SAHARA THE GEOLOGIST

This is a story line that explored the origin of the big bone. We were never going to follow it any further than this in this volume. We thought that readers may find that a bit too frustrating so we decided to remove it completely and wait until book two.

PART ONE

Sahara Chantel didn’t want to be a geologist. She didn’t want to be one from the age of nine. That was when Kathy Riley made so much fun of her Easter bonnet that Sahara gathered up a huge pile of rocks to throw at her after school. When her mother caught her waiting to ambush Kathy Riley with the rocks, all Sahara could think of to explain them was to say that it was her rock collection, and that she wanted to become a geologist when she grew up.
Her lie snowballed from there. Every aunt, every uncle, every distant cousin brought her rocks that they’d found because they “thought she might be interested.” To keep up the pretence, Sahara had to do extensive research to be able to tell them what kind of rocks they were. So by the time she left school she had such a good knowledge of rocks she thought she might as well actually become a geologist. They could, after all, earn a lot of money. But she still didn’t like rocks. In fact, they made her unhappy.
Today what made her particularly unhappy was being dragged down to some idiot’s farm to look at yet another boring rock, because he “thought she might be interested.”

Sahara stood and watched impatiently as Gavin Buckley pulled a tarpaulin away from the large, stark, white rock that poked up through the earth. He spent what seemed an age attaching a chain to it and making sure it was tight and secure.

‘Okay! Start her up!’ Gav bellowed to his wife.

Judy Buckley was a very small woman, and she looked even smaller sitting at the wheel of the huge tractor. Gav scurried over with the other end of the chain and hooked it up to the tractor.
Judy stamped down her gumboot and the tractor surged forward. The giant rock held tight to the earth like a child to its mother, then reluctantly eased an inch further from the ground. The tractor’s wheels spun in the dirt and the chain threatened to break, but it was obvious the rock would budge no more.

‘Okay! Knock it off!’ Gav ordered. ‘We’ll just have to dig it out by hand.’

 

Judy immediately cut the engine, then just sat there without once looking back.

‘What’s it look like to you?’ Gav asked.

‘Well, it kind of looks like part of a big bone, doesn’t it,’ Sahara replied.

‘Do you think it’s a dinosaur bone?’

‘No. It’s probably just a rock. It just looks like a bone.’

‘Pretty strange sort of rock though, don’t you think? Funny kind of feel to it,’ Gav insisted.

‘I suppose,’ Sahara said, still not particularly interested as she ran her hand along a gash in the end. ‘What happened here?’

‘I knocked a bit off it a few months ago and made it into a gnome,’ Gav said matter-of-factly, like it’s the first thing you do when you make a new geological discovery. ‘Do you think it’s worth a bit of money?’

‘Depends on how good a gnome it is. Did it have a little fishing pole?’ Sahara asked.

‘I mean the rock,’ Gav said, not getting the joke.

‘It’s like a lot of things, isn’t it? Depends on how rare it is,’ Sahara explained in a way she thought someone like Gav would understand. ‘Look at gold. There’s not much of that about so it’s worth a lot of money, but on the other hand, with something like dirt, there’s a fair bit of that, so it’s not worth quite so much.’

‘Well, there wouldn’t be too many of these big bone-like rocks, would there?’ Gav said, starting to get excited.

‘No. I guess not,’ Sahara replied, a bit confused by Gav’s sudden enthusiasm.

‘Darl!’ Gav called out to Judy. ‘Take Miss Chantel back to her car!’

Judy immediately swung the tractor around and before Sahara quite realised it, she had been ushered hurriedly onto the back.

‘All right, Mr Buckley,’ Sahara said. ‘If you need any further assistance, contact my office.’

‘Thanks, luv. I’ll do that,’ Gav said, and shouted over the roaring tractor to Judy. ‘And come right back Jude! We’ve got digging to do.’ He turned and looked at his big bone-shaped rock. His mind was already going at a hundred miles an hour.

 

PART TWO

Sahara Chantel sat at her desk and surveyed the department-issued fixtures and fittings in her office. On the walls were photos of rock formations as well as large, framed maps pointing out exactly where in the world these formations could be found. To one side a bookcase was piled with rock samples. Interestingly the bookcase itself was made of stone. Roland from Acquisition couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw furniture made from genuine stone in an office supplies catalogue. He spent the entire Yearly Amenities Budget in one hit. Despite having to forgo the new coffee machine and the upgrades on all their software, everyone in the department was delighted with their bluestone coffee tables, dolomitic limestone chairs and serpentine flint desks. Everyone except Sahara.

