Grant and Ellie

The sun beat down on white and yellow rocks under a brilliant blue sky. Dr. Alan Grant was here in the wilderness to inter. His team was spread out over multiple pits and the entire effort was widespread across multiple acres.

Alan wasn’t getting any older, but he still had some wrinkles where it counted. He was still a bit stiff and not spry or limber; he had many good years ahead and didn’t consider himself over the hill at all. What he did consider is the dirt and how it could honor his favorite creatures from the deep past, the human race. His tail twitched at the thought of all of the sacrifices these noble apes made to make the world whole again.

Alan said, “Take the bones from the van,” as his students started to walk up to him for their next task.

Dr. Grant added, “Place them back carefully. We’ll need to dig out inch by inch and find the slots where these should go.” He could tell that his students needed more direction. He pointed into an open pit with one long claw.

“Look carefully at about the twenty foot layer around here. You’ll see the natural plastic layer the earth was coated in by our human benefactors,” lectured Alan. He loved the noble apes that had preserved the earth from the poisons they had emerged from. His students understood and then moved onto their tasks.

Dr. Ellie Sattler walked up to Dr. Grant. She was wearing the short shorts given to all serious scientists, and asked, “Which species are we interring today?”

Alan offered, “Oh, just some basic soldiers. Their bones are everywhere.” He noticed Ellie’s sagging flesh in a professional but strangely interested way.

A very young boy came up on his walker, and wheezed, “Humans had soldiers? Hah. How silly. Any dinopod could take a human!”

Alan smiled and pulled out a small machine he kept whenever someone might disrespect these altruistic creatures.

“Freddy, this is the weapon of a human soldier. He’d hide in the bushes. Cover himself with foliage so you couldn’t see him and then,” Dr. Grant stared at the young dinopod. The young dinopod’s rheumy eyes were wide given the sudden intensity of his shinier eyed elder.

“BANG!” shouted Alan and the boy jumped up a bit. He held his heart a bit and stabilized.

“This was called a 0.45 ACP 9/11. It could send a pellet at nearly the speed of sound. Some machines would send faster or bigger bullets. Often, a human’s prey wouldn’t even hear the sound of the pellet before their brains created a new red shape previously unfound in their fruit colored breakfast cereal!”

The young boy was scared and tried his best to run, but his legs were still stunted. He managed to get himself over his walker. Ellie and Alan helped him walk off slowly in panic to the left.

Ellie said to Alan afterwards about the boy, “You didn’t need to be so mean to him.”

Dr. Grant said, “I don’t care for kids and he needed to learn respect for these fine animals. Without them, our entire way of living wouldn’t be possible. Think of all the things these most altruistic and caring creatures who ever stepped foot on earth built to save our planet. The worldwide plastic wrap to keep the soils fresh from poison gas was just one of their mighty works. To think, apes who emerged from poison finally make a paradise. Then, everything destroyed in a mighty volcano that formed the comet we see flying away.”

Ellie looked at Alan to expand on why children learn differently under stress. She started in but a phone in their tent rang. Alan held up a talon to stop her and picked up the ringing phone.

A very old dino was on the other end, “Waaaa! My park of humans is having technical troubles.”

Alan couldn’t hear exactly what the other dinopod said, but it was clear he was very old. He respectfully offered, “I’m sorry sir, I’m not sure what you need? I’m very busy and maybe your mommy is there to talk to me?”

Alan could hear the very old man running down a hallway to find his mommy, “I spent all my money on electric trams instead of basic security and staffing! Waaaa! I thought everything could be automated! Waaaaa! Wait. My mommy will tell you all about it.”

A somewhat younger dino was on the line, “Hi. I’m Johnny Hammond’s surrogate mommy. He owns an amusement park about your studies: humans in the 20th century. Johnny would say things like, ‘It’s like The Quaternary age when humans ruled the earth.’ Do you mind coming out to the park, please? We could use some help and Johnny says that your group is the best in the field. Well, we have a field and we need the best people there.”

Grant said, “I’m sorry, but I’ve no time to help a theme park. I’ve important business here putting things back where they belong. I can’t inter…”

The younger dino offered, “Johnny told me to tell you that he’d pay for your next ten years of research and interring. Does that sound fair?”

Ellie’s rheumy bright blue eyes went wide and Alan sputtered into the phone, “Uh yes. More than fair. We’ll find our way to you soon!”

The younger dino said, “Thank you. Johnny is napping but he’d thank you as well. See you soon.”

Ellie shook in delight but needed to sit down. Dr. Grant helped her down before turning to pack his bags.