Clarissa Hammond

Chapter Five

We all stepped outside the building and waited for the Jeeps to come to collect us. Ian and I stood next to each other and my father tried to corral my niece and nephew. My father smiled at me and Ellie, "Dr. Sattler, Dearest Clarissa. Come with me, you'll be in the second car." As I walked away I could hear Ian tell Alan, "I think I'm going to ride with Clare." I got into the back seat as Ellie sat in the front and Ian stood by the door as it was open, smiling at me. I looked out the window and giggled as my father was glaring at Ian. 

Alan opened the door and got in with Tim following him and I laughed as Tim smiled, "Because they sure don't look like birds to me." Alan rolled his eyes and shimmied past me with Tim still following, "I heard that there was this meteor, that hit the earth someplace down in Mexico-"

The door slammed shut and I continued to giggle. Ellie smiled, "Is Tim always like that?" I nodded as Ian played the drums on my knees, "He's very chatty." Lex smiled, "Especially when Aunt Clare is here." Ellie smiled, "Go ride with Dr. Grant. It will be good for him." 

Lex smiled and walked off with Ellie and me giggling. I watched as Alan looked at Ellie and me in annoyance. Alan and Ian got in the car with Ian sitting beside me and Alan in the driver's seat. "God help us when the hands of engineers decide our fate as a species," Ian said and I laughed with Alan shaking his head, "You really like getting on Mr. Hammond's nerves."

We looked in front of us and watched the doors open as an automated voice said, "Welcome to Jurassic Park." Ian wrapped his arm around my shoulders, "What have they got in there, King Kong?" My father came over the speaker, "The voice you're now hearing is Richard Kiley. We spared no expense."

"If you look to the right, you'll see a herd of the first dinosaurs on our tour, called Dilophosaurus," Kiley said and I smiled as Alan and Ellie became excited. I looked out the window with Ian pressing his front to my back to look as well, only to see nothing. Kiley explained everything but I ignored it because I knew everything about the animal anyway. 

I sighed, "Can anyone see one?" Alan slapped the door frame, "Damn. Nothing." We came to the next paddock and I looked around, "What's this one?" We stopped and I leaned over Ian with my chest practically in his lap to get a good look. Ian started counting on his fingers as he laid his opposite hand on the back of my thigh, "God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs." I grinned and looked at him, my hand on his thigh, "Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth." Alan and Ellie shared a look with a grin and Ian looked at me with a lovesick look, "Please tell me you're not seeing anyone."

I smirked and squeezed his thigh, "Nope. Haven't for ten years." Ian silently cheered as I looked back at the paddock and a man came over the radio, "We'll try to tempt the Rex now. Keep watching the fence." We continued watching the fence and a goat came out of the ground, tied to a rope. 

I groaned, "Really?" Alan sighed, "T-Rex doesn't want to be fed. He wants to hunt. Clary wrote reports on Rex for years. She's the only one that will more than likely tame the damn thing." I grinned, "You can't suppress sixty-five million years of gut instinct." The goat laid down and I shook my head, "This is sad."

Ian leaned in towards the camera in the car, knowing my father was listening, "Eventually you do plan to have dinosaurs on your dinosaur tour, right? Hello?" I giggled as Ian sat back down and he grinned, "The Tyrannosaur doesn't obey any set patterns or park schedules. The essence of chaos." 

Ellie looked confused, "I'm still not clear on chaos. I know Clary understands it." Ian smiled and faced me, "May I?" Ian looked at Ellie, "It simply deals with unpredictability in complex systems. The shorthand is the Butterfly Effect. A butterfly can flap its wings in Peking and in Central Park you get rain instead of sunshine." Ellie still looked confused and I giggled, "Ian, I think you went too fast. She missed it." Alan chuckled, "That's what happens when you stick someone as smart as Clary in a room with us, we tend to not follow." 

Ian smiled and pointed to the dash, "Dr. Sattler, please give me that glass of water. We'll conduct an experiment. We should be still, but the car is bouncing so we'll have to do with what we have." Ian turned to me and smiled, "Clare, put your hand flat like a hieroglyphic," I put my hand down and Ian dipped his hand in the water, "Now, a drop of water falls on her hand. Which way, Dr. Sattler will the drop roll off? Which finger?" 

Ellie tilted her head, "Thumb, I'd say." Ian nodded and dropped the water drop on my hand and it rolled off my thumb. Ian grabbed my hand softly, "Now freeze your hand. Don't move. I'll do the same thing, start with the same place again. Which way now?" Ellie smiled, "Back the same way." 

I smiled as Ian dropped the water and it went a different way. Ian gasped in mock surprise, "It changed. Why? Clare?" I smiled, "Because of tiny variations, the orientation of the hairs on the hands, the amount of blood distending your vessels, imperfections in the skin, microscopic mind you, never repeat and vastly affect the outcome. That's unpredictability." Ian smiled softly at me, "Exactly." 

Alan got out of the car and Ian laughed, "There. Look at this. See? I'm right again. Nobody could predict that Dr. Grant would suddenly jump out of a moving vehicle." Ellie looked at Ian and then jumped out, chasing after Alan. Ian looked at me, "And there's another example. That's Chaos Theory." I grinned and leaned in close to him, brushing my lips softly, but not completely against his, "What about this for unpredictability?" I quickly jumped out of the car and ran after Alan and Ellie.