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“Uncle Joel! Look, look!”
No matter how many times his niece uttered those words in the last twenty minutes, Joel still hasn’t grown the least bit tired of them. This time, Laura’s got her face pressed up to the glass of one of the displays in the special traveling exhibit. It takes him a minute to find them, they’re so damn small, but then she exclaims, “Poison dart frogs!”
Joel’s knees scream at him as he gets to her level. Around them, a swarm of kids and adults alike move in and out of the spaces beside them, and he gently tugs Laura in front of him to keep her from tripping over shoes and more importantly, pressing her damn cheeks into the dirty germ-ridden glass. “Shoot, they sure are tiny.” She nods in agreement, eyes still shining with wonderment. “But I guess that makes sense if you’re gonna use ‘em to play darts.”
Laura huffs and wiggles a little like she wants to be let go, but when he releases his gentle hold on her elbows, she still sticks close to him. Joel hears her counting the blue ones under her breath. “The frogs aren’t used for actual darts, Uncle Joel. Just their poison. ”
“Not true,” Joel quips. “I used a set of those blue and orange ones at the pub last week. Threw ‘em right into the wall.” He makes a splat noise with his mouth.
She pulls back, and reads the plaque next to the picture of the one he pointed out; she trips over her tongue as she tries to say the scientific name. “ Ranitomeya amazonica.”
“No, I think the game’s called Cricket Darts.”
“Uncle Joel.”
He can’t help the smile that breaks on his face and he pokes a few of his fingers into her ribs before he manages to press a kiss to her temple. She squeals a little before she tries to wiggle away, this time with the intent of reading the rest of the plaques. He doesn’t let her get too far, content to stay crouched on his heels and achy bent knees; he rests his chin on the top of her head as she reads aloud all the fun facts about each type of frog.
“Dendrobates leucomelas,” she trips over the words. Joel doesn’t even know how to correct her. Her head moves around like an ostrich, stretching her neck to try and find it. “I don’t see it. Do you see it? It’s yellow -”
“Ooh, ooh, right there!”
Joel’s knees don’t stand a chance as a kid Laura’s age barrels in beside them, managing to knock Joel on his ass and pull Laura closer to the glass all within about two seconds. It only takes two more seconds to realize there’s no real harm in the situation - the kids, instant friends in a way kids always are, have their hands tapping on the panes, trying to point out the elusive yellow-banded frog.
Two more seconds, and he hears a tiny, sharp whistle and a grunt from behind him. “Yo, potato. Cool it, man. You bulldozed an innocent NPC on your quest for knowledge.”
The kid, with dark hair and even darker eyes, turns around with a guilty smile. “Sorry, Mom.”
“Don’t apologize to me,” the voice says and Joel looks up to see a young lady who looks barely old enough to order a beer, offering him a hand; she pulls him up with surprising strength, and his eyes trace the intricate tattoo of her forearm before his eyes flicker to her face - pale, freckled, framed by short and shaggy red hair and adorned with a small smirk. “S’not my kneecaps you nearly ripped from their sockets.”
“Sorry about your kneecaps, sir.” the kid says. It’s silly, but sincere. Endearing, he dares say to himself.
“No worries,” he gruffs, throwing Laura a smile to reassure her; as soon as she does she lights up, glad to see no one is in any real trouble.
The woman crosses her arms and nods to the glass. “He’s being nice,” she says to her son. “If it happens again, he’s darting you with one of those frogs.”
The kid scrunches his nose and sticks his tongue out, blowing a raspberry; his mom blows one right back. “These ones aren’t even poisonous.” The boy turns to his niece and with all the charm of Steve Irwin, explains, “They eat plants only found in the Amazon, and that’s what makes them poisonous. Otherwise, they’re just normal frogs.”
“Ummm,” his mom pitches up her voice. She scratches under her nose with one finger before she crosses her arms again. “Not true. They’re totally poisonous. How else do they tranq the dinosaurs at night when they come to life?”
“Night at the Museum is just a movie, Mom.”
“Dude, I’m telling you, that Brachiosaurus winked at me.”
