Dinosaurs Before Dark (2 page)

Jack crawled through a hole in the tree house floor.

Wow. The tree house
was
filled with books. Books everywhere. Very old books with dusty covers. New books with shiny, bright covers.

“Look. You can see far, far away,” said Annie. She was peering out the tree house window.

Jack looked out the window with her. Down below were the tops of the other trees. In the distance he saw the Frog Creek library.
The elementary school. The park.

Annie pointed in the other direction.

“There's our house,” she said.

Sure enough. There was their white wooden house with the green porch. Next door was their neighbor's black dog, Henry. He looked very tiny.

“Hi, Henry!” shouted Annie.

“Shush!” said Jack. “We're not supposed to be up here.”

He glanced around the tree house again.

“I wonder who owns all these books,” he said. He noticed bookmarks were sticking out of many of them.

“I like this one,” said Annie. She held up a book with a castle on the cover.

“Here's a book about Pennsylvania,” said Jack. He turned to the page with the bookmark.

“Hey, there's a picture of Frog Creek in here,” said Jack. “It's a picture of
these
woods!”

“Oh, here's a book for you,” said Annie. She held up a book about dinosaurs. A blue silk bookmark was sticking out of it.

“Let me see it.” Jack set down his backpack and grabbed the book from her.

“You look at that one, and I'll look at the one about castles,” said Annie.

“No, we better not,” said Jack. “We don't know who these books belong to.”

But even as he said this, Jack opened the dinosaur book to where the bookmark was. He couldn't help himself.

He turned to a picture of an ancient flying reptile. A Pteranodon.

He touched the huge bat-like wings.

“Wow,” whispered Jack. “I wish I could
see a Pteranodon for real.”

Jack studied the picture of the odd-looking creature soaring through the sky.

“Ahhh!” screamed Annie.

“What?” said Jack.

“A monster!” Annie cried. She pointed to the tree house window.

“Stop pretending, Annie,” said Jack.

“No, really!” said Annie.

Jack looked out the window.

A giant creature was gliding above the treetops! He had a long, weird crest on the back of his head. A skinny beak. And huge bat-like wings!

It was a real live Pteranodon!

The creature curved through the sky. He was coming straight toward the tree house. He looked like a glider plane!

The wind began to blow.

The leaves trembled.

Suddenly the creature soared up. High into the sky. Jack nearly fell out the window trying to see it.

The wind picked up. It was whistling now.

The tree house started to spin.

“What's happening?” cried Jack.

“Get down!” shouted Annie.

She pulled him back from the window.

The tree house was spinning. Faster and faster.

Jack squeezed his eyes shut. He held on to Annie.

Then everything was still.

Absolutely still.

Jack opened his eyes. Sunlight slanted through the window.

There was Annie. The books. His backpack.

The tree house was still high up in an oak tree.

But it wasn't the
same
oak tree.

Jack looked out the window.

He looked down at the picture in the book.

He looked back out the window.

The world outside and the world in the picture—they were exactly the same.

The Pteranodon was soaring through the sky. The ground was covered with ferns and tall grass. There was a winding stream. A sloping hill. And volcanoes in the distance.

“Wh-where are we?” stammered Jack.

The Pteranodon glided down to the base of their tree. The creature coasted to a stop. And
stood very still.

“What happened to us?” said Annie. She looked at Jack. He looked at her.

“I don't know,” said Jack. “I was looking at the picture in the book—”

“And you said, ‘Wow, I wish I could see a Pteranodon for real,' ” said Annie.

“Yeah. And then we saw one. In the Frog Creek woods,” said Jack.

“Yeah. And then the wind got loud. And the tree house started spinning,” said Annie.

“And we landed here,” said Jack.

“And we landed here,” said Annie.

“So that means … ” said Jack.

“So that means … what?” said Annie.

“Nothing,” said Jack. He shook his head. “None of this can be real.”

Annie looked out the window again. “But
he
's real,” she said. “He's
very
real.”

Jack looked out the window with her. The Pteranodon was standing at the base of the oak tree. Like a guard. His giant wings were spread out on either side of him.

“Hi!” Annie shouted.

“Shush!” said Jack. “We're not supposed to be here.”

“But where is
here?
” said Annie.

“I don't know,” said Jack.

“Hi!” Annie called again to the creature.

The Pteranodon looked up at them.

“Where is
here?
” Annie called down.

“You're nuts. He can't talk,” said Jack. “But maybe the book can tell us.”

Jack looked down at the book. He read the words under the picture:

No. Impossible. They couldn't have landed in a time 65 million years ago.

“Jack,” said Annie. “He's nice.”

“Nice?”

“Yeah, I can tell. Let's go down and talk to him.”

“Talk to him?”

Annie started down the rope ladder.

“Hey!” shouted Jack.

But Annie kept going.

“Are you crazy?” Jack called.

Annie dropped to the ground. She stepped boldly up to the ancient creature.

Jack gasped as Annie held out her hand.

Oh, brother. She was always trying to make friends with animals. But this was going too far.

“Don't get too close to him, Annie!” Jack shouted.

But Annie touched the Pteranodon's crest. She stroked his neck. She was talking to him.

What in the world was she saying?

Jack took a deep breath. Okay. He would go down, too. It would be good to examine the
creature. Take notes. Like a scientist.

Jack started down the rope ladder.

When he got to the ground, Jack was only a few feet away from the creature.

The creature stared at Jack. His eyes were bright and alert.

“He's soft, Jack,” said Annie. “He feels like Henry.”

Jack snorted. “He's no dog, Annie.”

“Feel him, Jack,” said Annie.

Jack didn't move.

“Don't think, Jack. Just do it.”

Jack stepped forward. He put out his arm. Very cautiously. He brushed his hand down the creature's neck.

Interesting. A thin layer of fuzz covered the Pteranodon's skin.

“Soft, huh?” said Annie.

Jack reached into his backpack and pulled out a pencil and a notebook. He wrote:

“What are you doing?” asked Annie.

“Taking notes,” said Jack. “We're probably the first people in the whole world to ever see a real live Pteranodon.”

Jack looked at the Pteranodon again. The creature had a bony crest on top of his head. The crest was longer than Jack's arm.

“I wonder how smart he is,” Jack said.

“
Very
smart,” said Annie.

“Don't count on it,” said Jack. “His brain's probably no bigger than a bean.”

“No, he's very smart. I can feel it,” said Annie. “I'm going to call him Henry.”

Jack wrote in his notebook: