Urban Archaeology

Urban Archaeology officially has a new home! schalverson.wordpress.com! Just wanted to let all of you know that Urban will no longer be here. The installments that are on blogger will stay, but the rest of the installments will be at the wordpress address. Any questions, just comment!

Urban Archaeology: Sixth Installment

“Oh! I am so sorry! I am so, so clumsy. Forgive me?” asked Fey with a quick batting of eyelashes. She stood there, taking in the look of Sanjay. He had thick black hair, cropped close to his head and brown eyes so dark they were nearly black. He stood at six foot two inches, and had a mouth that was always smiling, no matter the circumstances.
By the time that Fey jarred herself out of string, Sanjay had already answered her, the gathering of monks had dissipated and Tristan’s whole team were standing around the area that the monks had just vacated. Fey’s husband, Derrik was waving his hand in front of her face to see if her eyes were in focus and if she was paying attention to what Tristan and Lacie were saying to each other.
“Okay, I realize that what happened on the train was irrational. I hadn’t seen you in so long, and at one point in my life, I thought I loved you. But when I never saw you again, never heard from you, it broke my heart. I am sorry, and I know that we are assigned to the same place, so we will have to see each other. So, I would like to apologize. Tris, can you forgive me?”
“Lacie, there is nothing to forgive on your side of this. It’s my fault, I started the argument, I didn’t to deal with anything today. I’ve been in a bad mood the last couple of weeks, and seeing you broke the last strand. I am sorry; I am the one apologizing, here. Can you forgive me?”
~~~
Lacie, getting a look on her face that clearly stated that she had made up her mind about something, walked to Tris and put her arms around his waist. She snuggled her cheek into his chest and said, “There is nothing to forgive. It was a shock, seeing each other again like this. I can’t believe that Errikson would do something like that to us, especially when he knows our history. It makes me feel betrayed in a way that he wouldn’t tell me that you worked for him.” She turned her head, looking up at him with her chin on his chest. “And you knew that I worked at Urban, so why didn’t you ever say hello and tell me who you were. Of course, I knew who you were, but it would have been nice to hear it from you. But, I guess fate has decided what happens or some such.”
Tristan had put his arms around Lacie when she came to him, pulling her closer and resting his cheek on the top of her head. When she moved, he raised his head to look down at her. “I was given strict orders by Errikson to do my job and not interfere with yours. In fact, you aren’t supposed to know I was even there, or going to be here for that matter. I wanted to come to you and talk, but you know the boss, go against what he says, he has a fit. But let’s leave that be for now. I want you to meet my friends, who are also my family, who are my team.”
He let go of her, only to take her hand and lead her to the group of people waiting a little distance away. “This is Fey, she’s crazy, but you already know that. Derrik Walson is her husband,” he motioned toward an average sized man with blond hair and beard, and then pointed at another, this one had dark hair and glasses, “This one is Kevin Smith; the Latino next to him is Erick Rodgers. The guy in the cowboy hat is Walker Ellson and the short pretty one is Chrystal Baker. Everyone, this is Lacie Sullivan, the one I told you about.”
Lacie picked her hand up from Tris’s chest and gave a small wave to the whole group. Fey had a huge smile on her face, Derrik waved back, Kevin nodded, Chrystal smiled as she popped her bright ping bubble gum, Erick said hello in Spanish and Walker actually took off his hat and bowed.
“Walker’s a suck-up. Watch out for him,” Tris said with a smile on his lips and a chuckle in his voice. “So, this is my team. Practically my family, because we are with each other for ten months out of the year. We go home for November and December.”
“It is really nice to meet all of you. I am sorry about what happened back there on the train. That was pretty embarrassing,” Lacie looked up at Tristan. “I have to find Ashwan and get my bags, get everything set up so I can talk to the monks and take pictures of the area. Im thinking about giving myself my own tour. Do all of you want to come too?” She asked as she turned from facing him to facing his people.
“Fey and I have to take care of a few things. Set up the tents and get everything in order, so maybe tomorrow would work for us,” said Derrik. Fey looked at him with a puzzled look on her face. When he winked at her, she understood what was going on in his mind. The rest of them make excuses to not come either. Kevin had to set up the tech stuff, Chrystal had to get the kitchen put to rights, Erick claimed he needed to take care of the gear, while Walker said he had some paperwork to do that needed to be done yesterday. Lacie looked up at Tris to see if he would make something up or if he could go with her. He gave her a crooked smile, then said, “Lets go find Ashwan and get your stuff together. Then we’ll go on that walk.”

Urban Archaeology: Fifth Installment

Okay, so the language that you cant read is Malay.
