>Chapter 01
>Chapter 02
>Chapter 03
>Chapter 04
>Chapter 05
>Chapter 06
>Chapter 07
>Chapter 08
>Chapter 09
>Chapter 10
>Chapter 11
>Chapter 12
>Chapter 13
>Chapter 14
>Chapter 15
>Chapter 16
>Chapter 17
>Chapter 18
>Chapter 19
>Chapter 20
>Chapter 21
>Chapter 22
>Chapter 23
>Chapter 24
>Chapter 25
>Chapter 26
>Vote Story
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Chapter 14
Frank gazed up at the museum in awe as he stepped out of his freshly cleaned silver ford Mondeo. The sun was gleaming; it's rays bouncing off Frank's freshly polished shoes reflecting it's own happiness on to the beautiful old building. He dusted down his dry cleaned pinstripe suit and took a minute to enjoy this moment. This was the start of a new life for him. It had only been a few weeks since he had last been here but it felt like an eternity. Taking a deep breath he half ran, half skipped up the stairs to the huge entrance doors.
The dusty aroma flew up his nose provoking a sneeze. That smell instantly transported him back to his childhood. He remembered coming to this museum when he was just a boy. The memory of being transfixed by the huge T-Rex skeleton or being amazed by the process of fossilisation stuck in his long-term memory. That was partly the reason he became a palaeontologist. Walking through the huge entrance hall Frank was in a world of his own, daydreaming to himself, he found himself suffocated underneath a huge pair of breasts. They belonged to Karen Bates, the receptionist.
"Professor Warren your back!" Karen squeezed him even tighter. "It's good to see you. How have you been coping with well you know?" Karen let him go and gave him her sympathetic puppy dog eyes that screamed "I understand what you are going through." As if she or anyone could ever understand what he had been through. "It's nice to see you too Karen." Taking a few deep breaths, he smiled. "And I'm fine thank-you. So, what's been happening whilst I have been gone? Not to much excitement I hope?"
"Not much really. This place is so dead, excuse the pun.
"Oh right, well never mind. Right, I'm going up to my office. See you later." Frank continued up the stairwell to the third floor, which housed his office. It was a smallish office, about the size of a very small bedroom. One wall was decorated with all of his qualification certificates. The other wall had several small shelves, which held artefacts from around the world. There was a lion tooth from India, a salvaged ivory tusk from Africa, and a claw from a crocodile just to name a few.
"Hi Mr Warren. Mr Browne won't be in today as he's been called out somewhere." Frank's secretary Ellen was already sitting behind her desk sorting out the mail. "You've got lots of mail here too."
"Hi Ellen." Frank smiled. "Give it here and I'll take a look at it."
"Nice to see you back." Ellen winked before starting the filing.
Frank sat down at his desk, placing his coat on the chair and his briefcase on the desk along with the mail. He opened the first letter that was from the lab about some test results on a substance he had found in a cave in Africa. The second letter was a request from Professor Kym You, from China, to study some strange fish fossils they had found.
Frank was a palaeontologist but he also had several degrees in genealogy, archaeology, chemistry, you get the picture. His speciality was animal behaviour. He was the one who would go on location to study the animal movements, learning about their natural communication, how they interacted with each other, that sort of thing. He prided himself on not only being able to understand living animals, but predict lifestyles and predatory habits of animals. He could also work out extinct animal patterns like the Dodo or dinosaurs for example. He would take a look at the evidence and work out where the animal would go next. What would they eat? Where would they drink? He also found just about all of the artefacts stored in the museum, often travelling to far-out countries, Indiana Jones style, to discover them. Wes Browne was a genetic scientist. In particular, he liked to study animal genetics. They had met at collage when they were forced to share a room and been friends ever since. The two of them worked well as a team with Frank doing the groundwork and Wes doing the lab tests. They were trying to find a certain gene that determines an animal's instinct at the moment. Progress hadn't been very responsive so far. Settling in to his paperwork, which had steadily increased since his departure. Frank was soon lost in his work and not thinking about those babies for the first time since that day.
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