Complete Without You (ONC 2022)

Chapter 6 - Dinosaur Prints (Sadie)

The jeep rattled as we drove the bumpy unsealed road to Reddell Beach. Neil wore a mile-long grin since the man at the visitor's centre had suggested visiting the dinosaur footprints visible at low tide. Yesterday's vulnerability had passed, but I worried about him.

"Are you sure you're okay delaying camel riding another day?" he asked.

I smiled and nodded. "The weather is wonderful all week." And the ATM in Broome had informed me I'd made my final withdrawal until I could find more work. I thought I had a few more hundred dollars saved, but math had never been my strongest suit. If I did the sunset camel ride, I wouldn't be able to pay Neil for the gas and accommodations. I wasn't ready to tell him we'd made half of the 1200-kilometre return trip for nothing.

"I can't believe I missed this in my research. It's a good thing camels were on your list, Goanna."

He pulled up to a nearly empty dirt parking lot, and we hopped out. The tropical heat faded as the sun neared the horizon, the end of a dream too perfect to be true. Neil was a sweetheart, but he would not twiddle his thumbs while I earned enough money to keep myself afloat then inevitably again a few months from now too. It was a shame because I had met no one like him since... ever. Maybe we'd cross paths again in the future. Sometimes fate wasn't a jerk.

Neil shouldered his camera bag and slammed the trunk door shut. "Ready to go?"

I gave him two thumbs up.

"Is everything okay? You've seemed off since yesterday. Did I upset you?"

"Nah, you are perfect, Tiger." I put all my energy into grinning up at him.

He straightened his wide-brimmed hat. "Did you get bad news?"

"Something like that."

"About your ex?"

"No. Can we not talk about it?" I didn't want our last memories together to be marred by my impulsive spending. "Positive vibes only."

"Deal."

He held out his hand to take, and we walked toward a long sandy beach dotted with a mix of smooth rock towers and stair-esque eroded ones. The ocean receded, exposing teeth-like rocky sections between the sand and shallow water.

His eyes lit up as he scanned the ground. "Let's hunt for some dino prints!"

When we reached the sand, I kicked off my flip-flops to feel the warm grains beneath my feet, even if it meant the occasional rock to the foot arch. Neil kept his sports sandals, and his eyes scoured the earth as if the prints would appear only at a certain angle. Once we neared the wet sand, he withdrew a brochure with photos of the tracks we sought. One was three-toed and obviously a print while the others were more oval, which I'd probably confuse with a natural depression in the rock.

"Think we'll find them?" I asked.

"Tide's low and we still have daylight. Our odds are strong." Neil studied the paper a little more and readjusted our course.

On the horizon, an odd shadow stuck out in the rock. "I think I see something." I led the way until we arrived at a possible track. The leftover water in the three-pronged depression and the sandy-looking rock made the print seem like it was left minutes ago. As if the dinosaur was lurking beyond the rocky point.

"Goanna, you've done it again!"

A grin spread across my face as he rushed toward it to inspect it.

"It's hard to believe these are real and just chilling underwater half the time."

Tiger didn't glance up from the sand. "It seems like something that belongs in a museum, doesn't it?"

I shrugged. "If it were, it would only be half of the experience. We get to see what they saw, walk where they walked."