1
00:00:10,119 --> 00:00:16,760
Speaker 1: Dinosaurs by Tom Franklin. On the day he saw the rhinoceros,

2
00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:21,160
Steadman woke in an hour before dawn in the living

3
00:00:21,239 --> 00:00:23,839
room and in the dark, he stared at the fish

4
00:00:23,879 --> 00:00:28,199
tank for so long as coffee grew cold. Something the

5
00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:31,039
end of a dream. Maybe it nagged him and left

6
00:00:31,079 --> 00:00:35,240
him uncertain and pensive. The house seemed too small, so

7
00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:39,560
he loaded his equipment and he left early. Soon, the

8
00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:43,320
knobby buckshot tires of his truck were humming comfortably along.

9
00:00:43,359 --> 00:00:48,840
The Interstate mobile was behind him, Montgomery far ahead, the

10
00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:53,320
gas station signs at every exit, colorful smudges in the fog.

11
00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:58,479
He drove a company pickup, a big silver Ford F

12
00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:01,479
two point fifty with four old wheel drive he rarely

13
00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:05,439
had to use. On the back glass, he'd attached green

14
00:01:05,519 --> 00:01:09,640
peace decal. He knew the gas guzzling truck and the

15
00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:13,519
sticker contradicted each other, but Steedman had been at odds

16
00:01:13,519 --> 00:01:19,000
with himself lately, a bit distracted. He nearly missed his exit,

17
00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:22,359
for example, and had to jab his brakes and swerve,

18
00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:26,640
And soon he found himself on a quiet, unfamiliar two lane,

19
00:01:26,799 --> 00:01:31,400
with the eight o'clock sun hazy over the trees. Where

20
00:01:31,439 --> 00:01:35,400
had the miles gone. Lines of barbed wire and redtail

21
00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:40,840
hawks on fence posts, cattle licking dark salt blocks. Occasionally

22
00:01:40,959 --> 00:01:45,040
he'd pass a rusty harrow kudzu climbing its spikes, and

23
00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:49,400
think of his father, a retired geologist who lived refurbishing

24
00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:54,280
antique tractors, now in a nursing home. He called Stedman

25
00:01:54,359 --> 00:01:57,319
more and more, but he remembered him less and less.

26
00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:03,920
Kilpatrick Claire Station was a flat, gray cinder block lump

27
00:02:04,079 --> 00:02:07,280
with a shed against the back and a faded green sign.

28
00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:12,680
Beside two antique gas pumps stood the rhinoceros, giant head

29
00:02:12,759 --> 00:02:16,199
lowered right, foot lifted as if it were pawing the ground.

30
00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:22,159
Its purpose, Stedman guest, was to attract customers. But from

31
00:02:22,240 --> 00:02:24,919
the looks of this dump, the rhino might soon be

32
00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:29,560
out of a job, like you, pal Stedman thought, watching

33
00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:33,960
old Kilpatrick suck on his unfiltered camel and glower through

34
00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:37,639
the drug store reading glasses at the paperwork Stedman had

35
00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:43,199
spread across the office desk. Above them, also glowering was

36
00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:47,120
a dusty crow nailed to a piece of driftwood. We'll

37
00:02:47,159 --> 00:02:50,080
get to it, the old man said, I ain't got

38
00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:56,360
all day. Even his breath smelled like gasoline. Your underground tanks,

39
00:02:56,560 --> 00:03:00,639
Stedman began, Where you store your fuel? I know what

40
00:03:00,759 --> 00:03:05,759
they are. Steadman unfolded a pamphlet that explained corrosion in

41
00:03:05,879 --> 00:03:10,360
simple turns. Did you know they've probably been leaking for years?

42
00:03:11,479 --> 00:03:15,960
Kilpatrick stubbed out a cigarette and a clamshell ashtray. He

43
00:03:16,039 --> 00:03:19,599
lit another and smoked while Steedman gave his usual pitch.

44
00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:23,879
How the storage tanks needed a leak detection system, or,

45
00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:27,800
according to federal regulations, there'd be no choice but to

46
00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:32,199
shut down the station. At best, if the tanks were secure,

47
00:03:32,599 --> 00:03:37,439
leaked detection wells could be installed for around a grand net. Worst,

48
00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,639
Kilpatrick's tanks would have to be excavated and replaced with

49
00:03:41,719 --> 00:03:45,800
the new EPA approved above ground units, a cost of

50
00:03:45,879 --> 00:03:51,280
several thousand dollars. When Steedman finished, there was a long silence,

51
00:03:51,639 --> 00:03:54,879
which he finally broke with his usual remark about doing

52
00:03:54,919 --> 00:03:59,680
good for the environment. The environment. Kilpatrick snatched off his

53
00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:03,360
class take you a good look out the window yonder

54
00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:08,680
at the environment. Steadman gathered his papers politely and closed

55
00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:12,639
his briefcase. Outside the hot white sky and the two

56
00:04:12,719 --> 00:04:16,720
lane black top, the distant pine trees, no house or

57
00:04:16,759 --> 00:04:20,639
building in sight, just the rhinoceros baking in the sun.

58
00:04:22,079 --> 00:04:26,160
When Studman returned two days later, he always gave customers

59
00:04:26,199 --> 00:04:29,959
time to check his background. Kilpatrick was smoking and leaning

60
00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:33,959
against the rhinoceros with his arms folded. He wore baggy

61
00:04:33,959 --> 00:04:39,199
coveralls black with oil. What he would do first, Steadman explained,

62
00:04:39,439 --> 00:04:43,279
unloading his hand auger, was dig holes around the underground

63
00:04:43,319 --> 00:04:47,160
tanks for soil samples. I'll go down a few feet,

64
00:04:47,279 --> 00:04:52,079
he said, and that's where we'll find your contamination. The Augur,

65
00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:57,120
stainless steel extendable to twelve feet, was warm from the sunlight.

66
00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:02,040
Kilpatrick squinted at the corks screw blades. You planned to

67
00:05:02,079 --> 00:05:06,439
dig with that thing by hand? Steadman shouldered the auger.

68
00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:08,759
You want to show me where your tanks are buried?

69
00:05:09,879 --> 00:05:12,959
Kilpatrick nodded toward the right side yard of the station

70
00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:16,240
and then limped over the concrete and went into the

71
00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:21,720
glass office and eased himself into a folding chair. Steedman

72
00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:24,480
watched him open the coke machine and fanned the cool

73
00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:27,560
air into his collar, and then draw a budweiser from

74
00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:29,639
the rack and prow off the lid with a bottle

75
00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:33,560
opener from his coveralls pocket. Round the building was a

76
00:05:33,639 --> 00:05:37,120
jungle of grass, bitter weed, and briars, out of which

77
00:05:37,199 --> 00:05:42,040
stuck two four inch dimeter pipes with padlock caps. The

78
00:05:42,079 --> 00:05:47,199
porch used for measuring and filling the underground tanks. Steedman

79
00:05:47,319 --> 00:05:50,399
leaned the auger against the wall, walked over and gave

80
00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:54,399
each pipe a solid kick. He knelt and he sniffed him,

81
00:05:54,639 --> 00:05:56,839
and then took hold of the left one and started

82
00:05:56,839 --> 00:06:00,680
working it back and forth. After a minute he had

83
00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:03,399
the pipe wiggling, and soon it came out of the

84
00:06:03,439 --> 00:06:07,040
dirt in his hands, a foot long length, not connected

85
00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:10,759
to anything. He tossed it in the air and caught it.

86
00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:15,000
Kilpatrick wasn't the first station owner to pull something like this.

87
00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:18,759
They do anything to knock him off. The scent and

88
00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:22,959
their bullshit usually helps subdue his guilt at closing them down.

89
00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:27,600
Steedman dropped the pipe and collected the auger and walked

90
00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:31,000
behind the building, past the rusty trailer in the rickety shed.

