A Beautiful Mess

Chapter 2

Sydney was three weeks into her ten-week tour. She thought of it as a tour because she felt as if she was living in a war zone. It was her against everyone else. Anyone from the outside would have said that she was exaggerating, but they only had a view from the outside looking in, and she had to admit that on the surface everything looked fine. In reality that was not the case.

She had never felt so alone or isolated in her life. She hadn't been able to determine whether the forced isolation was intentional or not, but from the moment she had arrived, she had been placed on her own. Almost everyone had a roommate, but she was the odd girl out, so she had been given a private room. Which wasn't bad in itself, but that coupled with the fact that she had also been given the job of cleaning and cataloging all of the artifacts found, which was a solo process, proved to her that she had been separated from everyone on purpose.

As usual, she tried to look on the bright side, she was in the air-conditioned trailer instead of the hot sun, but it was little comfort. Especially in the evening when everyone was going off as a large group and she was left behind, and it had been that way from the beginning.

Theresa Ruiz was a beautiful grad student and Dr. Easton's right hand. She was the one in charge of the scheduling and the day to day management of the site which left Dr. Easton able to focus solely on the dig. Theresa had taken an instant dislike to Sydney. Sydney had a feeling that she shared Easton's opinion that, since she wasn't an Archeology student she shouldn't be there.

Theresa had set Sydney's schedule to be different from everyone else's. The bus left the hotel, where they were all living, at eight in the morning, and left the dig site at five in the evening. Sydney had been instructed that she didn't need to start until ten, would finish at four, and she would need to make up her remaining hours on the weekend when everyone else was off having a good time. It had made using the bus impossible, and when Sydney had pointed this fact out to Theresa, she had been told that her ability to get to and from her job was Sydney's problem.

Thankfully, the elderly couple that owned the motel had overheard the conversation and lent her their daughter's bicycle to use. It was a five-mile trek to the site which was about a forty-five-minute bike ride for her, but she didn't mind since it gave her time to think and make plans for her future.

One of the few silver linings was Flora. Flora was Dr. Easton's very large black Russian Terrier. She was the sweetest soul Sydney had ever met. Flora stood above Sydney's waist on all fours, weighed at least 120 pounds, and on her hind legs she had to be at least six feet or more. Dr. Easton was only on site during the week and on the weekends, when he left to go who knew where, he left the dog behind. Sydney's first weekend there Theresa had tasked Sydney with taking care of the dog since she had to work on the weekends anyway.

Sydney had fallen in love at first sight with Flora and was glad to do it. Most weekends, when she wasn't helping out the Millers who owned the hotel, or her new friends at the diner on the highway, she would camp out on the couch in the trailer and spend it with Flora. It was a plan that suited them both.

Realizing it was time for her to finish for the day, she started to pack up her cleaning tools and power down her computer as she prepared to leave. The site itself was a good ways away from the trailer, so the area was always quiet and there was no one to say goodbye to except Flora, who gave a little whine as she realized she was leaving.

As usual, another day had passed without her seeing Dr. Easton. Every once and a while he would stop in at the trailer, which operated as an office/home for him, to pick something up or drop something off and they ignored each other as best they could.

Giving Flora a kiss and a pat, she opened the door to emerge into the late afternoon. The sun wasn't as high and the heat had eased some which would make for a nice bike ride to the diner. Sydney had a habit of stopping at Eddie's, a local 24-hour diner and having her breakfast and dinner. The hotel had a large room where the meals were catered, but the few times that she had tried to eat there it had been uncomfortable for everyone.