Free Site Unseen by Dana Cameron

ticking, Em, it's lunchtime!" Rob protested.
    "I think you'll want to see this. Meg?"
    She held up the piece of shot for everyone to see. In his eagerness, Alan stepped a little too closely to the side of the unit and caved some loose dirt onto the immaculate surface. "Hey, c'mon, man!" she protested. "You're killing me here." She let out a sigh of impatience; Alan had been following her around like a lost stray for the past week.
    Rob grabbed Alan by the scruff of the T-shirt and yanked him out of the way. "Dork." He said it almost lovingly, as though this was all that could be expected of Alan. The two students wrestled for a moment, and Alan almost succeeded in pulling Rob's shirt off. He was breathing heavily, his reaction a little too aggressive for mere play.
    "Hey, now!" I admonished.
    "Enough foreplay, you guys," Neal said. "You're missing the point. Look."
    The crew quieted until they realized the significance of what they were looking at.
    "A posthole!"
    "No way! The ball came from there?!"
    "Is that right, Emma?"
    "Sure is," I said. "Meg's got it, it looks like."
    "All right Meg!" Dian cheered. "Woman!"
    The others followed with congratulations, slapping Meg on the back and rubbing her head until her blond spikes looked even more barbaric than usual. "Hey, all right, all right," she said. But she looked really pleased with herself.
    "So keep your eyes open--that's what other postholes will look like here, and there's a good chance we could hit another one any minute," I cautioned them. "So move it, faster, deeper! We want to confirm that these are really seventeenth century. But for now, get eating."
    The others went back to the tree line where the cooler was, chattering excitedly about the find. I turned to Meg, who was still beaming, and handed her an empty film canister from my pocket. I watched as she marked the canister with the provenience and decided to bring up her argument with Neal. She'd had her moment, the others were gone, now was as good a time as any.
    "You seemed to be disagreeing with Neal back there," I said calmly, as she handed me the find. "Things a little tense, huh?"
    Her smile faded and something of the icy shell returned. After a moment she said, "I thought he was getting pushy."
    "Well, it is his job to keep an eye on things." I waited a moment, looking thoughtfully at the piece of lead shot. "He sometimes gets a little overeager, but he's got high standards."
    "Well, my standards are pretty high too," Meg said in a huff, then she caught my eye.
    I looked at her hard for a moment, letting her know that she could make this better right now. She took the hint and swallowed.
    "Maybe I won't take it so personally, seeing as he's got control issues."
    I shrugged. "That could work. I'll suggest that he can afford to refocus his energies as well." The lesson was over. "Come on," I said. "I'm starving. And I want to recheck the maps."
    But I couldn't stay away. As much as I love the scant moments I allotted for lunch, a moment to let my subconscious sort things out, I couldn't leave that posthole alone. So I scarfed down my lunch, heartily sick of sandwiches but unwilling to go hungry. It was a relief to get away from the antics at lunch today. For whatever reason, Alan moved away almost immediately after I sat down near him. He barely touched his stingy half sandwich, making me wonder if he wasn't anorexic. In any case, it was kind of heartbreaking to watch Alan traipse after Meg, laughing too loudly at her jokes. I didn't worry about Rob or Dian; they would be fine if things didn't work out between them. But Alan was hollow all the way through, with no core and no reserves.
    I went back to my table with the maps, not that it did any good. Without the faintest idea of the construction of the fort or the buildings inside, the location of one posthole--if it was indeed early seventeenth century--didn't really clarify things. One point does not extrapolate to a wall, until you find its fellows. If