It’s a strange back-and-forth, one that makes Laura giggle. For Joel, he’s not sure what to make of it, yet. And before he gets a chance to dwell on it too long, the lady gives a smile and a little wave.
“I’m Ellie,” She says. “Sorry about my kid, he, uh. Damn.” She snaps her fingers a few times before she points to her son, giving him a shit-eating grin, one the boy matches instantly. “What was your name again?”
“I’m JJ.”
A final snap. “Right, right. Knew it started with a J. Just couldn’t remember what came after. So!” She claps both her hands together and rocks back and forth on her heels a few times. “What brings you to this fine establishment, Miss…?”
His niece practically bounces out of her shoes. “I’m Laura! This is my Uncle Joel.”
Ellie’s smile this time is soft. “Laura. That’s a pretty name.” She looks back down at her son, ruffling his hair a little. “Shoulda given you a pretty name.” The kid laughs as he swats at her attempts at ruining his hair. “Anyway. What brings you and Uncle Joel out to this fine museum today?” Before the kid gets to answer, she says. “Ooh, lemme guess. Early Ides of March celebration?”
Laura grins and shakes her head no.
“What about a birthday? Hmm? Maybe...George Washington’s birthday?”
“Nope.”
“John Adams’ birthday?”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Thomas Jefferson’s - “
Laura rolls her eyes good-naturedly. She’s only six, but Tommy is her dad, so she knows a prolonged bit from a mile away. Even a stranger's. “No, it’s my half-birthday. Joel and I always go out for my half-birthday.”
“Whaaaaaat,” JJ croons. “That’s so cool.” He looks up at Ellie and pouts. “I want to celebrate my half-birthday.”
“Dude,” Elle scoffs, fishing her phone out of the back pocket of her jeans. “I know. What a wicked idea.” She’s lost for a moment, scrolling through the internet. “I’m figuring ours out and adding them to the calendar as we speak .”
Joel leans into Laura and stage whispers, “I think these two are lookin’ for excuses to eat birthday cake.”
JJ nods sagely while Ellie, eyes on her screen, simply presses her finger to the button of her nose.
After a few more moments of mumbling about cake flavors and asking Laura what her favorite is (rainbow confetti) the kids inevitably get distracted by the next display over - a chameleon, not quite camouflaged, tinged with bright blues on the edges as he hangs in the leaves.
“Why your half-birthday and not your regular birthday?” Joel hears JJ ask.
Laura’s words are soft. “Oh, well. I’m with my mom and dad on my regular birthday. But it’s funny, ‘cause my half-birthday is the same as my cousin, Sarah’s, regular birthday. So me and Uncle Joel go out and celebrate -” She pauses, lowers her voice even more, and Joel knows it’s for his sake even though he can still see her. “Since she can’t. She died. A long time ago. ”
The chameleon moves, the greens of his scales seemingly wilting into muddy browns.
He hears Ellie make the slightest, punched-out noise. He watches her lips purse before she shoves her phone back in her pocket, deliberately not looking at him. “Okay, spud,” she says kindly. “I think we should let Joel and Laura finish their day together, yeah? We still got a lot to do.”
Joel sees the disappointed looks on both kids’ faces and acts quickly. He clears his throat. “Now, if the kids wanna hang out, I don’t mind if you don’t.”
Ellie blinks a few times, but in the end, she shrugs. “What do you say, little snots? We all besties now?”
The speed at which they run off together is comical; something in Joel’s chest twinges, because in the end he’s a father that’s lost a kid before, but he knows that Laura has a good head on her shoulder and running a hundred feet to the next display of the Ninja Animals Exhibit - which seems to be some kind of large spider - isn’t exactly running off into danger.
Ellie, however, speaks of her anxiety for both of them. “JJ! Be careful!” She barks. “Stick together. I’m talkin’ elbow to elbow.”
JJ grabs Laura’s tiny hand before he starts pointing out the spiders hidden among the logs.
“Sorry,” Ellie apologizes. Some shyness creeps into her posture, in the way she wipes her palms down on the bottom part of her flannel. “JJ will try and make friends with anyone. It can be a lot. But he’s real sweet, I promise.”