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“Saya tahu saya akan memerlukan panduan, tetapi kerana memerlukan penterjemah, i dont pikir saya akan butuh satu.”
“I know I will need a guide, but as for needing a translator, I don’t think I will need one.”
The monk looked at her in astonishment. “When I heard from your contact last, he said that you only knew the basics of our language. Ms. Sullivan, that was three weeks ago! How did you manage to learn Malay in that amount of time? Ketika saya mendengar daripada kenalan terkini, dia mengatakan bahawa anda hanya mengetahui dasar-dasar bahasa kita. Ms Sullivan, yang tiga minggu yang lalu! Bagaimana kau boleh belajar di Malaysia jumlah masa?”
Lacie smiled. “Aku bisa melakukan banyak ketika aku menaruh fikiran saya untuk itu. Aku belajar sendiri bahasa Latin hanya selama lima minggu, Greece di empat dan aku belajar bahasa Sepanyol dan Itali pada masa yang sama. I can do a lot when I put my mind to it. I taught myself Latin in just over five weeks, Greek in four and I learned Spanish and Italian at the same time.”
Sanjay looked at Lacie and said, “Not to be bragging or anything. Lacie is just that accomplished.”
Lacie stuck her tongue out at Sanjay and he gave her a look at the same time that a family of four from Canada was walking through snapping pictures of everything.


Tris got out of the truck that Fey’s husband had just driven over from the train station to Angkor Wat. He stretched, looked around, and saw with great amazement all of the bright orange habits that the monks wore all over the place. The central unit of color, however, was in a tight ring around three people.
Fey, being the kind of person that she was, had to find out what the ruckus was all about, so she grabbed Tris’s khaki shirt sleeve and drug him over.
In the middle of the ring, conversing with each monk as they spoke to her, learning all their names, and speaking in a mix of Malay and English, was Lacie. She looked so beautiful, a calm within the storm of words and arguments being flung around the circle.
Lacie looked up, thinking that another monk had decided to join in on the melee of sound and people, only to make contact with bright blue eyes. Tristan. He’s here. At least he wasn’t lying to me.
Tris raised his hand in a little wave of hello, while Fey managed to tunnel her way through the mass of orange robes and copper skin, until she had made her way to Lacie.
“Hey! We told you we would find you!” she said with a huge grin. Fey threw her arms around Lacie, giving her a hug, which Lacie returned. Fey stepped back from Lacie backing into Sanjay, and then she twirled around to see who she had smacked into.

Urban Archaeology: Fourth Installment

Okay, it's been a while since I've posted anything. So, to get you updated... Urban Archaeology is still set in Cambodia. The foreign language at the end of this post is Malay because I couldn't get Khmer to translate into something that actually looked like a language as opposed to symbols. The characters are still Lacie Sullivan and Tristan Lyons, though new characters have been introduced. Some of them likable, but some not so much. So, here you go. Multiple days of writing in its horribly raw form. Enjoy!!

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“Boss, you are acting different. Like, more than you usually are. What’s going on?” asked Fey Walson.
“Nothing! I’m just talking to Lacie. What’s wrong with that?” snapped Tris.
“Do you usually yell at young women you haven’t seen in years? Because if you do, remind me not to leave you for extended periods of time.
Tristan gave Fey a look that could make stone crack it was so cold, but Fey, being used to it, just gave him a huge cheesy smile. Lacie looked around at all the faces grinning at Tristan Lyons and she looked at Tris, who had a glare on his face that had the potential of freezing there.
“Why don’t we put this behind us? Pretend this never happened and once we get off this train, we go our separate ways.” Lacie suggested.
Tris swiveled in his seat and gave her a bored look. “That would be great, doll, but both of us are going to Angkor Wat. Seems to be a bit of a problem to me.”
“Angkor Wat is a big place. We could be in the same area and still not see each other. I am learning from and living with the monks in the middle temple.”
“I am excavating a part in the lower area of the middle temple.”
“I hate you.”



Four hours later, the train came to a jarring halt. The same Cambodian boy came to take them to the platform. People jostled out of their seats, knocked each other in the head with their luggage and curses were being thrown left and right.
Once they were on the platform, Lacie found her guide, Sanjay, who took her to a waiting car to be taken to Angkor. Lacie handed over her bags, got in the back and, when Sanjay closed the cab door, she could see Tris and his team standing on the sidewalk, loading their things into a truck for hire.
“It’s good to see you again, Sanjay. How is your wife?”
The tall dark skinned man turned around in the front seat to look at her. His mouth stretched into a huge grin, showing off his white teeth, and said with pride, “Mari is very good. She is going to have a baby soon.”