91
00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:35,360
The dirt back here was stained with oil. Kilpatrick could

92
00:06:35,439 --> 00:06:40,240
be fined if Steedman chose to report him. Greasy shapes

93
00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:46,199
lay scattered about transmission housings caked with grime, torque converters,

94
00:06:46,399 --> 00:06:50,839
leaky oil filters, and stacks of cracked car batteries. There

95
00:06:50,879 --> 00:06:53,480
was an old bathtob full of greenish water, and an

96
00:06:53,519 --> 00:06:57,600
anvil with a dog skull on it on the other

97
00:06:57,680 --> 00:07:00,560
side of the station. Steedman kicked away way a milk

98
00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:04,920
crake to reveal two rusty ports, the real ones locked

99
00:07:04,959 --> 00:07:09,319
with combination locks. He chose a spot a few feet

100
00:07:09,439 --> 00:07:12,240
east and took hold of the auger's T shaped handle,

101
00:07:12,279 --> 00:07:16,120
and he began twisting. The ground was hard and rocky,

102
00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:19,800
but Stedman's arms were hard, his skin browned from digging

103
00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:22,480
hundreds of holes through the miles of gravel in the

104
00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:26,879
hot sun hell. With the gas powered jackhammer in his toolbox,

105
00:07:26,959 --> 00:07:31,519
not even concrete would stop him. His smart ass coworkers

106
00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:37,560
called him the lust leaky underground storage tanks Man. Steadman

107
00:07:37,639 --> 00:07:42,160
couldn't imagine a less suited acronym. He found nothing lusty

108
00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:46,279
about gasoline contaminating the groundwater, and he hadn't lusted for

109
00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:50,600
anybody or anything in a long long time. He'd been

110
00:07:50,639 --> 00:07:54,199
given this nomadic grunt work as punishment for his behavior

111
00:07:54,519 --> 00:07:58,240
on his last project at the Civil Engineering firm, which

112
00:07:58,279 --> 00:08:03,279
specialized in hazardous waist clean up. He'd been he geologist

113
00:08:03,399 --> 00:08:07,480
in the remediation of a large chemical plant. On his

114
00:08:07,519 --> 00:08:10,040
first day, he learned that for years the plant had

115
00:08:10,079 --> 00:08:14,519
been dumping blood red chemical byproducts into the Alabama River.

116
00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:18,079
Now this was no surprise, but what pissed him off

117
00:08:18,399 --> 00:08:22,319
was that each morning, two clueless black workers without safety

118
00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:25,160
gear had been sent out in a motor boat to

119
00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:30,120
net the dead fish floating on the surface. Steedman, before

120
00:08:30,399 --> 00:08:35,080
several laborers restrained him, had nearly shoved the plant engineer

121
00:08:35,159 --> 00:08:39,320
into the river. He was three feet into his fourth hole,

122
00:08:39,639 --> 00:08:43,519
the dry dirt growing softer farther down, when the cellular

123
00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:48,519
phone in his truck chirp, Happy birthday to me. His

124
00:08:48,639 --> 00:08:53,799
father's dry voice sang off key. After two choruses, Steedman

125
00:08:53,919 --> 00:08:58,720
interrupted him, It's not your birthday yet. Hell, I know that, boy,

126
00:08:58,919 --> 00:09:05,120
It's tomorrow. Tried December, Steedman said, five more months. Well,

127
00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:07,879
knock off the bull crap and give me a hint squirt.

128
00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:12,399
Steedman sat on the tailgate, remembering that two days ago

129
00:09:12,679 --> 00:09:16,320
had been his mother's birthday. She'd been dead six years,

130
00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:20,440
and this wasn't the first year he'd forgot Dad. He said,

131
00:09:20,639 --> 00:09:24,720
are you okay? Do the nurses know you're on the phone?

132
00:09:24,919 --> 00:09:28,000
A to hell with them? It's not their fiftieth, it's

133
00:09:28,039 --> 00:09:31,799
not yours either. Steeddman thought his father was seventy eight.

134
00:09:32,639 --> 00:09:35,879
This was the first year in the home. Bigger than

135
00:09:35,919 --> 00:09:40,879
a shoebox. I hope his father said, what is my present?

136
00:09:41,159 --> 00:09:43,559
That goddamn dog you gave me last year must have

137
00:09:43,679 --> 00:09:47,440
run off. The dog was a black lab, a gift

138
00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:51,120
from Steedman's mother had died of old age a decade ago.

