Chapter Text
Lucy knew lots of things.
She knew that dinosaurs were the best thing ever.
She knew that a Tyrannosaurus rex had tiny arms that looked silly but were probably useful somehow.
She knew that a Triceratops had three horns.
She knew that a Stegosaurus had plates on its back.
She knew that a Velociraptor was actually smaller than most people thought.
Dinosaurs made sense.
Everything about them had a reason.
People didn't.
Lucy also knew that children were supposed to sit quietly and not make too much noise.
If grown-ups were angry, it was better to stay out of the way.
If someone told you to stay in your room, you stayed in your room.
Those were important rules.
Her dad had told her to stay upstairs until after her mummy left for work.
Lucy knew it wasn't really work.
Work was what people did in offices and shops and schools.
Her mummy wore shiny dresses and came home smelling funny and sometimes couldn't walk very straight.
Lucy didn't know what that job was called.
But she knew not to ask questions.
Questions sometimes made people angry.
So she stayed in her room.
Right now she was lying on her belly across her bed with her feet kicking slowly in the air behind her.
Beside her sat Mr. Chomps.
Mr. Chomps was a stuffed dinosaur with one button eye and green fabric that had faded almost gray in places.
Lucy loved him very much.
She was trying to figure out what kind of dinosaur he was.
The library book spread open in front of her showed dozens of dinosaurs.
Mr. Chomps had a long tail.
Sort of.
And little arms.
Kind of.
And pointy teeth.
Maybe.
The problem was that Mr. Chomps looked a little squashed because she'd slept with him every night for three years.
"T-Rex?" Lucy asked.
Mr. Chomps didn't answer.
She studied the picture carefully.
"No."
Definitely not.
T-Rexes had bigger heads.
Mr. Chomps's head mostly leaned to one side.
She turned the page.
Maybe an Allosaurus.
Or a Carnotaurus.
Or maybe he was a completely new dinosaur that nobody had discovered yet.
That would be exciting.
Professor Lucy.
World-famous dinosaur finder.
She smiled at the thought.
Then something crashed downstairs.
Lucy froze.
Every muscle in her body went still.
The house became silent.
Even her feet stopped kicking.
Maybe it was a plate.
Maybe a cup.
Maybe a chair.
She really hoped it wasn't the framed photograph from the Jurassic World theme park.
That was one of her favorite pictures.
It showed her and Dad standing underneath a giant dinosaur statue.
Dad was smiling.
A real smile.
Not one of the tired ones.
Lucy liked the Jurassic World books.
Dad said she was too young for the movies, but he read the books to her sometimes.
Or at least he used to.
Before things got loud all the time.
The house stayed quiet.
Quiet was good.
Quiet meant nobody was yelling.
Nobody was screaming.
Nobody was throwing things.
Nobody was saying words Lucy wasn't supposed to repeat.
Nobody was threatening divorce.
Lucy didn't know exactly what divorce meant.
But it always made Dad look sad.
The same way Lucy felt when she wasn't allowed ice cream.
Only bigger.
Much bigger.
So maybe divorce meant grown-ups weren't allowed treats anymore.
That sounded awful.
She waited.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
She counted all the way to fifty before she started breathing normally again.
The dinosaur book was still open.
Mr. Chomps still needed identifying.
Life could continue.
Lucy turned another page.
A Brachiosaurus stared back at her.
Huge.
Gentle-looking.
Its neck stretched up into the sky.
Lucy wondered if one could reach the moon.
Probably not.
The moon was very high up.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four—
A door slammed somewhere downstairs.
Lucy jumped so hard that her elbow knocked the library book.
The page tore.
A small rip.
Tiny.
Barely noticeable.
Lucy stared at it.
Her stomach dropped.
Ripped things were bad.
Very bad.
Ripped things made people angry.
She quickly closed the book.
Then opened it again.
Maybe it wasn't that bad.
It looked bad.
She closed it.
Opened it.
Closed it.
Finally she slid it back onto her bookshelf.
Maybe nobody would notice.
Sometimes that worked.
Not always.
But sometimes.
The sunlight through her bedroom window filled the room with floating specks of dust.
Lucy watched them drift through the air.
They looked like tiny flying dinosaurs.
Little pterosaurs gliding through invisible currents.
She imagined shrinking down small enough to ride one.
They could fly over houses.
Over trees.
Over roads.
Far away from shouting.
A voice echoed downstairs.
Too muffled to understand.
Another voice answered.
Louder.
Angrier.
Lucy pulled her knees against her chest.
Mom said listening to adults was rude.
Dad said hiding in her room all day wasn't good either.
Lucy wasn't sure which rule she was supposed to follow.
There were lots of rules.
Some of them changed depending on who was talking.
Dinosaurs didn't seem to have that problem.
Nobody ever told a Triceratops one thing and then got angry when it listened.
The Brachiosaurus still looked nice.
Lucy ran her finger over the picture.
"You're probably friendly."
The dinosaur did not disagree.
Downstairs came another crash.
Then silence.
The uncomfortable kind.
The kind that felt like standing outside during a thunderstorm waiting for the lightning.
Lucy looked toward her bedroom window.
Something outside had changed.
A strange green glow stretched across the glass.
She frowned.
"Huh?"
Slowly she climbed onto her bed.
The glow grew brighter.
And brighter.
And brighter.
She knelt on the mattress and pressed her hands against the window.
The entire sky was turning green.
Not dark green.
Bright green.
Crayon green.
The color she'd used to draw dinosaurs.
The color of leaves in summer.
The color of Mr. Chomps before he got old.
Lucy stared.
The shouting downstairs was forgotten.
The ripped page was forgotten.
Everything was forgotten.
The light spread across the horizon until it seemed to fill the entire world.
It was beautiful.
Like someone had painted the sky.
Like magic.
The green light rushed closer.
Closer.
Closer.
Lucy blinked.
"Oh."
And the very last thing she thought before the light swallowed everything was:
I hope Mr Chomps will be okay