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Hammond's Dream Ch.7
By Amber
San Francisco
Ian Malcolm tapped his fingers on the glass tabletop. Outside of the Crescent Moon coffee shop, the weather was perfect. Ian sipped his expresso and read the paper in the shade of a small oak tree. Dressed in black, he didn’t quite fit the coffee house type. In Ian’s defense, he didn’t pick the spot to meet. Alan did, and Ian was waiting for Alan.
In the past, the two weren’t the best of friends. In fact, a mere conversation was an event, Alan Grant claimed, due to Ian’s arrogance. Some how over the years, they grew to stand each other, in a tolerable quality; and after time a friendship even arose. It became a regular event for the two of them to meet at a coffeehouse or bookstore once a week to have a chat and talk about anything really. More times than not, the subject was paleontology or chaos theory. It was also regular for Alan to be late and Ian to grab his cup of coffee and begin on the paper. Ian once joked, “with all the chaos in my life, it’s the only time I could just get away and relax.”
Some would say they fought like brothers when they argued. On numerous occasions they would debate current beliefs in the world, local economy, and even sporting events. Some of their arguments caused them to be banned from several bookstores and even thrown out of a park.
It was about two minutes passed ten in the morning, and that would make Alan seventeen minutes late at this point, Ian thought. Ian just finished the column about a marathon crossing the Golden Gate Bridge when he looked at his watch. Without looking up from his wrist he knew it.
“Your twenty minutes late.” Ian said.
“I know. Bad traffic at this hour,” Alan said.
“You should get up twenty minutes earlier.”
“I’m going to grab a coffee, you want another?” Alan asked Ian.
“No, I’m good.” Ian said with a smile, still reading his paper.
Alan grabbed his coffee and a newspaper and read a few articles without speaking to Ian. After about five minutes Alan asked Ian how Sarah was doing. Ian told him she was good, but getting over a cold.
“I still can’t believe you got married. What is it now, eight months?”
“Yah, just about.”
“The confirmed bachelor settled down.” Alan snickered.
It was true. The once thought confirmed bachelor had taken the plunge, now a married man. Ian’s life really didn’t have a major change for a while. Then it hit him; he needed to get married.
Ian finished his cup and Alan finished his. They talked about Alan’s new apartment and the great location he had, looking into the bay. It had a huge window clear above the buildings on the tenth floor. Both their lives were indeed changing, and they believed it was a good thing.
“Alan, I’ve been uh, thinking about some interesting information I received. A few years ago my friends at Santa Fe purchased pieces of lab equipment from InGen. It was sometime after the bankruptcy, maybe a year or two. The point is they never really used it. Mainly there were computers, desks, and office equipment. Well, in one of those desks, you wouldn‘t believe it, but they found it.” Ian said.
“Well, what is it?”
“In a box in one of the desks they found books. One of them was a journal.”
“A journal, whose journal?”
“As luck would have it, it was Hammond’s.” Ian said.
“I thought you didn‘t believe in luck?” Alan grinned.
“Let’s call it good fortune in that case. Well, it’s more of a log I think, but hey, I thought to myself. That would be one intriguing read. I had to look twice when I saw it cataloged. They didn’t really care about it so they’re sending me the journal; I’ll probably get it in a couple of days.
“That should be a good read,” Alan smiled. “I talked to Tim last night, he said he would give you a call in a day or two. He sounded pretty excited. I think it’s a new project. Ever since Tim discovered the Rex fossils last summer he’s become more popular than I have. Nowadays they all go to Tim Murphy.”
“When were you ever popular?” Ian scoffed with a smile.
“ Oh I’m sorry, I guess being a consultant to a high tech zoological park doesn’t count.” Alan sneered.
“Well don’t forget who else held that position unfortunately.” Ian shot back.
That’s how it usually went between the two. Mostly they were kidding. All in good fun. Another two minutes went by before Ian continued.
“So, where did Tim say he was off too?” Ian asked.
“He didn’t say. Something about not being able to talk about it right now. He didn’t seem to know too much. One of the big shots at Berkley asked him to do him a favor and help out with a project. Probably an excavation,” Alan said tossing his Styrofoam cup into the trash. It missed and bounced off the side of the can and onto the grass.
“Don’t litter Alan.” Ian said.