139
00:09:52,120 --> 00:09:55,759
Steedman moved the phone to his other ear. He recalled

140
00:09:55,799 --> 00:09:58,759
that on trips into the country, his father had always

141
00:09:58,799 --> 00:10:01,559
picked up hitchhikers, but made them right in the back

142
00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:06,519
of the truck with the dog. Dad. Steedman said, now listen,

143
00:10:06,919 --> 00:10:12,639
I've got one for you. Crows easy a murder. This

144
00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:16,000
was a childhood road game. His father used to name

145
00:10:16,039 --> 00:10:19,039
an animal, and Stedman was supposed to give its group's

146
00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:23,720
title an army of frogs, a parliament of owls, like

147
00:10:23,799 --> 00:10:29,759
that turtles. Steedman said, Let's see, his father would do

148
00:10:29,879 --> 00:10:32,519
this all day, like a dog who never tired of

149
00:10:32,559 --> 00:10:38,039
fetching a bell. How about Stedman looked over by the

150
00:10:38,080 --> 00:10:44,279
gas pumps rhinoceroses a pause, and Steedman pictured his father,

151
00:10:44,360 --> 00:10:48,000
who still wore the safety glasses required by his last job.

152
00:10:48,519 --> 00:10:51,799
He'd be standing at the payphone in his blue jump suit,

153
00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:56,279
right hand tapping his ample belly, probably wearing his steel

154
00:10:56,320 --> 00:11:01,039
toe work shoes too. A pride, he said, pride of rhinos.

155
00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:05,840
Behind Stedman. The door slammed, and kill Patrick came limping

156
00:11:05,879 --> 00:11:09,000
around the building, carrying his folding chair in a six pack.

157
00:11:09,559 --> 00:11:14,480
He suddenly looked smaller. Stedman stood up, Dad, I'm gonna

158
00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:18,240
call you later. Kill Patrick opened the chair and sat

159
00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:21,120
in a narrow strip of shade the building offered and

160
00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:25,159
watched and drank as Steedman resumed digging, twisting the augur

161
00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:28,840
deeper into the ground. He thought he could smell gas already,

162
00:11:30,159 --> 00:11:34,679
regular divining ride. Ain't you, kill Patrick said, crossing his legs.

163
00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:39,159
He didn't have socks, which bothered Steedman, like the smelly

164
00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:43,240
bastard was on vacation. I do declare, he said, You

165
00:11:43,399 --> 00:11:47,440
plumb determined to shut me down, ain't you? Stedman wiped

166
00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:50,480
the sweat from his eyes. You know what, if you

167
00:11:50,519 --> 00:11:54,720
want the truth, I'd rather not the hell, kilk Patrick said,

168
00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:58,360
you so goddamn eager to rearin a fellow's living. You'll

169
00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:00,279
find some gas in the ground. If you have to

170
00:12:00,279 --> 00:12:03,320
pump it in their young damn self, that'll be my

171
00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:07,320
last sale, he said to the sky. Three gallons for

172
00:12:07,360 --> 00:12:10,279
this here, smart alect to pour in the dirt. You

173
00:12:10,399 --> 00:12:13,600
try it on over here, Steedman said, Stick your snout

174
00:12:13,639 --> 00:12:16,960
in this hole and see what you smell. Kil Patrick

175
00:12:17,039 --> 00:12:19,799
stubbed out his half smoked cigarette and put it behind

176
00:12:19,799 --> 00:12:23,799
his ear. Stedman stepped aside and rubbed his biceps. As

177
00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:27,440
the old man came over and squatted. He steadied himself

178
00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:30,960
on the auger handle, which stood upright like a detonator.

179
00:12:31,519 --> 00:12:35,360
He made a loud sniffing noise. What do you smell there,

180
00:12:35,519 --> 00:12:40,639
Steedman asked, not a thing? How about that? Steedman stooped

181
00:12:40,679 --> 00:12:45,279
beside Killpatrick. I declare, if I don't smell gas, well shit,

182
00:12:45,559 --> 00:12:49,639
Kilpatrick said, and he belched. You smell what you want

183
00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:52,480
to smell. If you were lonely enough, you'd smell a

184
00:12:52,519 --> 00:12:56,000
girl down in that hole. I don't guess you'd strike

185
00:12:56,039 --> 00:12:59,320
your lighter and hold it there, Steedman said, taking the

186
00:12:59,360 --> 00:13:04,360
old man's to help him up. Kilpatrick yanked his arm away.

