Fossil Woman

We arrived at the Coryndon Museum, an unimposing, one-story almond brick building with an attached side wing. Two marble steps supported four statuesque columns surrounding the front door. Bypassing the entrance, Ray circled to the back, where several huts of differing construction and vintages dotted the landscape. He pulled in front of the most tumbledown of the bungalows, a tiny wooden hut with a thatched roof.

“These houses are used for visiting dignitaries and scientists. And the Leakeys lived in that large one over there for several years.”

Jumping out, Ray grabbed my bag and set it by the front door. I climbed out, wobbly and weary.

“Here’s the key. I’ll pick you up at eight o’clock tomorrow morning and bring breakfast. We’ll catch the flight to Moshi and be driven to Olduvai from there.”

“Thank you, Ray,” I said, eyeing my accommodations.

“Oh, and Henrietta. That’s Eastern Africa time,” he said, smiling.

Nodding, I stuck the key in the doorknob. The door creaked open, the bottom edge scraping across a concrete floor. No one would call it fancy. Or particularly clean. The furniture was limited to a metal twin bed with a stack of blankets, and a wooden table with two rickety chairs. In the far corner, a folding screen shielded a commode. A sink with a hand pump served for washing up.

I dragged my bag inside and shut the door. Sleep-deprived, stiff and sweaty, I collapsed fully clothed onto the bed. An unseen varmint rustled in the straw ceiling overhead.

 Swell. Although compared to the accommodations where I’m headed, this is probably the Ritz.

I stared out the cracked window as the setting sun refracted against the cloud-streaked Kenyan sky, turning my view into orange agate. My heart quickened in anticipation of the coming days. What did Olduvai Gorge hold in store for me? Would I make any scientifically significant discoveries? Images of the path that brought me here filtered through my mind. My goal since childhood to explore, dig and discover lurked in my subconscious like the critter hiding above me in the thatch.