Joel can’t say the same for Laura. She’s shy, and while she isn’t bullied according to Tommy, she tends to spend most school days alone. “That’s quite alright,” Joel assures. “Laura’s sweet, too - but she needs the JJs in the world to come up and strike up the conversation.”
Ellie hums in acknowledgment as she falls into a slow step beside him, trailing the kids at a distance where they can be watched, but left to know each other. They pass a few more animals - a mossy frog, geckos, a few birds, even a porcupine - in complete silence to the point where Joel wonders if the charismatic persona is something she only has the energy to put on in front of her kid.
Turns out she was just internally debating on how nosy to be.
“Is it always the museum on the half-birthday?” she asks. “Or do you mix it up with some aquariums? The zoo? Maybe a shooting range?”
Joel fixes her with a side-eye. “Shootin’ range.”
“I heard you while we were looking at the fish tanks. Don’t tell me the poison dart frog billiard extravaganza is a lie.”
He laughs a little, can’t help it. “Nah, it ain’t always the museum. I've been takin’ her before she could even remember where we were goin’. But last year we went to the state fair. She ate so much funnel cake that when her baby tooth fell out the next day her Daddy blamed me for lettin’ it rot overnight.`` Ellie throws her head back and cackles loudly, once.
The sound reminds him of Sarah.
Ellie doesn’t ask any more about it, and he’s grateful. Instead, she plays the part of Steve Irwin and drags him around to the exhibits - she talks to him the whole time, making up her own scientific facts and naming all the animals whatever the hell she wants. When they get to the moth, she gets frighteningly quiet. He watches as her fingers dance up and down the skin of her arm, over her tattoo - up close and in better light he sees that it’s covering horribly disfigured and scarred skin.
He wasn’t gonna say anything, he’s not crass, but she catches him staring all the same. “Chemical burn,” she explains. “Got it when I was fourteen? Fifteen? I think it was drain cleaner.”
Joel arches his brow. “You think?”
She shrugs, expression hard to decipher. She’s staring intently at the moth. “I wasn’t the one who poured it on me.”
He doesn’t like the implication of that sentence.
But he doesn’t have to dwell on it long. Moments later, the kids return to their sides, JJ chanting, “Mom, mom, mom!”
“What, what, what,” she repeats in the same tone, dragging him close and putting him in a headlock. “Huh?” she gruffs playfully, giving him a noogie. “What the hell do you want, nerd?”
It takes him a second, but he manages to wiggle from her grasp. “Can we go to the next floor? I want to show Laura the Dinasaurus Rex.”
“That seems fitting, considering this is a dinosaur museum.” She gestures to the sign at the end of the exhibit - Ninja Animals - The Art of Camouflage. “What the hell were they thinking bringing live animals in with the fossils? All the pteranodons are gonna get jealous. All their bony featherless-feathers are gonna get ruffled.”
“Mom,” JJ is on the verge of whining. “They don’t come to life at night - “
“Dude, I’m telling you -”
Laura comes to Joel’s side while they argue the scientific findings of Night at the Museum and tugs on his pantleg, gesturing for him to lean down so she can whisper something in his ear. “What’s a Dinasaurus Rex?”
Unfortunately, his six-year-old niece isn’t the best whisperer. JJ whips around, content to abandon this argument with his mother, and grabs her hand again. “I’ll show you, I’ll show you! Mama Dina had this game - “
They’re off, this time a little more at full speed, darting out of their sight. “Goddammit,” Ellie and Joel mumble under their breath at the same time. “Slow down! JJ, you hold that sweet girl’s hand!” She yells across the atrium of the museum as the kids run for the spiral staircase.
They don’t slow down, but they do hold hands again.
Ellie and Joel fall into step again - it’s not the same slow mozy they had, but to his credit, he forces himself not to speedwalk. “Dinasaurus Rex?” he asks.
