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“Stay where you are; we’ll see you in ten or so.”

The radio went quiet. Daniel sighed loudly.

Steph kept quiet and studied Daniel’s face in profile. He refused to turn.

“Why didn’t you want him here?” Steph asked finally, keeping her voice soft.

“Who said I didn’t? I just thought it made sense for him to focus on Roger and for us to focus here.”

“Really?” Steph raised her eyebrows.

Daniel turned to look at her. She stared at him, unblinking. For a moment he tried to hold her stare but then his shoulders sagged.

“I dunno,” he said. “I mean it is better than Michael I suppose, but it’s… It’s stupid really.”

Steph thought she would rather it was Michael but that was neither here nor there.

“Try me,” Steph said.

“I just feel that – and nothing has really been said as such – but I feel I am just the young enthusiastic dinosaur lover. I’m a fun novelty to have around. But I’m not really trusted with any big jobs. I’m nearly thirty. It’s degrading!”

“But there aren’t dinosaurs here?” Steph said.

“Yeah, I know!” Daniel replied, looking at the trees. “I was using it as an example. Like that kid in the family who knows all the dinosaurs and has all this intelligence in one area, and everyone nods along humouring them as they reel off fact after fact. And then the adult says, ‘that’s nice’ and sends them off to wash their hands before dinner.”

Steph considered this.

“So you don’t want to wash your hands before dinner?” she said, keeping her face straight.

“What?” Daniel gasped turning around to face her. “No, that’s not what I meant! I meant… ah, forget it!”

“I’m winding you up!” Steph said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I get it. You just want to feel like you are being taken seriously foreverythingyou can contribute. Not just the things people think you are.”

“Exactly,” Daniel replied, sighing and relaxing a little into his seat.

Steph thought about her own family in this, what they thought of her work and what they considered asreallong-term careers. She sniffed and looked away into the trees.

TWENTY-TWO

Steph and Daniel sat in relative silence waiting for the others to arrive. After Daniel opened up a little and Steph reflected on her own life, both were not in the best place for conversation. There was little in terms of animal sightings as a distraction either, as Steph had yet to see any moose. There were birds. There were squirrels. Relative to what Steph knew she could potentially see, they seemed hardly noteworthy.

Davey and Roger pulled their buggy up alongside Daniel and Steph’s. Davey looked serious. Roger was smiling sadly.

“I wish we were meeting again under better circumstances,” Roger said to both Steph and Daniel, his eyes flicking between the two. “Poor old Fergus.”

Steph couldn’t help but smile. She was not even sure why. Perhaps it was the way in which Fergus’s death was almost made out as a mildly unfortunate accident rather than his life being ripped violently from him. Maybe it was the pained look on Roger’s face. Pained on the surface but with a definite giggle lying underneath. It reminded Steph of being at school and how the other boys would laugh at each other if one fell over. They knew it hurt. They knew the shouts of ‘stack’ would draw attention and embarrassment with it. Perhaps there was a part of Roger that wanted to laugh. What was the other option? Despair?

“From what I remember, you’re in the right vicinity,” Davey said looking around, ignoring Roger’s greetings to the others. “I take it you haven’t seen anything?”

“Not yet,” Daniel replied.

“Well, that’s because, if I remember rightly, it was slightly off the track – in that direction.”

The others turned their heads in the direction of Davey’sextended finger. He started to clamber out of the buggy, a tranquillizer rifle in hand. Steph noticed for the first time (as his shirt lifted away from his trousers slightly) that he had a handgun holstered to his side as well.

“Careful!” Daniel said, standing in his seat and looking around. “The wolf pack is nearby and there was a bear not far from them.”

Davey continued to clamber down. Steph looked at the expression he gave Daniel. She could see where Daniel had been coming from earlier. The look was somehow pitying and patronising all at once even though Daniel’s point was legitimate. If he had directed it at her, she might have rammed her fist down his throat.