“Oh, Sanjay! That is so wonderful!” and they talked about it all the way to Angkor, which, with the horrific traffic, took a good chunk of time.
Meanwhile, back at the train station, Tris and Fey were directing the rest how to load the gear.
“So, she hates you, huh?”
“No, Fey. I think she was just saying that. Of course she hates me! I yelled at her the moment I saw her on that train and I don’t know why. I haven’t seen her up close, even talked to her, in years, and my actions weren’t acceptable. Now she is going to do everything she can to stay away from me.”
As they all loaded in the truck, 3 in the front and 4 in the back with the gear, they didn’t notice the man in flowing black robes, holding a huge sword, watching both them and Lacie leave.
The man stood between the vendors, surrounded by various fruits, people and goods for sale. He knew the Americans hadn’t seen him, so his plan was still active.
The girl was pretty, with black hair and green eyes, a startling resemblance to the man who had hired him for the job.

Seamus Sullivan was an entrepreneur. Though he didn’t dabble in the arts and conventional business like his brother, he was doing quite well for himself.
He owned people. Not like slavery, but almost as bad. He made them do what he wanted no matter how shady, dark or degraded it was, he made sure they did it.
So when he hired Sharif Kasib to kill his niece, he expected it to be done quick, clean, quiet and precise. Sullivan was not a man who allowed sloppy jobs and incompetent people to rain on his illegal and very expensive parade.
Lacie had to be dealt with. She had killed his Mary Margaret. Of course, the police reports were written so it was read as an accident, due to heavy rains, slick roads and high winds, but he was convinced that Lacie had killed his Maggie on purpose.
And it was equally smart of her to go to a place where the job could be done and no one, not even the government, would give it a second glance, Seamus Sullivan thought with a wicked smirk on his face as he rubbed his hands together, Godfather style.

Sharif Kasib was a man who could blend into the background very easily. He was nondescript, middle height and average looking. Anyone observing Kasib would think that he had a daughter that he bounced on his knee and a Cambodian version of a 401-K. The same person observing Kasib while he was working wouldn’t live to tell the tale.
~
Sanjay and Lacie got out of the cab, loaded all her gear and luggage onto a flatbed cart pulled by two matching donkeys, whose names, apparently, were Huey and Lewis. It seemed like the people in Cambodia liked The News.
A short monk, dressed in the bright orange of his order, greeted them on the other side of the long stretch of bridge from the main land into the middle of the lake that held Angkor Wat. “Ms. Sullivan,” he said, his voice heavily accented but his English was very good, “I am Ashwan. I am to welcome you to Angkor Wat and take you to your room. While you are here, I am to be your guide and translator as well. If you have any questions, please ask me. Follow.” Ashwan started down the long lanes between the towering temples, forcing Lacie to look up at their huge mass of wonderful inlays and stonework.

“Saya tahu saya akan memerlukan panduan, tetapi kerana memerlukan penterjemah, i dont pikir saya akan butuh satu. I know I will need a guide, but as for needing a translator, I don’t think I will need one.”
The monk looked at her in astonishment. “When I heard from your contact last, he said that you only knew the basics of our language. Ms. Sullivan, that was three weeks ago! How did you manage to learn Malay in that amount of time? Ketika saya mendengar daripada kenalan terkini, dia mengatakan bahawa anda hanya mengetahui dasar-dasar bahasa kita. Ms Sullivan, yang tiga minggu yang lalu! Bagaimana kau boleh belajar di Malaysia jumlah masa?”
Lacie smiled. “Aku bisa melakukan banyak ketika aku menaruh fikiran saya untuk itu. Aku belajar sendiri bahasa Latin hanya selama lima minggu, Greece di empat dan aku belajar bahasa Sepanyol dan Itali pada masa yang sama. I can do a lot when I put my mind to it. I taught myself Latin in just over five weeks, Greek in four and I learned Spanish and Italian at the same time.”
Sanjay looked at Lacie and said, “Not to be bragging or anything. Lacie is just that accomplished.”
Lacie stuck her tongue out at Sanjay and he gave her a look at the same time that a family of four from Canada was walking through snapping pictures of everything.

I'm going to finish this, and I am going to win!!!

I might actually finish this. Really! For my creative writing class (which I am totally going to love, as the teacher is vaguely Julie-esque) we write for 5-6 minutes every day of class before class starts. On off days, it's 1/2 hour of writing, and we have to keep a Writing Journal. I am going to work on Urban Archaeology, and this year I am going to cheat, by using this as my NaNoWriMo story too. That way it is practically guaranteed that it gets done! I love this so much!!