She sniffs, looking a little shy again, but then she rolls a knot out of her neck and fixes the rolled-up sleeves of her flannel. “My wife Dina’s greatest bit. She wasn’t one for physical comedy - I was the resident red-nosed clown - but JJ loves dinosaurs.” Ellie pulls her arms back, wrists at her ribs, mimicking the short arms of a T-rex. “When Dinasaurus Rex was around, she’d eat like this, tuck him in like this, tell him about her day like this. He loved it. And now,” Ellie gestures to the T-Rex they arrive to as they finish climbing the stairs. “They are officially Dinasaurus Rex in the Williams household.”
When the four of them stand in front of the dinosaur, the kids migrate to the giant plaque, where Laura fumbles once more with the scientific name. “It’s a Gigantosaurus.”
Joel scoffs. He’s not a scientist, but he thinks he knows a few dinosaurs. “What? No, that’s gotta be a T-Rex, baby doll.”
“Nu-huh,” Laura says, pointing to the title card. “It’s a Gi-gigantasaurus. It’s bigger than a T-Rex.”
“But it’s got stubby arms - ugh, lemme see,” Ellie nearly bulldozes her way through a few unsuspecting children to get to the plaque. “That’s a mistake,” she declares. “I’ve seen Jurassic Park. This is most definitely a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Must of gotten them mixed up.”
JJ looks smug. “These dinosaurs are from the Cenomanian Age. T-Rex are from the Maastrichian Age. They lived thirty million years apart.”
Ellie mumbles something about not letting the kid read any more dinosaur books. “What do you think it is, Joel?” She looks up at him and bats her eyes, comically. He thinks they might fly off her lids. “Dinosaur to Dinosaur.”
He rolls her eyes and resists the urge to shove her. It’s only been a few minutes, but her quick tongue reminds him of Sarah, and her constant jabs remind him of Tommy. And he wouldn’t think twice about getting back at those two. “I reckon I don’t know. We cavemen stuck to riding Stegasaurus to school.”
Ellie relents, shrugging her shoulders. “Fair enough. But stubby arms are stubby arms. It’s still a Dinasaurus in my book.”
“Amen,” JJ says, and Ellie barks out another one of her single cackles.
They continue to wander the exhibit, roaming past dinosaur bones and fabricated taxidermy of creatures that existed before them. Eventually, scientific make-believe becomes real as the exhibit showcases modern flora and fauna and the stuffed fox freaks Laura out, judging by how she clings to him. He says nothing, simply leans down, and lets her climb on his back so she can have a piggyback the whole way through. He can’t help the smile that blooms on her face when she rubs her cheek against the back of his head.
Ellie has a different parenting approach. She waits for the right opportunity, mainly when JJ is taking a close look at the alligator and makes a loud chomp! noise in his ear while her fingers dance along his ribs in a surprise attack. The kid nearly jumps out of his skin while Ellie laughs like a maniac, taking off at full speed while JJ chases her around the exhibit in revenge. Other parents look at them with disdain, some leaning down to whisper to their kids about it, no doubt using them as an example of how not to act in public, but Joel decides they can all fuck themselves. They aren’t hurting anyone. They’re having fun.
Eventually, the chase stops and JJ takes note of Laura on Joel’s back. “Ooh, piggyback. Can we?”
“Okay, but I’m the piggy,” she says, whatever that means. It’s followed by the amusing sight of JJ crouching on the floor while Ellie pretends to climb on his back. He gives a good effort at trying to stand with her above him before Ellie folds, literally, and collapses on the ground, taking JJ with her.
“Alright, you two,” Joel forces himself to say before they nearly roll over a woman and her baby stroller. “You keep misbehavin’ like that and we won’t be gettin’ any half-birthday cake.”
JJ and Ellie are two peas in a pod, mirror images, as their heads pop up with wide eyes. They look so young. “Cake!?” They both scream and scramble to get back up. “I’m calm, I’m calm,” Ellie says, dusting herself off. “I can behave. I’m an adult.”
Barely, Joel thinks.
Joel reaches down and pats Laura’s foot; she takes the hint and slides off his back, but still lovingly clings to his side, slipping her hand in his. “I think they got some down at the cafe.”
