Bar time cont .( 2)

“Well, “ starts Sydney drinking from her G&T and putting it down again, “you all know I look up to the Mclaughlins, not only because they're fox too but also because without them we may well not have been here. None of us. I know a what-if question is always difficult to predict and usually tricky too.” She continues sighing and slightly drooping her tail.” But after graduating high school I got a chance to talk to Kathy Mclaughlin. And she basically sold me Archaeology.”

“Wait…” exclaims Scarlet almost coming from her chair, “you talked to Kathleen Mclaughlin? … the finder of the First Scroll? … Oh I could so hate you right now … the closet thing I have is a facsimile of that scroll,” she rambles on.

“Well, it’s not like I planned it! I just happened to meet her outside the DRC building proper and we kind of started talking while we walked. She seemed like a really nice person too.” Sydney replies.

“Just stop it before I'm really gonna hate you…“ Scarlet continues with her ears laid back.

You just silently scratch behind her ear as her voice trails off and even you can barely hear her start to purr.

"Oops! I think we made her mind blip!" Sydney chuckles. "Sorry, hun. If I knew it was that important to you, I'd have asked for her autograph for you." Her ears are now flat on her head too and she looks truly sorry. You hear her mutter to herself as of thinking out loud and seemingly oblivious to the rest of us, “ … meeting Kathy … won’t work … we’re supposed to be self-sufficient … not in the foreseeable future … ” Suddenly you see her ears perk up and snapping out of her thoughts as she continues, "But I can do the next best thing. Her personal assistant from the DRC times came over too and is now heading the Archaeology department. Now that I know how important it is to you I could always ask her to talk to you. What you say?"

With a calmer tone now Scarlet goes on, “I know I should be happy for you but you did talk to Kathleen Mclaughlin. She was the one who discovered the original scroll. Which may very well been written in the language of the First Ones.”

“You know,” chuckles Sydney, “that’s more or less how she sold Archaeology to me. Besides, I don’t mind roughing it and I was born with the travel bug. And I also figured that it was a way to travel and get paid for it too."

“So,” you say taking part in discussion again, “after you left the DRC you went to study Archaeology at a Warrigal college?”

“Well, not exactly. As a freshman I couldn’t take Archaeology right away, my first two years would be Anthropology and by the time I had to declare my major I could choose Archaeology. At first I was bummed but then it hit me Kathy herself was an Anthropologist so I would be following in her footsteps … kind of. But they did have an Archaeology merit program which is basically volunteering to help out at dig sites.”

“And how did it finally all work out for you?” Scarlet asks joining in again.

“Well, actually quite good. The only downside to this good news show for me is the administrative demands that comes with it. Ugh, all that paperwork before or after you get something done, it just is so not me. But hey I guess it comes with the territory,” concludes Sydney with a sigh.