The Dinosaur at Grandma’s 

Our story begins with me unconscious. Okay, yes, that is a very weird place to start a story, so first let me give you a little background. My mom, dad, two brothers, and I were at my grandma’s house. Her house is kind of in the middle of nowhere. In front of the house, there is a huge field that goes on for miles, and behind it is a thick forest, and I don’t even know how big it is. Anyway, it is in the middle of nowhere. No neighbors, no grocery store, and worst of all, NO RECEPTION! You can probably tell that my grandma’s house is not my favorite place to be, but my parents insisted on us spending our first day of summer packing our bags, and driving ten HOURS to spend two weeks there. UGH! The third day there, I really wanted to text my friends, so I decided to get on the roof to see if there was better reception. That was not a good idea, because gravity was not in my favor, and, well, I fell off. 

So there we go, you’re all caught up. Our story begins with me unconscious. I woke up with a horrible headache and everything was hazy. I looked at the clock. It was 2:00 PM on Thursday. I sat up, but then everything started spinning, so I laid back down. That’s when my little brother, Ian, came in. 

“You really ate that ground didn’t you! Can’t believe your stupid enough to climb on the roof. Ow! Don’t hit me!”

 “Oh, shut up Ian,” I said. My other brother, Logan, and my cousin, Thomas, came in. They both looked super shocked and excited. 

“We saw something in the forest! It was cool, it looked like a monster!” 

“We have to go back and look for it! WE’RE GONNA GET A MONSTER! WE’RE GONNA GET A MONSTER!” Thomas chanted at the top of his lungs. 

“Calm down! Fine, fine! We’ll go look for it. Anything to get you to be quiet,” I said. I got up, and I didn’t feel dizzy anymore

I got my backpack that had all of my road trip essentials. We headed into the forest, the boys anticipating what we would find, but I knew that there was no monster in the forest. I just wanted to take my mind off the fact that I would soon have to face the real monsters, my parents, and take my punishment for climbing on the roof. 

It started to get darker as evening approached. I pulled a flashlight out of my backpack. We were getting deeper into the woods and I began to fear whatever animals were lurking in the darkness (the REAL animals, not the monsters). Could there be bears? Or lions? Wait, there aren’t lions in the forest. But still, there could be dangerous creatures, waiting for the chance to pounce on us at any moment…

I was so lost in thought that I didn’t notice that Logan had stopped right in front of me, and I ran into him. 

“Ouch! Linley, watch where you're going. Guys! Look at this tree! It has scrape marks on it, maybe it was the monster!” he pointed out. 

My first thought was that it wasn’t a monster, but a bear or some other dangerous animal. But as I looked closer, I noticed that there were three marks, showing that the animal only had three fingers. A bear doesn’t have three fingers…

“AHHHHH! THE MONSTER!!” I heard Thomas scream. 

I quickly turned around, and was shocked at what I saw. There, right next to Thomas, was a very strange creature. It had green eyes, and blue scales all over it. I had seen enough Jurassic Park to know that this creature was indeed a dinosaur. But there was something off about, something that was probably the reason we were not running for our lives. It was wagging its tail! Ian went up to it. 

“Hi there little guy! Aren’t you a nice dino…”

“Ian don’t! You don’t know what it will-” but immediately stopped talking, because it was looking directly at me. It started to come at me! I was so afraid that I felt like I couldn’t move. My heart pounded faster and faster in my chest as it came closer. Every inch of my body, from my head all the way down to my toes, was trembling. It was six feet away, now four, now two! It was about 5 inches away from my face when I shut my eyes and accepted the fact that I was about to die. I waited a while, but it didn’t eat me. I opened my eyes to see that he was licking me! Why would a dinosaur lick me? 

“See! He is a nice dino! We should call him Ralf. What is that around his neck?” Ian questioned. Indeed there was something around his neck, in fact, it looked like a collar! He was still licking me, so I looked closer. As I examined it, I realized it was the same caller our dog, Buster, had back at home! There was no tag on it, though. 

“How strange… He has a collar like he’s… someone’s pet!” I exclaimed. 

“That would explain how nice he is, and how he somehow thinks he’s a dog,” said Ian. “Hey maybe he can do tricks! Ralf, sit!” The dinosaur sat! It was mind blowing! I had so many questions. Who does this dinosaur belong to? How is he even alive? Dinosaurs are extinct!

At this time all of the boys were telling him to “roll over” and “play dead”, but all he did was sit down. Then Ian threw a stick for him to fetch, and he did! We spent a long time playing fetch with “Ralf”. 

“This dinosaur belongs to someone! Who else would have given him a collar? We should make a sign that says we found him, so the owner can claim him again.” Ian stated. He took a paper and pen out of my backpack and started writing Ralf’s description. I knew that no one would see the sign, we were in the middle of nowhere! But I let him write it anyway. We put it back in my backpack, and we realized it was getting very dark. 

“We should all ride Ralf back!” Thomas exclaimed. So we hopped on and rode him back to our grandma’s house. We got off his back when we arrived, and everyone said their goodbyes, and went inside. I was the only one left with Ralf. I was still amazed that he was actually there! I gave him a hug and said goodbye, and turned back toward the house. As I walked to the house, I looked back and he was gone! I didn’t see where I was walking, and felt the tip of my shoe on a rock, then I was falling, and everything went black.

I woke up with a huge headache. Everything was hazy. I checked the clock. It was 2:00 PM on Thursday. What? I sat up and looked around the room, feeling very confused. That’s when Ian came into the room. 

 “You really ate that ground didn’t you! Can’t believe you are stupid enough to climb onto the roof.” he said. 

Didn’t he already say that? Had it all been a dream? I got up and went into the kitchen, and everyone was eating, like everything was normal. 

“Where’s Ralf?” I asked. 

“Oh sweetie you’re up! And, Who’s Ralf?” my mom said. 

“Never mind,” I said. I was so confused. I guess it had all been a dream. 

“We are going to leave today. We want to get you to the hospital just in case you have a concussion.” my dad told me. 

“Okay,” I said, not really listening.

We started packing to go home later that day, but I couldn’t find my backpack. I looked all  around the house, but it was nowhere to be seen. I went into the backyard, and there it was, right by a tree. I went to grab it and saw that it was open. I picked it up and checked inside to make sure everything was there, and I saw three things. A collar, a blue scale, and a paper that said, “Found Dinosaur”.