Ellie cranes her head and looks; she sees the long line and reaches for her wallet. “Tell you what. If it’s okay with Grandpa Joel here, why don’t you two go to the gift shop and pick out some half-birthday gifts while we go get the cake?” She looks at Joel, waiting for his permission.
He points to the two of them, ignoring the dig at his age. “Elbow to elbow,” he says, repeating Ellie’s instructions from earlier. “You two don’t separate for a second, ya hear? If anyone bothers you, kick ‘em in the shins.” Ellie doesn’t object to these instructions.
Laura nods dutifully; JJ actually salutes him, correct hand and all. Tommy would have died laughing.
Ellie opens out her wallet and passes JJ a few bills. “Here’s the budget. I don’t need change. But get me a rock,” she tells him. Right before he goes to snatch it, she pulls it back. “I want a cool rock. Don’t be bringing me back some bitch rock, got it?” She points to Laura. “She gets final say. She’s cool. I trust her.”
The kids seem to understand the opportunity they’ve been given and are slow and careful on their walk across the atrium to the gift shop. Laura this time offers her hand to JJ, who takes it, and they swing their arms until they disappear behind a wall of plush in the shop.
As soon as they're gone, Ellie puts her hands on her hips and stretches her back; Joel feels sympathetic when he hears her joints pop. “They really got cake in the cafeteria?” she asks. “Because I don’t mess around when it comes to sweets.”
Joel shrugs, leading them to the vending machines right outside instead. “More or less,” he says, tapping the glass. Ellie’s eyes wander before they land on 16C - Little Debbie Zebra Cakes.
She makes a noise of discontentment, but she’s fighting a smile. “You’re lucky those things are so damn good,” she decides.
Joel cleans the machine out, collecting the last five cakes, before he grabs two coffees and sits at an empty table in the cafeteria. He half expects Ellie to dump a bunch of sugar and creamer in hers, but she doesn’t. Just takes a few sips before she starts dumping one of the zebra cakes in.
“I don’t know where you get the energy,” Joel marvels, watching as Elle tries to sip around the chunks of icing that fell into her cup. He means it in a lot of ways - her sharp tongue, her bright expressions, her happy demeanor. He settles on explaining the obvious. “Rolling around the floor like you were.”
“Young, unfossilized bones,” Ellie shoots back easily. She gets coffee on her shirt and scowls, trying to mop it up with a thin napkin. “I’m sure you were like that once upon a time. Old brains just forget.”
He sips on his own coffee, free of sugars. “Nah, I didn’t forget. Me ‘n Sarah were always running around. Hiking, soccer, swimming. I couldn’t ‘ave been any older than you are. Just can’t remember where I got the energy.”
Ellie kicks her feet up, using another plastic chair as an ottoman. “Young dad, huh.”
“Twenty.” He tips his cup. “You?”
“Nineteen. Didn’t quite beat out teen pregnancy. Well,” she amends, rolling her eyes. “Dina and Jesse didn’t.” She adjusts herself in her chair, crossing her legs so one ankle is over the other. Her face takes on a blank look, staring at the tile floor. “They didn’t beat out a lot of things, in the end.”
Joel’s not stupid. He heard the past tense in the mentions of Dinasaurus. He can tape up this sad story for himself. “I’m sorry,” he tells her.
Ellie looks over at him, smile soft and a little shaky. “Me, too. I can’t imagine. Losing Jesse was hard on us. Then I lost Dina. But a daughter? If it was my kid…”
He doesn’t owe her anything, and she isn’t asking, but he tells her anyway. “My daughter’s been gone longer than she was here,” he says quietly. He stares at his coffee, still a bit too hot, steam wafting up in the air. He remembers the day so clearly. A birthday cake with his name on it. Streamers and balloons still out when he got home from the hospital. His daughter's blood still on his shirt. “It’s been twenty-five years. But sometimes, it still feels like it was yesterday.”
Ellie messes with her scarred skin again, eyes drifting out to the atrium where another dinosaur cast sits in the middle, several people standing around and marveling at its bones, its story, its past. “I get that,” and she sounds small and young. “Sometimes that’s what gets me through it. The feeling that they were just here.”
