LITMIR.BIZ

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in Sam’s shop? I know about that.’

      ‘You know about it? How come?’ he asked, his eyes widening in surprise.

      ‘Quenton told me about it this afternoon,’ she said, looking at her hands as though she had a splinter.

      ‘Did’e now. Well I was … that is, I was wonderin’ … if you’d like to help me win it … the competition I mean.’

      Stroking the back of her neck and biting her lip at the same time, Gloria said, ‘You mean you want me to go with you when you take photos?’ Wringing her hands now, she said, ‘Gee, I didn’t expect you to ask me that. I thought you didn’t like me anymore – especially after last night and this afternoon.’

      I was beginning to feel like an intruder again. I had no business being there. The conversation was getting to the nitty gritty part. I got up to leave, but once again Snook gestured with his hand to stay where I was.

      ‘That’s why I‘ve agreed to go with Quenton,’ Gloria went on to explain. ‘He’s going in the competition too, and he’s asked me to help him win it.’

      Snook’s eyes darted from side to side and his face suddenly turned to a deep crimson colour. Eventually finding his voice, he spluttered, ‘You’re going with Quigley? That phony? You know what he’s like. He can’t be trusted.’

      Gloria started to defend him. ‘Everyone’s saying he’s changed, that he’s not a complete dork anymore, and he’s definitely lost a lot of weight. He’s not so frumpy now.’

      ‘Whatever,’ Snook said as if he were resigned to the situation. ‘But for the record, I didn’t mean to give you the brush off last night or ignore you today, but somethin’ creepy has happened that’s made me … different.’

      ‘How do you mean?’ Gloria asked, her voice suddenly higher.

      Snook didn’t answer. His jaw had dropped and his eyes were wide and staring. He was just standing there at the head of the lobby, not saying a word. I followed his line of sight and saw what had caught his attention.

      It was the kid, standing in the doorway, smiling thinly .

       In full stride, the rhotosaurus ran out of the forest towards the open plain, trying, hoping, to escape the trees as they fell and burned around him. The other dinosaurs were quick to join him. The dinosaur drew to a halt. He had to figure out what the next step should be. What would be best for him and the other dinosaurs that seemed to have adopted him as their leader. It was hard to decide; the obstacles were mounting. In front of him and on every side, the fires, fanned by the wind, were spreading as they raced across the plain, burning everything in their paths. And above the flames, a blue-grey cloud of smoke was blackening everything before it, making it impossible to see.

       The dinosaur shook his head in an effort to get rid of the grime that had lodged in his eyes and mouth and he gagged as the smoke and sooty particles from the fires stuck in his lungs. Trying to ignore his discomfort, he strained to see through the darkening haze, looking for a way out. But all he could see were the formless shapes of the other dinosaurs that had gathered around him.

       Then there were the pterosaurs, which were diving and swooping, one after the other, shrieking and squealing, jabbing at his and the others’ bodies, flying blind. Cringing and shying away once too often from each senseless attack, the rhotosaurus came to a decision. He lifted his head to the sky and roared for the third time that day as the trees exploded behind him and the fires’ flying embers started to penetrate his thick hide.

       It was time to do something. Anything.

       Suddenly an image – vague and indistinct – came to him and with it from somewhere in the back of his tiny brain, there was a thought. He forced himself to remember.

       Then he remembered, and his body trembled with renewed hope; there was a place, a safe place he had once known. Many years ago. And it lay somewhere ahead of him.

       Ignoring the heat and the wind and billowing smoke, the rhotosaurus broke into stride, not stopping until he came to a steep cliff. He drew to a halt and looked over the edge. There was a narrow gorge and at the bottom of the gorge was a river; they looked familiar. Once again he tried to remember, and then, like a slow moving slide show, he saw it form in his mind. There was a place … nearby … a cool, safe place. He was sure of it. And there had been a path that led him there. Willing his tiny brain to respond and swivelling his long neck to the left and right, he scanned the cliff top, looking for the path that would take him to the bottom of the gorge, to the river, to his safe place. He ran along the edge of the cliff, searching, trying to remember. But time was running out.

       Then he saw it. His heart thumped. It was just ahead of him – a narrow track winding down to the floor of the gorge. He was safe. So were the other dinosaurs, who’d been pacing backwards and forwards at the top of the cliff; they could now follow him to the river.

       They were going to make it, too … hopefully.

      Chapter 8

      I can’t remember what happened after Snook and I saw the kid earlier on this evening. All I know is that I woke up on the lounge room couch across from Snook, who was half lying, half sitting, on one of the lounge chairs. Gloria was there too. She was shuffling back and forth between us, feeling our foreheads, checking our pulses – things like that. And lying on the floor, breathing into my face, was Shadow. His head was resting on his outstretched paws and judging from the heavy breathing, he was snoozing, oblivious to the drama going on around him.

      All I can say is that when I woke up, I was in a kind of smoke-screen where I felt only half awake. I guessed that Snook was in one too. I couldn’t have been too dopey, though. After blinking a couple of times to clear my eyes, which were still adjusting to the haze, I saw Gloria sidle over to Snook’s chair and sit on the arm rest. I also saw her reach over and then hold on to his hand whilst gazing into his half-open eyes. She still likes him, I thought and I knew that Snook liked her; so why don’t they both come to a mutual agreement to like each other? Because neither one of them wants to be the first to make a move, I figured.

      I shook my head again in an effort to clear the grey film that kept swirling in front of me like a fog, and then I saw that Snook was coming awake too. At least he was conscious enough to enjoy the attention he was getting from Gloria. His eyes had taken on a distant, dreamy look and his mouth had tilted sideways giving him a sort of cock-eyed, half-potty look.

      Footsteps in the passage interrupted my snooping.

      It was Gloria’s dad. He came into the room carrying a wet cloth. Being the closest and seeing that Snook was being attended to by his daughter, he walked over and applied the damp cloth to my head. He told me that another doctor was taking the callout. ‘When I saw you both lying here when I came back earlier,’ he explained, ‘I could hardly believe my eyes. You were both in a trance as if you’d been hypnotised. Are you feeling better now?’ I nodded. ‘You and Snook were both mumbling something about a young boy. Can you tell me anything about him? If you feel up to it, of course.’

      I tried to remember, and in my half-awake state, I told Gloria’s father everything that I knew about the kid. I told him that he was about twelve years old, that he was wearing khaki pants, braces and a peaked cap, and that he hadn’t said anything but just looked at us with a sad, downcast face – one you’d expect to see at a funeral. I also told him that the kid had left abruptly with a hurried, goodbye kind of smile. I also told him that I’d seen a dinosaur that was more than two storeys high.

      Gloria, who was still holding on to Snook’s hand, had heard my story too; her blank stare told me that. So did Shadow, who at the present moment, was showing his concern for me by plonking his two front paws next to my nose. He then tried to wash my face with his wet, sloppy tongue. At any rate, my story must have shocked Gloria and her dad; the room fell silent. But Snook broke that. He sat up as if suddenly realising something and then, looking directly

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