187
00:13:05,240 --> 00:13:08,360
Got me a boy, he said, played ball for Auburn.

188
00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:11,120
If he was here today, he'd knock your dick in

189
00:13:11,159 --> 00:13:14,320
the dirt and we'd let that goddamn handle there be

190
00:13:14,440 --> 00:13:18,440
your grave marker, he stalked off, stopping to collect his

191
00:13:18,559 --> 00:13:22,480
chair and his beer. The whole Stedman had been digging

192
00:13:22,679 --> 00:13:26,320
was four inches across in three feet deep. The goods,

193
00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:29,960
that's what his father had called, the petroleum deposits that

194
00:13:30,039 --> 00:13:33,759
he'd found. Steedman knelt and took a handful of soil

195
00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:36,759
and let it fall through his fingers. He longed to

196
00:13:36,759 --> 00:13:41,799
touch something undeveloped and uncontaminated. His father used to come

197
00:13:41,840 --> 00:13:45,159
home excited about a pocket of crude they'd hit. He

198
00:13:45,159 --> 00:13:47,840
would kiss Mom on the lips, and then Scooper and

199
00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:50,960
Steedman into his lap and tell them how the dinosaurs

200
00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:55,200
had died mysteriously, how after millions of years fermenting in

201
00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:59,559
the earth, they had become oil. As he fell asleep

202
00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:04,039
those night, Stedman imagined himself a famous archaeologist in a

203
00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:07,399
field jacket and a miner's light on his pith helmet

204
00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:10,679
and a brush in his hand. Whisking away old dust

205
00:14:10,759 --> 00:14:15,360
to uncover the prehistoric bones of an unknown species, a

206
00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:18,879
rib cage the size of a ship's skull, a skull

207
00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:22,440
big enough to sleep in. He got to his feet,

208
00:14:22,519 --> 00:14:26,200
went to the truck after soil sample jars. Soon he

209
00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:30,360
had them filled and neatly labeled. He brushed himself off,

210
00:14:30,399 --> 00:14:32,320
and then got in the truck and pulled to the

211
00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:35,480
pumps to buy a gas. If it hadn't all leaked out,

212
00:14:36,799 --> 00:14:39,519
the phone rang. It was his father again, with the

213
00:14:39,639 --> 00:14:43,679
right answer. A crash, God, damn it, a crash of rhinos.

214
00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:48,840
Steedman said he'd called him back later. The unleaded pump

215
00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:53,799
was slower than kilpatrick four cents, six cents, eight cents.

216
00:14:54,639 --> 00:14:58,919
Steedman thought he'd been staring at the rhinoceros all day.

217
00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:02,320
He's seen such thing as a kid on tractory excursions,

218
00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:05,399
when he and his father stopped for gas each station

219
00:15:05,559 --> 00:15:08,879
as they drove deeper and deeper into the country, stranger

220
00:15:08,919 --> 00:15:13,159
than the one before. In those days, owners often tried

221
00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:17,360
to attract customers with gimmicks. A two headed pig preserved

222
00:15:17,399 --> 00:15:20,759
in a vat of alcohol, an albine old rattlesnake that

223
00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:27,120
swallowed live possums, free choke taw airheads. Kilpatrick's rhino, though,

224
00:15:27,279 --> 00:15:31,559
seemed more impressive, stretching past the regular gas pump on

225
00:15:31,559 --> 00:15:34,960
one end and the unleted on the other. It was

226
00:15:35,039 --> 00:15:38,399
almost as long as Steadman's truck, and nearly its breadth

227
00:15:39,639 --> 00:15:42,519
with the pump running. He approached the rhino and touched

228
00:15:42,519 --> 00:15:46,000
its flank, as gray and dry and rough as the

229
00:15:46,039 --> 00:15:49,639
side of a mountain. He brought his fingers to his nose.