Joel doesn’t say it, not aloud, but he thinks it may be the same for him, too.
In some ways, Ellie is like him; emotional moments are too much to sit in. To break it up she takes a piece of zebra cake and throws it at his face; it hits him on the cheek.
“Terrible aim,” he deadpans.
“Not really.” But she throws another and misses. “You aren’t trying to catch it.”
“You gotta warn me.” Joel leans back in his chair and begins to make up a bunch of catcher symbols for her. He spins one finger and she shakes her head, then he does two - another shake. He thrusts out four fingers and she nods before she reels up her arm like she’s got a baseball and throws the tiniest crumb known to man.
It’s a struggle, and he has to nearly break his neck to catch it in his mouth, but he does. Ellie’s happy hollering is well worth the vertebrae dislocation.
They go on like this for another two or three tries, but soon enough the kids come trotting back, the promise of cake no doubt still on their minds. Laura jumps up to sit on Joel’s lap and waits for him to unwrap the zebra cake for her. He hands her the whole thing, but she breaks it in two and hands him the other half.
“I already had one,” he tells her gently. “That one’s yours.”
She says nothing, just turns to Ellie, and offers her the other half. “Half-birthday. Half-cake. I wanna share.”
Ellie’s eye flicker to Joel’s but she ends up taking it from Laura, expression soft. “Thanks, sweet girl.”
JJ takes the opportunity to try and steal some of Ellie’s coffee. “Man,” she admonishes, making a weak attempt at taking it from him. “The last thing you need is caffeine. Your head might actually fly off your shoulders.”
He takes a sip anyway, pulling a face when he savors the flavor. Ellie tries to take it from him again, but not before he gets one more sip out of it. She trades him the coffee for his zebra cake. “So? What’s the verdict? You get me my cool rock?”
JJ, face smothered in his cake, points to Laura, who has the gift bag. “I got it!” She cheers. She digs through and produces a tiny, turquoise-colored rock. “They called it crys-crys-o-colla.” She says. “If you forget how to say it, it rhymes with Coca-Cola.” She looks at Joel and whispers. “That’s how I remember.”
Ellie lets out a gasp that Joel knows by now is completely honest. “ Dude!” She fist pumps before she gingerly takes the rock from Laura’s tiny palm. “Too fuckin’ cool.” Joel inwardly sighs, not looking forward to explaining that word to her on the car ride home. He’s hoping Maria slipped up and already said it by now. “This is like, one of my favorite colors. I love it.”
Laura preens before she turns in his lap, excitedly tapping Joel’s shoulder. “I got you something, too!” She squeals, and then she’s digging through the bag again, producing a very tiny and squishy giraffe charm. “It’s your favorite animal!”
“Oh,” Ellie says softly and a little dumbly. He looks up, ready to playfully defend his choice of favorite animal, but Ellie’s face isn’t teasing. “That’s my favorite animal, too.”
“I got a bunch,” Laura says, and she overturns the bag so that several of those little squishy charms fall on the tabletop. She sorts through an elephant, a pig, two frogs, and two pandas before she grabs another giraffe and hands it to Ellie. “Here. You can have the other one.”
The look on her face tells Joel that the plastic giraffe means a whole lot more to her than the rock. She’s even more gentle with it, treating it like gold. “Thanks, kid.”
JJ finishes his cake before he reaches for a tinier bag he has stuffed in the pocket of his jacket. “They had NASA pins, too.”
“Gimme,” Ellie declares, holding her palm open. Joel sees it’s not a NASA pin, not really, but it does have a spaceship on it, which seems to be close enough for the two of them. “Ugh. So sick. We gotta put this on your backpack. Ya know,” she licks her thumb and starts smudging off some of the icing on the corner of JJ’s mouth. “If you guys need suggestions for half-birthday expeditions, might I suggest the Kennedy Space Center?”
“The one three thousand miles away?”
