Scattered Graves

man.
‘‘Found these young men looking for you . . .’’ Jonas stopped. ‘‘What happened to you? You look like you lost a wrestling match with a grizzly.’’ His white tooth brush mustache bobbed up and down as he spoke. Jonas had snow-white hair and equally white bushy eyebrows over bright blue eyes. He looked like a kindly grandfather—or a wizard.
‘‘You’re half right. Just a little mishap on the way to work. Henry, how are you?’’ she said before Jonas could question her further.
‘‘I’m fine, Miss . . . I mean, Dr. Fallon,’’ he said. ‘‘This is my brother, Caleb.’’
‘‘I remember the sheriff mentioning Caleb.’’ She held out her hand and he shook it.
Henry and Caleb didn’t favor each other. Henry was going to be much bigger than his older brother.
Caleb nudged his brother and smiled warmly at him. ‘‘Go ahead,’’ he said.
Diane could see how fond Caleb was of his younger sibling. The thought of it made her smile.
‘‘So, what brings you here?’’ she asked.
Henry looked at his brother, who nodded at him.
‘‘When I was here yesterday,’’ he said, looking back at Diane, ‘‘I . . . well, I really like it here, and I was wondering if there are ever any jobs for someone my age. I’m in eighth grade.’’
‘‘So, that makes you, what, thirteen, fourteen?’’ asked Diane.
‘‘Yes, ma’am,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m fourteen—almost—in a week.’’
‘‘Well, we have a student after-school intern pro gram you can apply to,’’ she said.
‘‘See,’’ said Caleb, gently poking his brother on the arm. ‘‘I told you it wouldn’t hurt to ask.’’ He turned to Diane. ‘‘He was real shy about asking, figured you’d say no, but I told him it never hurts to ask and that he should always let the other person be the one to say no—don’t do it for them.’’ Caleb looked very self-satisfied.
‘‘Good advice,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Andie, can you get him the papers to fill out and some information to take back to his grandparents?’’
‘‘Sure thing.’’ Andie went to a filing cabinet.
Mike and Jonas left, waving good-bye. Jonas looked back at Diane one last time and shook his head.
‘‘You go to Bartram, I understand,’’ Diane said to Caleb as Andie looked for the forms. ‘‘What do you take?’’
‘‘History and computer science,’’ Caleb said. ‘‘I’d like to go to graduate school in advanced computa tional methods.’’
‘‘So, you have one foot in the past and the other in the future,’’ said Diane. ‘‘That must be interesting.’’
Caleb grinned. ‘‘Yeah, a little cognitive tug-of-war sometimes, but I like them both.’’
Andie handed Diane the application form and sev eral brochures.
‘‘Show the brochures to your grandparents and fill out the form and bring it back. You’ll be called in for an interview, but that will be mainly to make sure you are really interested. I’ll put in a good word with our education director,’’ Diane added.
Henry grinned. ‘‘I like the dinosaurs. Do you think I could work with them?’’
‘‘It will probably be with a variety of things— everything from dinosaurs to rocks to conservation. You still interested?’’
‘‘Oh, yes, ma’am,’’ he said.
Diane liked Henry and his brother Caleb. They were polite and smart. She would like to clone them.
‘‘Can I take your picture with Henry?’’ asked Caleb, pulling out a digital camera.
Diane unconsciously touched her face. Andie looked distressed. For a moment, Diane thought she was going to forbid it.
‘‘I’ll Photoshop the bruises out, I promise,’’ said Caleb.
What the heck . ‘‘Sure,’’ she said and let him take a picture of her with Henry.
Diane saw them to the door and told Andie she was going upstairs to her osteology lab. On the third-floor overlook, she glanced down and saw Henry and Caleb looking at the dinosaur bones. She smiled, walked down the hall to her lab, and went in.
The first thing she noticed was a treacly smell of per fume, and she wondered whether Neva, who had wanted to work with Diane’s imaging computers in the lab vault, had changed perfumes. But Neva didn’t usu ally wear it as heavy or as sweet as the aroma she smelled. Diane walked into her office just off the lab and stopped abruptly. There was a young woman sit ting at her desk. Her first thought was that it was Goldilocks sitting in her chair.

Chapter 8
    ‘‘Can I help you?’’ said Goldilocks.