The Start of a Dinosaur Story

I looked up, watching the moon. Tiger poked my side and chewed noisily on a long, twisting and familiar dinosaur tail. I glared at him, wondering whose that was. Tiger was such a dick. “What? Do you want some?” Tiger flashed his sharp teeth at me.

“No, I don’t enjoy eating . . . whoever that is.” I looked down at it, getting hungry. Goddammit.

“You know Miz Mudsplatter?” Tiger took another bite. “She’s tail-less now.”

“Tiger, what the fuck?” I rolled my eyes, mimicking our older sister whenever she came back to see us. That wasn't too often, not with her living with some non-rejected clan in what she called “society”.

“What?” Tiger chewed on the tail in his mouth, opening wide so you could see inside of it.

“Have you seen Mom?” I tore my gaze away from the tail, looking at our deserted dump of a dwelling. It wasn't much, it really wasn't even enough to call home–– it was just a shithole next to a lava pit. Sometimes, I wonder if our family was outcasted to the slums in hopes that we would disintegrate forever in the lava pit. I wouldn't blame the others; sometimes I wanted Dad in the pit. I don’t think it would matter much if Mom was in it too because sometimes, it felt like she already was.

“What do you think?” Tiger said, having swallowed. “If you haven’t seen her and I haven’t seen her––”

“Then no one’s seen her,” I finished with him. It was true, no one who mattered had seen her if we hadn't.  No one who didn't matter was looking for her anyway. I sighed and sat back down in the nest; it was falling apart. Tiger was next to me, still chewing on a tail and now staring at the moon. I looked over at the tail again, my stomach growling. Tiger ripped off a piece for me and shoved it in my mouth. I started chewing, swallowing down any feelings with it.

“You’re welcome,” he said between chews. “You haven’t eaten anything all day, just because we don’t have anyone to get us food, doesn't mean we can’t get it ourselves.” Tiger meant that we could still steal food no matter what, even if we had to chop off someone’s tail for it. “Have you seen Dad?”

“If I haven’t––”I began when angry growls erupted around us. The sound of a coconut that stunk of foul liquid smashing to the ground interrupted us. Tiger and I crouched to the ground and our chewing stopped. I abruptly swallowed and smacked Tiger when he didn't.  Hadn't we been through this enough? He gave me a pleading look while showing me that he had too much to swallow and he wasn't about to spit it out. I shook my head and gave him a demanding look. He scowled and abruptly shut his jaw, beginning to chew again when he was lifted out of the nest before I could do anything to help him.

“Who are you?” I heard Dad sneer at him and watched Tigers terrified look reflected in Dad’s eyes, twice the size of Tigers head. The tail dangled in his hand, swinging. “What do you think you're doing here? You little shit!” He threw Tiger down beside me in the nest and turned away, drinking from another coconut.  We both turned and stared, hoping he would leave for the night. “What are you looking at?” he sneered and threw the coconut at us. “Get out of here!” he yelled.

Tiger and I looked at each other and scampered out of the nest toward the jungle as the next coconut was thrown at us.

“Skittle? You know that lava pit?” Tiger said to me after vomiting and finding a leaf big enough to wear as a blanket around his shoulders. “Sometimes I wish that dad would burn in it.”

“You don’t wish that,” I said, even though I knew he did.

He just nodded. “I do.” He lay down on the ground next to me, looking up at the unfamiliar jungle around us. “Do you think Mom will ever come back?”

“She’s only been gone . . .” I had to think about it. How long had she been gone?

“Do you think we’ll ever go back?” Tiger turned over on his side so that I couldn't see his face.

“No, I don’t think we want to.” I stared at the back of his head until he rolled over again, nodding in agreement. A flutter went through the tree tops. We sat up, looking around for danger. A second later, a small light shot out through the leaves and down onto Tigers nose. “What is it?” he asked, in awe.

“A firefly. Mom said they bring good luck.”