“I mean, when you put it that way, it sounds kinda far.” Ellie leans forward and begins shuffling through all the animals, gasping again when she finds a poison dart frog. “Think fast!” she yells, and she throws it at him. It hits his beard and the sticky, rubbery quality to it has it hanging to his beard hairs by a thread.
“You ain’t gettin’ this back,” he tells her, waving it as a means of goodbye before he puts it in his pocket. He gently taps Laura’s arm as he sits up and she gets the hint, sliding off his leg to stand beside him. “Well, it’s gettin’ late. I figure we could lap around the trail they got outside before we head home. Y’all like to join?”
Both Ellie and JJ salute him this time. He rolls his eyes.
They head out the backdoors to the outdoor pavilion, bathed in golden light seeping through a canopy of bright green trees. In the middle is the last dinosaur of the museum, one Joel doesn’t recognize but is life-like in its representation, looking like something out of a movie. It’s tall and inviting, which explains the multiple signs around it that say do not climb.
As it turns out, Ellie can’t read.
“Ellie,” he sighs when she rounds the dinosaur, heading for the tail. “What are you doin’?”
“Uh, I’m climbing this thing.”
“Can’t you read?”
“I’m taking that as a suggestion.” She uses her hand as a sun visor as she looks up to the top of the dinosaur. “That’s a big boy,” she says to JJ in a silly voice, making him giggle. “C’mon,” she says, nodding toward the dinosaur. “Let’s go.”
Joel looks around for security, but he doesn’t see any - hasn’t really seen any all day. He’s acutely aware they’re likely to get away with this. “Guys,” he warns. He suddenly feels so, so old.
Ellie starts climbing the back of the tail and when she gets her footing she turns around and offers her hand to JJ, who shakes his head no. She leans down a little and whispers something he doesn’t catch but when the boy shakes his head no again, she relents with an easygoing smile and gives him a thumbs up. “Solo mission it is!” She declares. JJ runs back over to Joel and Laura as she starts to climb the dinosaur with impressive speed.
A small crowd is gathered when she gets to the top of the neck; her hands are able to rest comfortably on its head while she stands on the neck, one foot in front of the other like a skateboard. “Look at me!” She yells, balancing herself so she’s no longer using her hands in a crouch. She stands on shaky legs. “I’m on a motherfucking dinosaur!”
That gets security’s attention. One of them starts coming over, though not particularly with any real haste. He’s about to say something to her, to warn her, but then the guard picks up the whistle around his neck and blows it - it’s loud, enough to startle both him and the kids.
And Ellie.
She jumps a little and it’s just enough for her to start to lose her balance. Joel watches with horror as she struggles to stay upright, arms flailing; she takes a step up and tries to get her balance, but it’s not enough. She falls.
Joel and his fossilized bones dash forward and slide on his knees to catch her in a tumbling mess.
The wind’s been knocked out of both of them. Joel’s shoulder is aching, but other than some scrapes, he’s wise enough to know nothing’s broken. “Ellie,” he gasps. “You okay, kiddo?”
She groans and takes her time to roll off him, but eventually, she thrusts both arms out, thumbs up; a small trickle of blood from a scraped forearm slides down her elbow. “Never better.” She groans again. “Sorry about your kneecaps. Again.”
He can’t help but let out a smothered laugh.
When they peel themselves off the ground, the security guard - who looks younger than even Ellie - simply cocks an eyebrow and gestures to the exit. Joel puts up his hands in surrender. “We’re leavin’ right now. Thank you,” he says kindly, and the guard gives them the dignity of letting themselves out.
Once out in the parking lot, Laura and JJ explode. “That was so cool!” Laura says. “You got all the way up there! It was so high!”
“Not as cool as Joel catching her! It was like out of a movie!”
Ellie’s voice is smug as she says, “Jeff Goldblum wishes he did something as cool in Jurassic Park.”
The kids babble on and on as they trek through the large parking lot until they’re at Joel’s destination - his old and rickety blue truck. “Welp,” he sighs, hands on his hips. “This is our stop. But I'd say this was a mighty fine adventure, don’t you think, Laura?”
