The clink of glasses echoed across the hall ways, penetrating the beige walls of various bed rooms; the scent of egg nog and ham too drifted through the air, it would be tempting to anyone who didn't part-take in the merriment.
But for Joyce, this was a time for mourning.
Just one week ago her companion, Valentine, had died of old age. And while most in the family were happy to have done away with the small creature, Joyce was beyond devastated. The passing of her childhood friend had come so suddenly, and without warning, leaving Joyce completely alone.
She didn't blame him for dying, for leaving her, the only blame was placed upon a family who seemed not to care.
For the past week she couldn't help but to shout a greeting upon arriving home from school, or saying goodnight. Valentine had always responded to her calls, he never hesitated to sing her praise or to squawk out the various phrases taught to him over the years.
By now she had grown used to his absence-the work required to do away with his cage and his toys had already been completed; merely keeping what little was left of his ashes with her in the generic shape of a macaw. His favorite toy had too been cremated.
In a cruel attempt at a joke, her brother suggested getting Valentine "stuffed and mounted on a pedestal." For the past week she hardly spoke to her older brother, having resisted the urge to sock him in the jaw for it-such action was ill-advised and she knew it. She let him have his fun, and moved on.
The day of the cremation, her brother apologized, seeing as Christmas was only two days away. She forgave him albeit silently.
Joyce's loneliness was only enhanced by the holiday spirit.
Valentine was once owned by her aunt whom received the bird as gift on the day of his name-sake.
Through her dried tears Joyce managed to let out a chuckle.
Valentine's purpose in life was ironic.
He was purchased to help her aunt cope with the loss of her husband and now fifteen years later, Valentine had passed, leaving Joyce with nothing but memories of that bright and cheery macaw.
The rapid tapping of pencil led against a hardwood desk was hypnotizing. Joyce had become lost in her thoughts about Valentine for a few minutes now, distracted from what school work she was required to catch up on due to Valentine's passing.
At least her teachers and friends had sympathy for her, everyone knew of her attachment to the bird. Yet the people should be able to confide in, her family, couldn't care less-this left Joyce feeling isolated and ignored even by the extended family who came to visit.
There were a few knocks on her door, a few calls of her name, yet even she did not care enough to answer them.
All she wanted to hear was the chatter of Valentine, ringing her ear off with his songs or spitting out random facts he learned from the television-she said she would do anything to bring Valentine back to life.
However that was a child's dream. A child's dream to bring back a lost pet.
And something she would have to get over.
The rapid tapping of her pencil coincided with the flickering of the tv mounted by her door-the snow white waves of an eternally dead cable signal occasionally flashed back and forth from the local news; The Charlie Brown Christmas Special; some shopping network she couldn't name and so on. Joyce never watched television much, it was all noise.
However, in between the rapid taps of her pencil and the flickering of the TV, a single word caught her attention; Dinosaur.
She blinked once and lifted her head, her neck practically snapping in half as she faced the left, glancing up at the small TV. She must have misheard the TV-who's talking about extinct animals at this time of year? At first she ignored it, blowing it off, but then recalled the pictures she had seen rather recently.
What were they?
Bones; skeletons; cat-claws the size of human hands; teeth like razors.
Men with French or British names blabbering about some kind of theme park in California.
This sensation filled her with déjà vu and it was a feeling she would rather live without.
She sat silent for a moment attempting to shake off such vague, or perhaps recent memories that seemed to flicker in her mind much like the TV signal. It was an odd feeling that required further investigation. And as a bookworm, she couldn't help but remain curious.
Grasping the drawer by her desk she reached inside and grasped picture-book dictionary she had been gifted a long time ago; despite its primitive contents, she found the simplified definitions and children's jokes amusing.
The lack of dust and stains on its pages indicated the book remained in great care having a remained a fond part of her childhood but its few pages held many creases having once been abused by her younger self. She thumbed through the small twenty-six page dictionary and it wasn't only a few seconds before a giant capital D in bold print was revealed.