230
00:15:50,279 --> 00:15:53,320
They smelled musty and leathery, a little oily, like an

231
00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:57,200
old saddle. Clumps of stiff hair stuck out of the

232
00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:01,840
rhinoceros leg joints and hung from its slung belly. Its

233
00:16:01,879 --> 00:16:05,919
eyes were marble and sad and bovine, and Stedman imagined

234
00:16:05,919 --> 00:16:10,120
it chewing grass in an African field. Egrets and wrens

235
00:16:10,159 --> 00:16:14,360
across its broad shoulders and back. The lion or water

236
00:16:14,399 --> 00:16:17,960
buffalo wandered too close, the rhino would toss its great

237
00:16:18,120 --> 00:16:21,159
tank of a head, horns slicing through the air like

238
00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:25,120
a scimitar. He slid his fingers down the slope of

239
00:16:25,159 --> 00:16:28,200
its neck and along its stiff ears and the bony

240
00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:31,840
eye ridges and the snout. The smaller lump like horn

241
00:16:32,159 --> 00:16:37,639
and the larger, more formidable, curved horn. Something rose in

242
00:16:37,759 --> 00:16:42,200
Stedman's chest and his fingertips tingled. It felt like he

243
00:16:42,279 --> 00:16:48,159
was touching his own past. My boy done that, Kilpatrick said.

244
00:16:48,799 --> 00:16:51,039
He stood in the office door with his hands in

245
00:16:51,080 --> 00:16:54,559
his pockets. Got him a job in a carnival after

246
00:16:54,639 --> 00:16:58,159
he tore up his knee playing ball at rhino died

247
00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:01,600
in him and some of his friends clowns and midgets

248
00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:04,480
and shit. They tied it on a trailer and stole

249
00:17:04,519 --> 00:17:07,119
it before anybody could burn it, or whatever the hell

250
00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:11,279
you do with a dead rhino. Kil Patrick chuckled that

251
00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:15,359
crazy boy skinned it and mounted it. He weren't too smart,

252
00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:18,079
but he was a swift running back and held on

253
00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:24,079
wheels and taxidermy. Stedman pressed his shoulder against the rhinoceros's flank.

254
00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:28,000
He could barely move it. It had small, delicate legs

255
00:17:28,039 --> 00:17:30,880
in its feet except for the one lifted, were nailed

256
00:17:30,880 --> 00:17:35,079
to wooden planks with inlets for a fork lift. What

257
00:17:35,279 --> 00:17:39,279
is the way? Steedman asked, she the old man said,

258
00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:42,880
joining him three point fifty. I reckon. My boy was

259
00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:47,440
a strong one. He could lift half of anything. Stedman whistled,

260
00:17:47,799 --> 00:17:51,200
a wolf spider had laced a web between the rhino's horns.

261
00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:54,839
He flicked the spotter off and pulled away the web.

262
00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:01,279
Would you sell her, he asked, Kilpatrick snorted, reckon, I'm fixing.

263
00:18:01,319 --> 00:18:04,440
I have to sell everything. He wiped his lips with

264
00:18:04,519 --> 00:18:08,000
a black rag. Well, these folks pay a heap for

265
00:18:08,079 --> 00:18:11,759
that big horn by itself. Then poachers overseas said, if

266
00:18:11,839 --> 00:18:14,359
you grind it up with powder, it's like giving a

267
00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:20,200
woman a bucket of damn oysters. What if Steedman said,

268
00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:26,200
I could let you keep your station, Kilpatrick regarded him,

269
00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:30,440
I could rig something. Steedman said, you got to have

270
00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:33,359
a leak detection. That's all there is to it. If

271
00:18:33,359 --> 00:18:36,960
you don't, we'll both get caught. He studied the ground

272
00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:40,599
at his feet, dirt he knew deep down was contaminated.

