Page 12 of Colorado Christmas Carol
“Thanks. I won’t be in town much longer, but I’m happy to help while I’m here. See you later.”
Dean led the way past the other students, who stopped to ask him several questions about the new dig site and the skeletal remains inside.
They had barely thirty minutes to get back to the hotel, but Dean drove at a steady pace and without rushing.
“You’re always so calm,” Essa said admiringly. “I just go nuts when I’m late, or when I’m in a bad situation. You make everything seem so easy and simple.”
He beamed. “Thanks. I really mean that,” he added.
“Oh, I enjoyed today. Thank you so much!”
“Yes, thanks a million,” Mellie enthused. “I loved every minute of it! I think I might want to study anthropology when I’m older!”
“I’m glad you both had fun. So did I,” Dean said, and seemed really surprised by the thought.
Essa wondered if he’d had much fun in his life. He seemed tormented by his own brain. But she didn’t mention it. People often responded badly when she blurted out very private things she’d discerned by her own sensitivity.
* * *
Dean left them in the lobby and went up to his room. Duke was waiting for Mellie.
“Ready for supper?” he asked the child.
“Oh, very! We had such a good time. Dean knows a lot about skeletons! He was teaching one of the students at the dig site!”
“About what?”
“Gender and race in skeletal remains,” Essa piped up. “He seemed very knowledgeable.”
“How did he discern those?”
“Gender by size of pelvis, race by dentition,” she said.
Duke pursed his lips. “And what if the remains were a mixture of two cultures, or even three?”
She just stared at him.
“One of my friends is a forensic anthropologist,” he explained. “He said that it complicates things if you have mixed-heritage people, and there are a lot of them these days.”
“Well, I guess it would be pretty hard. But these are at least two thousand years old,” she commented.
“Different set of circumstances,” he conceded.
“It was still fun!” Mellie said.
Essa sighed. “And now it’s back to the real world. I have to get to work! See you, Mellie.”
“See you!”
Essa glanced at Duke and didn’t say a word to him. He didn’t speak, either.
Mellie just sighed. It would be nice if her two favorite people liked each other. What a shame that they seemed to be enemies from their first meeting.
* * *
After the supper rush, when the kitchen was clean, breakfast preparations were made, and she was through for the night, Essa trudged out of the kitchen, drooping.
To her surprise, Duke was waiting for her in the lobby. The giant Christmas tree in its red-and-gold trim was gathering admiring glances, along with the twin golden reindeer flanking it, both with red velvet bows around their necks.
