The day was beautiful and the new park was just the answer to being locked inside for too long.  Steven smiled down at his wide-eyed six-year-old, Trevor. It was good to see the boy so enthralled with nature after being forced indoors for so long.

And it was a perfect place for a boy, for the park had several semi-abstract life-sized sculptures of different exotic animals, both living, though in a different parts of the world, or long extinct. 

“This is so lovely,” Carolyn said. She had been holding their son’s hand at first, but Trevor had escaped to explore on his own, though never out of sight or reach.

They turned a corner in the path to come face to face with a large, angular prehistoric beast.

“Look Dad, a dinosaur,” Trevor said.

The sculpture was so intriguing that Steven couldn’t take his eyes off of it to look at his son.

“No, Trevor, it’s a mammoth.  They’re mammals and lived much later.”

“Are you sure it isn’t a mastodon?” Carolyn asked.

“No, Mom and Dad, a dinosaur.  Look!”

Steven laughed to himself.  A six-year-old boy should know all of this stuff, but the prehistoric elephantine was not a dinosaur.

He turned to talk to Trevor, but Trevor was looking in a different direction.

Steven followed his son’s glaze.

From behind the trees, following their path, a large T-Rex came into view.

It was not a sculpture. It was far too alive and far to big.

Steven turned and ran.  The last thing he heard was, “See Dad, I told you it was a dinosaur.”

***

This was written for this week’s writephoto challenge. Sue is gone and missed, but before she left, she passed the baton for this challenge over to KL Caley. The photo at the top of the page was provided by KL, along with the key word “dinosaur“. Though I’m with the mom and dad here, it is most likely a mammoth, though possibly a mastodon ;)

Pa and I spent most of the day in town.  We had a little shopping to do, which we usually do on Sundays, not Wednesdays.  And when we go in on Sundays, we spent as little time as possible there.

Not today.

Pa don’t like town much. Like me, he grew up in the country, but back then it was even deeper. He said people in town were artificial, like that old, silted-in mill pond, not real, like us folk from deeper into hill country.

I’m not sure why we was in town.  We spent most of the day in the little park near the library next to that shallow mill pond.  I always liked that statue in the middle of the pond, the one of the old guy gigging frogs.  I know he’s a god and all, and Pa says people think I’m a country bumpkin for saying he’s going after the frogs, but that’s what he looks like he’s doing.

I have a frog gig that looks just like that, but don’t gig frogs much any more, like I did when I was a little kid.  Now I hunt with a real gun, and critters much bigger than frogs.

I sat and I walked around and threw stones in the pond and did other stuff.  Yeah, I was bored.  Pa spent most of the day talking on his cell phone.  It don’t work so well up home.

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Note – I wrote and posted this almost exactly three (3) years ago, on March 1, 2018. It was written for Sue Vincent’s #writephoto challenge that week. Since Sue is unable to post new photos, many of us are bringing back posts from the past to show our appreciation for the stories and ideas that she inspired :) See below for more detail on this story.

With no wizard’s light to guide us, we ran through the darkness.  Occasionally a great leap of fire was reflected on the dark stone, casting an evil red glare across our party, but mostly we moved through a black so deep it seemed a physical force.  On we went, stubbing toes and scuffing hands as we ran in pitch black.

“I see light,” the sharp eyed elf yelled.  “Daylight!”

We ran faster, though us mere mortals could see naught.  I bumped into a man, a common occurrence in this mad dash.  But then something amazing happened.  I could make out his form.  In a few more steps, I too could see the cool blue daylight.  We might make it!

There were guards at the entrance, but they were expecting an attack from the outside, not one from within.  We swept them away without an injury on our part and pushed out into the open.

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