She nods, looking up at Joel with stars in her eyes. “I had a lot of fun,” she turns to Ellie and Joel, smiling bigger, if possible. “It was nice to meet you.”
JJ nods with her before he looks up at Ellie, a pout on his face. “Do we really gotta say goodbye?”
Ellie smooths his hair back before she drops a kiss on his forehead. “‘fraid so, spud. But,” and the kids perk up like a dog that heard treat. “My earlier calculations led me to discover that my half-birthday is in two weeks. And new tradition says I gotta celebrate it.” she shrugs. “And I wouldn't mind the company. What do you say?”
Joel looks down, silently asking Laura, who nods enthusiastically. “I’ll have to ask her parents, maybe see if they'd like to come along, but I think we can manage that.” Ellie’s mouth opens, and he can practically see the sentence about to roll off her tongue. “But we ain’t going to the Kennedy Space Center.”
She whines, something that JJ joins in on. “Ugh, fine. I’ll settle for the zoo. Take a gander at all my favorite animals.” she pauses, holding up a finger. “I promise not to fall into any of the exhibits.”
“Easy promise. Just don’t be climbin’ up in ‘em.”
“It’s my half birthday and I’ll break into the giraffe enclosure if I want to.” She does the world’s worst curtsey. “But with grace. I’ll spare your kneecaps. Because one more strike and those things are out .”
Joel mimes another catcher signal and Ellie makes a fake wind-up - or at least he thinks it’s fake. She grabs her phone and throws it at him, and he barely manages to grab it before it hits the ground. Laura laughs at his expense. “Phone number, Great Uncle Joel.”
He glowers at her, but he does as he asks - in the end, he plays along and saves his name as Living Fossil. Ellie’s laugh is well worth his own self-deprecation.
Once the plans are solidified and the kids have hugged goodbye, Ellie comes out of left field with a playful smack to JJ’s arm. “Race you back to the car,” and she’s twenty feet away in the blink of an eye, which is enough to surprise the Subaru backing out of its spot - it nearly clips her, maybe actually does, and Joel barks out her name in a way that has her looking properly guilty. She tips an imaginary hat in apology to the driver while she waits for them to awkwardly drive away. “My bad,” she shouts, and this time she waits for Joel to safely deliver JJ to her side, going as far as to put his hand in hers.
“Walk,” he says gruffly. “Don’t run. That’s parking lot rule number one.”
“I can’t remember all the rules,” Ellie whines. “There’s so many. But he’s right.” She looks at JJ. “Don’t run in a parking lot. Don’t climb dinosaurs. Don’t -”
“Don’t do as you do. Do only as you say. I know, I know.”
She gestures to her son. “That dog training class really did wonders on him.” JJ kicks her in the back of her leg. She kicks back. “Thanks, Joel.” She says, and her face goes soft. “Tell Sarah I wished her a happy birthday.”
He smiles back. “Will do.”
Laura waves a cute little goodbye as Joel picks her up, propping her on one of his hips. She’s almost too big for it, but he could give a fuck less, especially when she lays her head on his shoulder, sleep already taunting her.
“You have fun, baby?” he asks as he buckles her in. She’s got one of the little rubber animals - the panda - in her hands.
“Mmmhm,” she says, nodding. “So much. Can’t wait to tell Mommy and Daddy.”
He leans forward and kisses the button of her nose. “Good.”
She tilts her head when he climbs in the driver’s seat, knowing he can catch her face in the rearview mirror that way. “Uncle Joel? Do we still have time to walk by the lake? I want to drop off Sarah’s flowers.”
Laura’s barely awake, and he’s probably gonna have to carry her most of the way, but he doesn’t deny her. “Of course, baby. We’ll stop by the store and see if we can find her some of those peach roses she liked so much.”
Before he starts the car, he digs through his pocket and pulls out the toy giraffe and frog, setting them on the dashboard.
As he pulls out of the parking lot, he glances in the rearview mirror - Laura is already asleep.
“Happy birthday,” he whispers. Half or whole, Sarah’s or Laura’s. JJ's. Ellie's. Maybe even his own again, one day. He wishes them all a happy one.