Sahara’s mind wandered as she listened to Bob excitedly relate his weekend rock-fossicking trip. She speculated, as she so often did, as to what exactly would be the most rock-free profession? Cardiovascular surgeon? You wouldn’t have to deal with many rocks doing that. Maybe one or two. Carnival sideshow operator? There wouldn’t be any rocks involved with that at all, would there? She looked up and Bob was still going. She leant forward to grab her really bad cup of instant coffee and felt a familiar twinge of pain down her back. This was from sitting too far out from her desk, but she couldn’t move her chair closer, because it took three people to lift it.

‘And you know what I found?’ Bob enthused.

‘What did you find? Was it a rock, Bob? Did you find a rock?’ Sahara asked with less than genuine interest.

‘A piece of phenocryst. A really nice bit. In a sort of oval shape.’

‘Well, that’s just great, Bob.’

‘Balboa sniffed it out.’

‘Balboa?’

‘My dog. I named him after the movie.’

Sahara stared blankly.

‘Rocky. Rocky Balboa. Rock – e. Get it?’ Bob grinned.

‘Yes, I get it. That’s very clever, Bob, but dogs can’t smell rocks.’

‘Mine can, you’d swear. Rocky can sniff out porphyry from a kilometre away.’

‘Well, you’re very lucky to have a dog like that, Bob.’ Sahara had no desire to argue the point. Then a thought struck her and, amazingly, it was about rocks. She produced a sample of the mysterious “bone” she’d pocketed at Gavin Buckley’s farm.

‘What do you make of this, Bob?’

‘Gee. I don’t know,’ Bob said as he examined the sample. ‘You’re an odd little fellow, aren’t you?’ he said, talking to the rock itself. ‘Where do you come from?’

Sahara found Bob’s habit of speaking to rocks so disturbing she almost grabbed it away from him, but she was now actually a little curious about the stone.

‘Well, I’m not sure, exactly,’ Bob said then suddenly sparked up. ‘Let’s show it to Bob!’ he yelped with excitement.

As they went down the hall, Bob was like a giggly schoolgirl. He loved going to see Bob the Department Head. Bob’s office was like a playground for geologists. It was crammed with piles of every type of rock sample you’d ever hope to find, and big piles too. Some reached right up to the ceiling. Bob was like a big slab of rock himself, like he’d been sliced right off a cliff face. When he sat on his solid stone chair, he didn’t need a cushion like everyone else. It was made of the densest Sierra Nevada White Granite and he could sit on it all day without even having to shift his weight once. His eyes were like black opals. He had long shaggy hair that flowed off his head like a landslide and he spoke with a coarse, gravely voice. And there was nothing he didn’t know about rocks.

‘I’m stumped,’ Bob said gruffly. ‘Where did you get it?’

 

The smaller Bob was amazed. Bob was stumped!

‘I found it,’ Sahara replied casually, looking at the floor.

‘Leave it with me. I’ll look into it.’

Little Bob was beside himself. Bob was going to look into it!

‘That’s okay,’ Sahara said as she took the rock back. ‘I can check it out.’

Both Bobs were a bit surprised by her attitude.

‘You sure?’ The bigger Bob asked.

‘Quite sure,’ Sahara replied.

 

PART THREE

‘Very interesting piece of material you sent us, Ms Chantel,’ the scientist said as he led Sahara down the corridor towards his lab. ‘I like its name too – “a piece of Gav’s Big Bone”. We don’t get many rock samples to analyse.’

‘You don’t?’ Sahara asked and immediately looked about, wondering if it was a nice, rock-free sort of place to work. She liked the décor.

‘It’s unlike anything I’ve seen.’

‘Why? What’s it made of?’

‘Well, it’s not so much what it is that’s interesting. It seems to be a simple calcified deposit, not unlike our own bones. It’s more what it does,’ the scientist said as they entered his lab. The bone sample shone brightly, encircled by a bank of expensive looking instruments.

‘What does it do?’ Sahara asked.

The scientist picked up a palm-sized meter and held it a few centimetres from the sample. The digital readout reached .000015.

‘You see? Very little. But if I hold it here…’ he walked the meter to the far end of the lab and the display came up at .000016.

‘.000016? It’s still not much,’ Sahara said.

‘Well, no - but it is an increase. I’ve never seen anything like that before. This piece of bone seems to be emitting an energy that multiplies in magnitude the further it travels from the source. It’s very significant, Ms Chantel. It defies any science that I know of.’

‘It’s not dangerous is it?’ Sahara asked with sudden concern.

‘Oh no,’ he assured her. ‘The power is completely insignificant at this close quarter. Even if I pointed the bone sample at the North Pole it would hardly be enough to knock a falling snowflake off its course. It would have to be thousands of light years away to register any huge effect.’

‘Okay. So don’t panic then?’ Sahara said, and wondered how she’d look in a white lab coat.

‘Oh, no,’ the scientist replied. ‘No one on Earth is in any danger.’