273
00:18:41,319 --> 00:18:44,000
You couldn't guess what might happen below the top soil

274
00:18:44,039 --> 00:18:47,440
when you mix things up. He'd work one project where

275
00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:51,319
several tons of buried in secticide ways had been accidentally

276
00:18:51,319 --> 00:18:54,799
discovered by a baiko. The sludge had eaten through the

277
00:18:54,839 --> 00:18:58,000
metal barrels it had been stored in and mixed with

278
00:18:58,079 --> 00:19:01,359
each other, and the minerals and the and they formed

279
00:19:01,359 --> 00:19:06,400
a strange new chemical combination. The unlucky backo driver had

280
00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:10,039
died instantly from the murky green cloud that belched out

281
00:19:10,079 --> 00:19:14,720
of the ground. Stedman walked into the road, hazy with

282
00:19:14,839 --> 00:19:17,640
heat as far as he could see, and for a

283
00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:21,200
moment he thought a truck was coming, an eighteen wheeler,

284
00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:25,519
but it was only a mirage. Shading his eyes dizzy

285
00:19:25,559 --> 00:19:28,359
with heat, he barely heard the gas pump click off.

286
00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:32,519
I guess you were right the first time, he told Killpatrick.

287
00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:35,759
On the clean side of the station, where the tanks

288
00:19:35,799 --> 00:19:39,440
weren't buried, Stedman placed the fake pipe he'd pulled out

289
00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:42,680
of the ground. He used a sledge hammer to drive

290
00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:45,559
it deep, and then tamped the dirt tight with the handle.

291
00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:49,119
He resumed with the augur and began digging the first

292
00:19:49,119 --> 00:19:52,359
of four holes around the fake ports and then the

293
00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:56,039
widening strip of shade. Kill Patrick watched and drank beer

294
00:19:56,440 --> 00:20:01,359
and smoked, and crossed and uncrossed his legs. His shirt off,

295
00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:05,720
Steedman augured into the night. At about six feet down

296
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:09,920
groundwater started seeping into the holes. He saw it with

297
00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:17,440
his flashlight, clear uncontaminated the goods. He kept digging. Kill

298
00:20:17,519 --> 00:20:20,480
Patrick rose once and leaped toward him and handed him

299
00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:23,559
a beer. The old man turned and walked several feet

300
00:20:23,599 --> 00:20:26,720
away and took a leak while Stedman drank. Then he

301
00:20:26,799 --> 00:20:29,720
came back for the empty bottle and returned to his chair.

302
00:20:31,039 --> 00:20:33,599
In the distance, a coode began to howl, and kill

303
00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:40,119
Patrick yelled shut up, and the howling stopped. Stedman finished

304
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:44,200
digging just after nine thirty in the bright moonlight. A

305
00:20:44,319 --> 00:20:47,119
car had passed a few minutes earlier, and only now

306
00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:51,559
did he comprehend it. It had slowed, and a black

307
00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:55,079
face peered out the open passenger window, and a black

308
00:20:55,160 --> 00:21:00,920
hand had waved. Had Stedman waved back at his truck,

309
00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:04,400
He slid four eight foot long PVC pipes from the

310
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:08,839
side rack. Kilpatrick, who'd been napping, woke and said, what

311
00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:13,119
are you up to now? These are your monitoring wells.

312
00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:17,519
Stedman grunted, twisting the pipe into the first hole. The

313
00:21:17,559 --> 00:21:20,319
way they work is when I stick them in the ground,

314
00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:23,880
they fill up with water, and if the water is contaminated,

315
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:26,759
like it probably is on the other side, it have

316
00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:30,160
an oly sheen on the top. But over here, you

317
00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:33,319
shine your flashlight in there, you'll just see clean water.

318
00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:36,799
And if the EPA comes to check on you, these

319
00:21:36,839 --> 00:21:41,279
ones will be clear. Stedman forced the last pipe in

320
00:21:41,319 --> 00:21:45,359
the ground until all but eight inches showed there, he said,

321
00:21:45,599 --> 00:21:49,240
strewing on the cap. Now tomorrow I'll come pour seamen

322
00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:52,960
around here so nobody will be inclined to check your authenticity.

323
00:21:54,599 --> 00:21:58,880
Kilpatrick's camel glowed. A strange sound came from the darkness.

