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Dr Grant Seeker was now stuck with an iguanodon because, clearly, he hadn’t thought things through. DinoLand was a big enough place for a dinosaur to roam, and it was mainly filled with Dino Institute employees who now knew about him. The tourists and employees at the tourist trap next door did not.
Grant sighed. He really needed to warn Chester and Hester about Lucky (as he’d named the specimen), even though he knew the elderly proprietors of Chester and Hester’s Dino-Rama would definitely do their best to profit of the dinosaur somehow.
So, out of the Dino Institute he went. He had his hands in the pockets of his lab coat as he walked the path that took him past the t-rex skeleton on display, and eventually off campus and to the Restaurantosaurus, which also served as the student lounge. He went through and saw scores of interns and tourists getting fast food - burgers, fries, hot dogs, shrimp…
George Thorogood and the Destroyers was playing - Bad to the Bone. Which made sense, Grant figured. How many songs about palaeontology were there? And would anyone really want to hear songs about digging for dinosaur bones? No, that was more Chester and Hester’s thing.
Outside, Grant was still on Dino Institute territory. And it was quite a walk to Chester and Hester’s. Though the area was full of tourists, he did not arouse suspicion from them - there were a lot of scientists hanging about thanks to his place of work.
It took some time, but Grant got to The Boneyard, where palaeontologists did their digging ever since the first fossil was found there in 1947 - the t-rex that he’d passed earlier on his way out of the Dino Institute. Though many fossils had been found there since.
‘Hey, hey, Dig-Man. I saw a great movie last night.’
‘What was it?’
‘Great Excavations!’
‘Was it as good as The Lizard of Oz?’
‘No.’
Grant looked around for the source of the conversation, as it seemed to be coming from the nearby radio. He found it - two of the interns sitting with pirate radio equipment in the scaffolding above the dig site.
‘The theme this month is “Grads on a Hot Tin Roof”.’
‘Should be the time of the millennium! And to help set the tone, here’s a tribute to the final days of our prehistoric pals!’
At that moment, Blue Öyster Cult’s Godzilla started to play.
‘What are you doing up there?’ Grant called up to them.
‘Oh! Dr Seeker! How’s your iguanodon?’ one of them asked, covering the mic with his hand.
‘Lucky,’ the other one said.
‘Yeah. Lucky. Hey, Digger, why is he called Lucky?’
‘Because he survived the extinction event,’ said Grant.
‘Makes sense.’
‘Of course it does, Bonehead.’
Grant nodded. ‘Lucky’s fine,’ he said. ‘Are Chester and Hester about?’
‘Uh… yeah,’ said Bonehead. ‘I’ve seen them.’
‘They’re working their carnival games,’ said Digger. ‘Why? You gonna tell them about your new pet?’
‘Why didn’t you get fired for that?’ asked Bonehead. ‘If that was me, I totally would have been fired. Is it true you stole Dr Marsh’s log-in credentials?’
‘Yeah, that’s the rumour,’ Digger added.
‘That knowledge is above your pay grade,’ said Grant.
‘You’re not paying us at all,’ said Digger.
Grant nodded. That was a fair comment. ‘Okay, never ask about how I acquired Lucky, and I won’t tell anyone about your little pirate radio station going on here.’
‘Deal,’ said Bonehead. ‘Bye, Dr Seeker!’
The two interns waved at Grant as he carried on the, what would now be a short, walk to Chester and Hester’s Dino-Rama.
Grant could see what used to be a road and the cracks in the asphalt where it had gone neglected for the past forty years. Then he passed what used to be Chester and Hester’s gas station - old fashioned red gas pumps and all - complete with a shaded mural that read; “Greetings from DinoLand USA!”
Opposite was their tacky tourist trap. A green and a blue dinosaur looked down on him on opposite sides of a sign that read; “Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama!”
He hated going inside. It was as though it was mocking him and all his and his colleages’ work at the Dino Institute. He walked past the tacky carnival rides and made his way across the former parking lot to the carnival games. There, Grant found Digger had been right - Chester and Hester were both working the Whac-A-Packycephalosaur game. Like Whac-A-Mole, but themed around pachycephalosauruses rather than moles.
To get their attention, Grant loudly cleared his throat.
‘Ah. Dr Seeker,’ said Hester. ‘I thought you’d been fired.’
‘What made you think that?’ asked Grant.
‘We just… well, we heard some things through the grapevine,’ said Chester, ‘that you’d been causing trouble for Dr Marsh.’
‘Something about an iguanodon,’ said Hester.
So they knew already, Grant thought to himself.
Chester and Hester were likeable enough people. Just because they ran the tourist trap next door it did not mean they were the enemy. They’d taken tours of the Dino Institute and got involved in digs at the Boneyard. They liked Grant, and Grant kind of liked them too. They just also happened to like money more than Scrooge McDuck. And they were stingy, just like Scrooge McDuck. Grant just didn’t want them profiting from Lucky.
‘Yes, you’re right. There was an incident with an iguanodon,’ said Grant. ‘The iguanodon is now living at the Dino Institute.’
Chester had no reaction while Hester simply tried to contain her shock.
‘So, it’s… alive?’ she asked.
‘Uh. Yes.’ Grant nodded. ‘It is indeed.’
‘It’s not you with a rubber hand puppet this time?’ asked Chester.
‘No. No it is not.’ Grant shook his head.
‘You’re telling us that a real, actual dinosaur is living next door?’ said Hester.
‘Yeah, I thought you should know, just in case he tramples your tourist trap.’
Chester and Hester shared a worried look.
‘Chester?’
‘Yes, Hester?’
‘Is there such thing as Dinosaur Insurance?’