Beating ...He flinched. “I’ll take care of it.”
“I’ve heard amazing things about what beautiful flowers you grow.”
Julian shrugged. Why wouldn’t the man leave?
“I’d love to meet your brother. Is he around?”
“No.”
“Well, all right then.” The reverend replaced his hat. “I guess I’ll be off to check on others now.” He climbed back up on his horse. “Just wanted to make sure nothing was wrong here.”
Wrong. That word didn’t settle well either. “Thanks for stopping by.”
The reverend rode away and Julian watched the man’s back.
The preacher wanted to make sure nothing was wrong.
Julian pulled the two faded blue ribbons out of his pocket. Mary.
He’d cried for hours the other day.
Something he never did.
Yes, something was wrong here. With him.
His thoughts turned to Anna.
She was his only hope.
MONDAY, JULY22
Everything was a mess. Anna thought almost being caught again in a flash flood was the worst of it, but now they faced an overwhelming task. A layer of mud covered everything. It had taken all morning to get this far. How much more time would they lose? So much water covered the ground, but at least they could now get to the wall of fossils.
Anna heaved a small log out of the way so she could set up her little worktable. The men were moving the bigger pieces of debris left in the floodwater’s wake. The only good out of all of this was the fact that more ground had been moved, exposing rock layers beneath. Maybe there were more fossils to dig. The thought was exciting.
The earth was an amazing canvas that always changed. Over decades and centuries, the land changed by dirt that was brought in by windstorms. Rain. Things got compacted down. Then earthquakes split the ground or floods washed through and exposed what had been buried underneath for long periods of time.
Volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis,floods, and landslides ... the list was endless of the earth’s growing pangs, as Dad called them. Different natural disasters exposing the earth’s buried history.
Movement across the washout caught her attention. Julian was in his garden piling up debris. Poor man. That beautiful garden was now a mess.
Wait a minute...
She looked closer. A part of the bluff created by the first flood—where Julian’s home and garden sat—had been eaten away by this last flood. Thankfully, it didn’t appear like it took a portion of the garden. But there was a clear delineation now of dark soil sitting atop the white rock layer. Like God had come through and sliced off the edge of the hill.
She should sketch that side of the gulley later. Julian wouldn’t mind. If she found something there, she’d have to tread carefully. Because the ranch house sat a mere eighty feet or so back from the edge.
Would Julian allow them to excavate on this side? He might think it could put his home in danger, and she didn’t want that. Then there was the garden. She’d hate to disturb something so precious to him.
The day passed in lots of hard work putting everything back in place. The men were finally back to their digging. She’d sketched two of the fossils again and was working on bringing out all the details. It took a good deal of time to get each drawing accurate with all the fine minutiae.
But every time she glanced toward the Walker home, she had the itching to sketch that other wall. It would be fun to bring the sketch to Dad and see if his keen eye could pick up any fossils in the wall.
Julian stopped by after lunch and told her he was headed up to Green River. He needed some supplies to work in his garden.
She’d given him a smile and said she’d watch out for things at his place.
With a wave, he’d left.
