of the gravel road on the opposite side of the house. Or what remained of the trees. He’d almost forgotten about the wreckage, even though he’d been mighty upset when he’d come home from school and found the mess. It had happened late in the fall.