TEA & TRICERATOPS
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Edie had never thought she would have any other job than the one she had now. She knew people who had no idea what they wanted to do, but the thought of her dream job had been embedded in her mind ever since she could speak.
As she sat, eyes wandering over the paperwork in front of her, she questioned where she would be without her love for dinosaurs.
"Earth to Edie?"
The sudden noise from her friend caused Edie to jump slightly and almost spill her tea.
She recollected herself, "Sorry, my head was in the clouds." Mentally, she blamed the early morning.
"Next Friday do you want to do something?" Jess asked, "I have that Saturday off so we could go to the bar."
Edie smiled, forgetting the last time she and Jess had gone out as they had both been so busy with work. Edie was a professor at BUL (Brunel University London). Jess, however, was more technical; she dealt with programming and things to do with computers that Edie did not understand.
"Yeah, that sounds great," Edie agreed, finishing her tea that Jess had brought before it went cold.
The two had been friends for 13 years, having met at school- aged 11. Practically inseparable, Edie and Jess would meet at one of their respective apartments before work to catch up or they would meet for lunch or after for dinner. They also knew each other's colleagues. In fact, people often mistook them for sisters until they took the different hair colours properly into consideration.
Jess peered over at the paper in front of Edie. "How's that report coming along?" She asked, "Found anything interesting?"
Edie looked over at Jess. "Well..." She started, "evolution suggests that velociraptors are distant cousins of the chicken-"
"A chicken?" Jess laughed, bending down to unplug her phone and charger from the plug socket.
"Everything evolved from one microorganism," Edie responded as she checked her watch. Ten to seven.
"I'm going shopping in my lunch break," Jess stood up, smoothing down her navy dress. "Liz is coming with me. Did you want to join us?"
Something that Edie loved about Jess, apart from the fact she could solve all of her technical problems, was her sense of fashion. However, shopping with Jess was like an army workout (and Edie knew exactly how extravagant they were). That didn't mean that her own fashion was lacking. No, Jess' knowledge of trends, styles and colours always found their way into Edie's wardrobe- even if she didn't understand them.
"I think I'm going on a lunch date with that Harrison guy," Edie made up, not wanting to seem uninterested, "The one-"
"The maths professor?" Jess squealed, running around the breakfast bar to Edie. "You should change your top."
Edie looked down at what she was wearing: a light wash pair of jeans and a comfy top in some hue of red. She had chosen something comfy and relaxed. She was going to be teaching a class on evolutionary zoology and after, probably, going to sit in a lab.
"This is fine."
Jess raised her eyebrows as she tapped her crossed arms. "At least put on a nice blazer or something."
"Fine," Edie raised her hands in surrender, "Will the beige one do?" She pointed to a blazer that was hung over her bedroom door.
Jess nodded.
"Yes, but wear your loafers," she said, grinning as she placed her things in her bag and grabbed her cardigan before making her way into the hallway.
Pulling on the blazer she had taken from the door, Edie asked, "What would I do without you?" She could hear Jess laugh from the hallway as she threw the two disposable cups in the bin.
"You've got post," Jess called through, "Oh, actually, it's addressed to a 'Miss Cutter'."
Edie met Jess and took the post from her. MISS CUTTER was printed with her address on the bright white envelope. She felt a murmur of strange guilt slowly build in her stomach as though the milk in her tea had been off or she had eaten too much toast. It weighed heavily until Jess pulled Edie back to her senses.
"They must have made a mistake with the address," Jess explained.
Edie had shared many things with her friend over the years, but something she had never mentioned was her parents. Jess knew that they were never around; it had always been Edie and her aunt, Julie, for as long as anyone could remember. Edie had known her mother briefly as she came and went until she was 8, never explaining when, where or why. All there was to prove that her mother had existed was a cutting from a newspaper from 2000, a compass Julie had kept out of reach and a few photos of Julie and her sister. Edie knew that what her mother did still hurt her aunt and even she had never really come to terms with the disappearance of her mother or the fact that the woman seemed to have forgotten what being a mother meant.
"I'll send it back to the sorting office," Edie gave Jess a small smile, "Come on, I don't want to get caught in the traffic."
⋯
The day seemed to drag on. After dropping Jess off and then having meetings and discussions on reports, Edie understood why teachers seemed exhausted by Friday and for her, it was only Wednesday. She had a couple of meetings with students who wanted more work for extra credit or who just popped in to say hello which always seemed to bring a tad of joy to the dull oak-clad office where plants and personal items were forbidden. During her lunch break, spent on the grass outside the campus' dining hall, Jess had texted pictures of her recent buys to which Edie had responded with her strange-looking macaroni.
"Professor Ambrose," George, a lab assistant, walked into the lecture hall carrying a brown file.
"One moment!" Edie called from the front, pointing a laser back to the large screen behind her that depicted an ape-like creature. This was her final 'official' task of the day before she could hide in the lab and work on something exciting.
About a dozen students were sat facing her whilst taking notes. Some had taken evolutionary zoology to study evolutionary science, to become specialised zookeepers or environmental scientists. However, some students preferred the palaeontology side that was heavily discussed due to Edie's major in it.
"So," Edie began. "Another example of the early human is?" She posed the question to the class.
A couple of students raised their hands while others combed meticulously through their notes to see if the question had previously been answered or that they had actually been paying attention.
"Sam." Edie chose one of the students whose hand was half in the air- obviously having an answer, but unsure whether it was the right one.
"Hominids?" Sam said nervously, indeed questioning if he was correct or not.
"Yes, hominids arose in the late Miocene," Edie explained. "During the Pliocene, the Australopithecus genus (specifically A. Afarensis) appeared in the Great Rift in Africa- an evolution of the hominid. Millions of years later you get to us, sitting here."
Edie noticed George still standing by the door. She checked her watch. Finding only two minutes left of the class, she called it to an end.
"I would like 3000 words on forms of the early human including characteristics and how certain aspects of evolution, if altered, could affect humans today," Edie told the class. "You have two weeks, so no need to stress. You are free to go."
As the students filtered out of the hall, dropping off their last essays that were due, Edie made sure to engage with them all. If she hadn't had her studies pushed forward, she would probably have been in classes like this now. It was strange not just to her, but colleagues and students too that she was only 24 and a professor, but her knowledge and dedication were the main sources for her success.
Finally, walking over to George, Edie apologised, "Sorry, I needed to give them an assignment."
"It's fine," George grinned, "I never knew I was a descendant of an aw-straw-low-pith-something."
"Australopithecus," Edie laughed, "You were close. What was it you wanted?"
George passed Edie the folder as he told her, "Some new fossil for you to look at."
As well as teaching some classes, Edie also carried out research for the university so often found herself working on reports like the one she had told Jess about that morning and receiving pieces to examine from digs or older/reopened research.
"Are you going to butcher the pronunciation of this too?" Edie commented, flicking open the folder to look at her new task.
"Triceratops," George said confidently. "Just the horn of one though, not the whole dinosaur."
"Which species?" Edie enquired, looking deeply at the photograph.
"Er, horned species?"
Edie sighed, looking up at George. "There are two main species of triceratops that are largely verified," She nodded at him to make sure he paid attention, "T. horridus and T. prorsus."
"Well, whatever it is, it needs looking at," George gave her a thumbs up. "Have fun."