324
00:21:59,279 --> 00:22:03,799
It's a fart maybe, or a grunt of approval. One

325
00:22:03,839 --> 00:22:08,839
more thing, Stedman said, disassembling the auger. Tomorrow that rhino

326
00:22:09,039 --> 00:22:13,480
comes with me clean her up tonight. Kill Patrick said,

327
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:17,400
you can borrow my trailer. After a moment, the two

328
00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:22,680
men shook hands. The next morning at the office, Steedman

329
00:22:22,799 --> 00:22:25,480
fed ex the jars of soil from a jar to

330
00:22:25,559 --> 00:22:28,839
the lab in Savannah. The results would be back in

331
00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:32,359
a week. He popped his head into his secretary's office

332
00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:35,559
and told her that kill Patrick Sinclair's station had been

333
00:22:35,599 --> 00:22:38,720
a bust, that the old man already had a leak detection.

334
00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:42,519
Then he told her it was his father's birthday and

335
00:22:42,559 --> 00:22:47,480
he was taking the day off. Ignoring her raised eyebrows,

336
00:22:47,559 --> 00:22:50,200
Steadman walked down the hall and went outside to his

337
00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:53,480
truck and with eight bags of quick dry cement. He

338
00:22:53,559 --> 00:22:58,160
drove to kill Patrick's. The old man sat smoking in

339
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:02,240
his office beside an open coke machine. The unleaded gas

340
00:23:02,279 --> 00:23:06,880
pump still showed the eighteen dollars Stedman had bought yesterday.

341
00:23:07,279 --> 00:23:10,039
Kill Patrick jerked his thumb toward the back of the station.

342
00:23:10,759 --> 00:23:15,039
The rhinoceros stood on the trailer, held tight by chains,

343
00:23:15,039 --> 00:23:18,799
and come along. Kill Patrick walked out from under the shed,

344
00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:22,759
hands in his pockets. He directed Stedman in backing the

345
00:23:22,799 --> 00:23:26,400
truck to the trailer. The rhino's skin was clean, its

346
00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:29,960
eyes polished and smelled of lice on. It looked ready

347
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:33,279
to stalk those feet and break loose from the puny chains,

348
00:23:33,319 --> 00:23:38,000
and come along and charge. Well, you say, kill Patrick said.

349
00:23:39,279 --> 00:23:42,920
Steedman paused the bag of seaman on each shoulder. It's

350
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:49,559
cooler today, the old man squinted at the sky. Yeah, Mike, rain, Mike,

351
00:23:49,799 --> 00:23:55,200
said Steedman. Steedman poured seamen around the wells, adding water

352
00:23:55,319 --> 00:23:58,759
from a leaky garden hose, while Kilpatrick hitched the trailer.

353
00:23:59,079 --> 00:24:03,039
Cigarette dangle from his lips now and again. He coughed.

354
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:08,000
When he'd finished, Steadman walked to the trailer. Kil Patrick

355
00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:11,519
was wiring the trailer lights. How come your son gave

356
00:24:11,519 --> 00:24:15,960
you that rhino, Stedman asked. Kil Patrick didn't look up.

357
00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:21,440
I don't remember, he said. Together they threw a tarp

358
00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:25,039
across the rhinoceros, and then stepped back to inspect the job.

359
00:24:25,759 --> 00:24:29,880
It seemed illegal and transporting something so large and so threatening,

360
00:24:30,799 --> 00:24:34,359
But that worry was soon shrieking in Steedman's mirror as

361
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:37,119
the truck kicked up dust enough to blot out kill

362
00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:40,640
Patrick from sight. Hell of a lot bigger than a

363
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:45,079
shoe box, Steedman thought, picturing the rhino beside the azaleahs,

364
00:24:45,599 --> 00:24:48,960
surrounded by old people at the nursing home, his father

365
00:24:49,079 --> 00:24:53,119
among them, touching and stroking the dangerous beast with lust

366
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:58,400
in their fingertips. A birthday gift, ancient, faithful and unforgettable

367
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:02,880
birds to collect on the rhino's back, and Stedman knew

368
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:08,039
his father would impress everyone by identifying the birds. As

369
00:25:08,039 --> 00:25:13,640
he drove away from Kilpatrick's Steedman pretended the rhino chased him, and,

370
00:25:13,759 --> 00:25:17,240
like a child running at night, he went faster and faster,

371
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:22,559
but the rhinoceros stayed close behind, its eyes tiny and clear,

372
00:25:22,599 --> 00:25:25,839
and its nose low, and its horn inches away from

373
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:27,200
Stedman's gas tank,