“Right,” Alan bent over and picked up the cup and set it in the trashcan.
“Did Tim say when he was leaving?”
“Well, he’s not leaving soon. He’s still in Montana working on his current dig. He’s supposed to leave in August, I think.”
After a few more minutes the two had ordered another cup of coffee. Alan talked about how he loved the quietness of the outdoor coffee shop. The outside world was free of the fast pace life of the computer generation. Ian informed him he might as well learn how to work with computers since it was the going trend. They tossed this back and forth for a few more minutes in their usual fashion.
By eleven o’clock Alan walked over to his blue Chevy Malibu and Ian hobbled over to his battered Ford Sedan. They gave a wave to each other and Alan sped off on his way.
Ian drove back to his apartment thinking about Hammond’s journal. It was all he had really been thinking about for the last two days. What went on in a mind like Hammonds, he wondered. What were his thoughts like? What was his dream?
He pulled into his complex parking lot and hobbled up the stairs into his elevator. Counting off the floors as he went up. One...two...three...four...and five. Stepping out of the elevator he walked to his door. Before he could get his key in the lock, Sarah opened the door for him. She had a cup of coffee in hand.
“You know you could have come to the coffee shop with me,” Ian said.
“Well you didn’t wake me up,” she sipped her coffee and set it down on the kitchen table. Sarah’s long black hair was pushed up into a bun, and her compact frame was limp in the morning hours. “By the way, this came for you in the mail. I think it’s the journal.”
Ian grinned and walked over to the counter where the mail was lying. The hardback was in a cardboard shipping box addressed to Ian. There was a post-it note attached that read “enjoy”. He opened the box and pulled out the brown leather journal. The cover was crisp, it looked ancient. Like a book found in the back of a library, the kind that hadn’t seen light in decades, which was partially true of this book.
“Well, I better get started,” Ian said. He sat on the couch and flipped through the beige pages. “This really will be fascinating.”
“Hey! Put that down. You can’t wait a few minutes before you start can you? Besides don’t you want to see what else came with it?” Sarah said.
“What? What else came with it?”
“Pictures.”
Ian smiled. Sarah nodded, then pulled out three faded photographs and dropped them on the table. Ian placed the book on the coffee table and picked up the photos.
“Well, whom do we have here?” Ian snickered.
Ian stared at the three photos, analyzing each with the greatest detail. The first was a picture of four people. Hammond, Henry Wu, and two other men he did not recognize. They were standing in front of a large building with the words InGen painted on the right corner.
The second photo had Hammond standing between two hatchery tables holding a hatching egg in his hand. Wu was in the background smiling.
The third photo was of Hammond standing on the balcony of his bungalow at sunrise. Sunlight shone on his face revealing a solemn stare out into the park. A faint smile on his lips. It was a tranquil scene, looking off into the mountains and the green valley below.
“Wow. These are great. Where did you find them?” Ian asked Sarah.
“They came with the book. Wrapped in tissue. Each one has a set of numbers written on the back.”
Ian flipped over the photos and found numbers in each of the top right corners.
“Wait a second. Do you know what these are?” Ian asked. “These are dates. Uh, look at this one. The first one is February 23, 1989. The second one is April 14, 1989. The last one is May 5, 1989. Do you know what this means? I can look up these dates in the book.” Ian smiled. “Everything has to be in here.”
“You think it has anything about DX?” Sarah asked.
“ Well, maybe, but I doubt much.”
Ever since Malcolm and Sarah escaped Isla Sorna. They’ve wondered what became of its inhabitants. Two months after the incident, a tropical storm battered the island. It took out all of the cameras and the uplink was gone. Although Ian didn’t believe he could find the answers to evolution through the animals of the island, there was a sincere interest of the animals. Malcolm often wondered about the DX disease. He wondered how it had affected the dinosaurs to this point. He imagined the carnivores thrived and the herbivores were few and far between. But, again, this was all just theory.
No one knew what happened to the dinosaurs of Isla Sorna. No one knew about or talked of DX. With the cameras gone, Ian’s hopes of studying evolution were gone, until the book arrived.
Ian picked up the book and opened it to the first pages. He placed the photos inside his coat pocket.
“Welcome, to Jurassic Park”. Ian read aloud.
6/22/2003 5:01:36 PM
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