“Who’s Steve?” T. R. repeated the question. “You know who Steve is. Stop kidding around.
Come on, let’s go.”
The giant tyrannosaurus rex turned, and his tail almost knocked them over like dominoes.
“I don’t want to go,” George said. “I want to go home.”
“I think we have to go with him George,” Grandpa told him. “He might know what is going on. Or maybe Steve knows.”
“I want to know who Steve is,” Harold started running after the T-Rex as he was getting farther and farther away from them.
“Wait!” Grandpa called after hm. “We need to stay together.”
He grabbed Olivia’s hand, pushed George in front of him and they began to follow Harold. Harold eventually got tired of running and waited for the three of them to catch up. It so happens that it is easy to follow a T-rex because they leave a huge path of trees that they have knocked over. The four people walked in the middle of that path. Olivia and Grandpa also found that walking in the mud with their slippers wasn’t easy. Harold and George were lucky because they had their boots on. The best thing that happened is that the ground stopped shaking and it was easier to walk.
“Why did the ground stop shaking?” Olivia asked.
“Probably T. R. is either too far away from us or he stopped somewhere,” Harold answered as he walked with his head down.
“Who’s T. R.?” George said. He was holding Grandpa’s hand now.
“He said his name was T.R.,” Harold turned on his friend, walking backwards. “Don’t you listen?”
“Now, now,” Grandpas said. “He just forgot, Harold. Be nice.”
“Grandpa?” Olivia spoke up. “Where are we?”
“Well,” he began to say. “I think we are, mysteriously, in the time of the dinosaurs and everything is much bigger.”
“Where did the house go?” George asked.
“Now, George, that is an interesting question that I don’t know the answer to…yet.” Grandpa answered George.
“Maybe Steve knows,” Harold said. “Whoever he is.”
Suddenly the ground began to shake again and up around the corner, T. R. looked around a very tall palm tree. He clapped his hands and started walking toward them.
“I forgot that you guys cannot walk as fast as me because I am so much bigger than you,” T. R. said when he got closer. “Do you want a ride?”
Harold did not hesitate, “Sure!”
Grandpa, who was holding not only George’s hand but Olivia’s hand, too. When T. R. lowered his head , Grandpa led them as he followed Harold and they climbed on the dinosaur’s back.
“Now hold on tight to my spines and away we go!” T. R. said as he started to walk.
The shaking of the ground wasn’t as bad because they were now making them and soon, they found themselves laughing as they rode on top of the dinosaur.
Harold could now see that T.R. wasn’t making a path but following one. In the distance, he could see a mountain rising up from the ground before them. It was still far away but because it was so big, it looked closer than what it really was. The trees and grasses were tall, and he was sure he saw smaller dinosaurs and he wondered what kind they were. As they turned a sharp corner, and a lake appeared in front of them. The dinosaur began to slow down.
“Okay,” T. R. said to them and he lowered his head. “It is time to get off of me and I will go tell Steve that you are here. He will be so happy to meet Olivia.”
Harold, Olivia, George, and Grandpa stood by the lake and watched the tyrannosaurus rex disappear around the corner of the lake. Harold left the three of them and began to look around.
He noticed that behind them that a small fire was burning in a small fire pit.
“Grandpa,” Harold called. “Look, here is a fire.”
Grandpa and the two other children walked to where Harold stood, and they stared at the fire. Resting over the fire was a framework of metal that had triangles at each end with one thick rod between the two of them.
“What’s that?” Olivia asked as she pointed to a pile next to the pit.
Harold walked over to the pile and bent down. He started pushing through the pile of items and said, “It’s pots and pans and a kettle. Here are some metal plates and forks, spoons and knives, too.”
“Where did they come from and who started this fire?” Olivia wondered out loud.
“Strange,” Grandpa said. “Very strange.”
At that moment, the ground began to shake, and they turned to see T. R. walking toward them. They could see behind him was a shorter dinosaur but wider with these huge, flattened plates all along the ridge of its back.
“Steve is a stegosaurus!” Olivia screamed and ran toward the dinosaurs.
“Wait!” Grandpa called after Olivia and he started to run after her. Harold and George ran close behind them.
Harold quickly ran past Grandpa and ahead of Olivia. He stopped in front of T.R. and asked, “Is that Steve?”
T.R. clapped his hands together and said, “Yes, it is Steve! Steve, this is Harold and that little boy is George and that old man is Grandpa and this, is Olivia.”
Steve the stegosaurus bent his head to get his eyes to the same level as Olivia and said, “So you are Olivia. It is so nice to finally meet you. My name is Steve.”
Olivia stood very still and said to the stegosaurus, “Hello. It is so nice to meet you. How do you know my name?”
“Oh, we all know who you are, but I know that you are a very kind person,” Steve said to her. He raised his head to look at the others and said, “It is so nice to meet all of you. Welcome to our home! Was the fire the right size? It seemed little to me, but I was hoping it was right for you.”
“You made the fire?” Harold asked surprised. “How?”
“I will not share our secrets. How about the cooking vessels? Are they adequate for cooking?” Steve asked as he walked toward the fire.
“Yes, they seem to be,” Grandpa answered.
“Stop!” Harold yelled and everyone turned to look at him. “I, we, have questions!”
“Well,” Steve said. “Let’s go sit around the fire and I will tell you everything.”
To be continued…
My First Stories 