The definition below read as followed.
D.
D is for Dinosaur.
Dinosaurs once lived on earth over 65-million years ago. Some were about the size of a cat, while a few looked like they were as big as mountains!
Some well-known Dinosaurs included the Tyrannosaurus Res ( ), the Triceratops and the Stegosaurus.
This was followed, amusingly enough by chicken-scratch doodles of a making a rather rude remark towards a Triceratops whom lost his horns. Joyce became caught up in a fit of giggles, only interrupted when a loud slam against her wall nearly knocked the TV off its perch-she violently scrambled from her seat in an attempt to catch it before it hit the ground.
Fortunately for her, the extra reinforcements she applied to the shelf held fast and saved her TV from further damage; it wouldn't have been the first time either. Her parents were known to get a little wild during the holidays especially when most of her aunts and uncles came over; she was happy her parents had a strong bong with their brothers and sisters but this was partially why she felt so alone every Christmas.
Obviously, the death of Valentine didn't help this year.
Joyce adjusted the TV, giving it a good knock to bring the picture back up before sitting down again and recovering her homework from where it had fallen into the trash. The room soon buzzed with the lively static of snowy cable as she got back to work, the occurrence distracting Joyce from her previous curiosities about dinosaurs as the dictionary had slipped under the bed.
"If I had the opportunity and funding to try again, I would not-" a voice cut off short, this again drew her attention towards the TV that for once held a signal for more than ten seconds. The images that popped on screen was black and white, it shook and wiggled due to improper editing by the recorder.
On screen it portrayed the image of fat-man in white shirt; trousers, shoes and hat like that of an explorer. He gave her the vibes of a greedy villain from Indiana Jones. The cane he held, she noticed its odd design on screen-it wasn't curved or tipped with a tennis ball like many others. The knob resembled some kind of fine stone that shinned. The tv screen flicked and the camera zoomed closer, revealing a large insect encased within.
"What is that-" a soft mutter escaped her lips.
She was suddenly spooked by a second voice from the TV, she knew this to be the host of the local station in her county, although the image remained fixated on the old man in white, it flashed to pictures of strange looking animals.
They made her recall the imagery of skeletons that had passed through her vision recently.
The hostess continued, however her speech was broken
"Science fiction or science fact? The man you see on your screens is philan- businessman John Hammond whose work on fossil restoration have gr- impacted the scientific community. Over the past ten years it was only theorized what inhumane experiments he had been conducting on Las Cinco Muertes; an archipelago located southwest of Costa Rica. For - - - - - and his associates have been reverse engineering the dna of extinct predators. - - - - - but at what cost?"
The new host goes on to describe the process of which dinosaurs and other extinct reptiles were restored via careful rehydration of DNA strands contained within the blood of insects encased in amber.
She goes on to state that Hammond has bejeweled his cane with a similar amber fossil.
Joyce, for single moment, had to grip her chest to stop herself from breathing so hard. This news was terrifying. Why would anyone do this?! She understood recreating herbivores but, massive predators like a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Spinosaurus?!
The impact on the local environment would be astronomical.
Yet, the prospect intrigued her.
The television, for once, gave an absolute clear, vibrate picture.
"Now, after a decade of secrets, there is a new owner of InGen and its remaining assets. Simon Masrani, owner of start-up oil company, Masrani Energy has announced that less than six months from this broadcast- Jurassic World will be open to the public!"
All her life, Jurassic Park had been a story, a rumor, something that was kept hush to most of the general public but now it was real. These creatures that she could only dream about once again walked the face of the earth.
Joyce had previously never put into much thought into dinosaurs, they died off long ago, and she can't make an impact on their lives like she could the endangered and threatened animals of today.
Perhaps now, she could make a difference.
Joyce gripped the necklace holding Valentine's ashes in her hand. If they could pull DNA from amber, why not ash?
She held onto that small fraction of a chance-a chance to hold that cheery, singing bird in her arms again.