Chapter 1
"Find anything yet?" asked my mom, Ellie.
"Nope, just rocks, rocks, rocks, and more rocks. Why can`t I ever find anything?"
"Well, you don`t discover a new dinosaur overnight."
"Yeah, I know."
I`m Grace Sattler, Gracie to my friends, and I`ll tell you, when you look at me, I don`t exactly look like Ellie. Firstly, let`s just say most of my clothes go with my dark skin. I also have jet black hair, sometimes in braids but most of the time down. What else, oh yeah I`m eight and a half years old. I also have greenish blueish eyes. And finally, I`ll tell you the sad story of how I came to be with Ellie.
It happened on a dark and stormy night. I know it sounds cliché but it was. My mom and dad, Angie and Brian, went for a drive. They were killed in a car accident by a drunken man, I was only one. I went to an orphanage right after their funeral since my aunts, uncles, and grandparents were either dead or unable to take care of me. After a year in the orphanage, on my way to school I met Ellie. After months for knowing her, she adopted me when I was two. She took me to the dig site to meet her boyfriend, Alan Grant. I tried my best to talk to him since I knew it was possible that he was going to be my step dad, but it was clear he didn't really want anything to do with me. But, I didn't really have to deal with it since Ellie was always nice to me.
"Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler, we`re ready to try again." said one of the diggers.
"I hate computers." mumbled Alan.
"The feeling`s mutual." said mom as she ties Alan`s red necktie.
They walked together holding each other`s hands while I`m walking in the back.
"How long does this usually take?" Alan asks to the volunteer on the computer.
"It should be immediate return. You shoot the radar into the ground, the bone bounces back."
An image of a velociraptor suddenly appears on the screen.
"This new program`s incredible! After a few more years on development, we won`t have to dig anymore!"
"Where`s the fun in that?"
"The image looks a little distorted, but I don`t think that`s the computer."
Mom shakes her head and says "No, post-mortem contraction of the posterior neck ligaments- Velociraptor?"
Alan nods his head and says "Yes, good shape too, maybe five or six feet tall. I`m guessing nine feet long, look at the-." He stopped talking when he touched the computer and static appeared.
"What did he do?" asked one of the volunteers.
"He touched it, Alan`s not machine compatible." I said as Alan sighs while everyone laughs.
Alan, now probably slightly a bit annoyed, hovered his finger over the screen without touching it and said "Look at the half-moon shaped bone of the wrist. No wonder these guys learnt how to fly."
My eyes widen in surprise while everyone laughs. Did he really think velociraptors flew?
"No seriously, well perhaps dinosaurs have more in common with present day birds than they do with reptiles. Look at the pubic bone, it`s turned back like a bird. The vertebrae, full of hollows and air sacks just like a bird. And even the word raptor means "bird of prey"."
"That doesn't look very scary!"
Everyone turned their heads and saw a kid about ten or twelve.
"More like a six foot turkey."
Everyone laughed.
Alan said "A turkey? Try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous period."
"Oh no" I said.
"Here we go." Mom says as I nod in agreement.
Alan always tries to scare kids who "disrespect" his work by telling them gory "what if" stories. As you can see, he almost did it to me. When I say almost I mean by one day when I was still two, I was complaining about the dust getting in my hair and that the dinosaurs didn't look scary. I could tell Alan was going to tell me a scary story if I was in a time when dinosaurs existed. But of course, since I was his girlfriend`s daughter, he didn't do it because mom would have given him an earful of most likely scarring her child. And believe me you do not want an earful from Ellie.
"You`d get your first look at this six foot turkey when you enter a clearing. Moving like a bird, bobbing its head. And you keep still because you think its sight is based on movement like a T-Rex, but no, not a Velociraptor. You stare at him and he stares at you. But the attack comes from, not from the front, but the sides, where the other two raptors you didn't know you were there. Because Velociraptors are pack hunters, he uses coordinated attack patterns and he is out in force today. And then he slashes at you with this-." He pulls out a raptor claw.
"A six inch retractable claw, like a razor on the middle toe. He doesn't bother to bite at the jugular like a lion; he slashes at you here, or here."
"Oh Alan" mom mumbles.
"Why do you like this guy again?"
Mom laughs.
"Or maybe across the belly spilling your intestines. The point is, you`re alive when they eat you. So, you know, try to show more respect."
"Ok" The kid says on the verge of tears.
Alan smiles and walks away.
"Really why?" I ask.
Mom ignores me and pulls on my arm trying to catch up to Alan.
"Hey Alan, you know if you wanted to scare the kid you could have pulled a gun on him."
"Yeah, I know. Kids, you want another one of those?"
I was glaring at him as if I was trying to be a silly little girl and burn two holes in his back.
"What`s wrong with kids?" she says as she looks at me.
"Ellie, they`re noisy, they`re expensive."
"Cheap, cheap, cheap."
"They smell."
Mom and I shouted while she was laughing "They do not smell!"
"Babies smell."
"How would you know?" I mumble in annoyance.
Alan stops in his track and turns.
I covered my mouth and thought "Oh my gosh, why did I say that?!"
Before Alan could even say a single word. We heard a helicopter! We turned our heads and saw it! Alan went to the helicopter to ask the pilot to stop while Ellie went to warn the others to cover the holes. I ran back to the trailer to get something else to cover the holes.
When I ran in, I saw a man wearing all white and had a white beard!
I shouted "Who are you?!"
"I`m sorry miss, I didn't mean to storm in, my name`s John Hammond."
Before I could answer, I heard Alan storm in.
"Who are you?!"
"I am deeply sorry for the unexpected entrance Dr. Grant." He says as he shakes Alan`s hand.
John turned his head toward me and said
"I see this must be your daughter Dr. Grant."
Alan and I stared at each other awkwardly.
"Um, no, I`m Gracie Sattler, my mother is-."
Before I could finish, Ellie slammed the door open and shouted
"Ok who`s the jerk?!"
"Mom!"
"Uh, this is our paleobotanist Dr. Ellie-."
"Sattler, my mother." I finished for Alan.
"Ellie, this is John Hammond."
"Oh, did I say jerk?" She said nervously while shaking his hand.
"I`m sorry once again for the dramatic entrance, but I`m in a hurry. Will you have a wee bit of a drink now and then?"
John walks around the kitchen like it`s his house while Ellie and Alan try to help him while I sit down.
"Come along then all three of you sit down, and Miss Sattler."
I turned my head towards him.
"How old are you?"
"I`m eight and a half"
He smiles at me the turns his head towards all three of us.
"Well, I`ll get to the point now. I like you, all three of you. I can tell instantly about people, it`s a gift. I own an island, on the coast of Costa-Rica. I leased it off the government and spent the last five years setting up a kinda biological preserve. Really spectacular, spared no expense. Made the one I got down in Kenya seem like a petting zoo. And there`s no doubt that our attractions that will drive kids out of their minds."
"What are those?" Alan asks.
"Me" I replied.
"And not just kids, everyone. We`re going to open next year, that`s if the lawyers don`t kill me. I don`t care for lawyers, you?"
"Well, we don't really know any." says mom and Alan.
"Well I`m afraid I do. There`s a particular pebble in my shoe that represents my investors. He says they insist on outside opinions."
"What kind of opinions?" I asked.
"Well, your kind, not to put a fine point on it. If I could get the three of you to sign off on the park- you know, give a wee testimonial. I could get back on schedule."
"Why would they care what we think?" Mom asks.
"What kind of park is this?" Alan asks.
"It`s right up your alley. Look, why don`t you three come down, I`d love to have the opinion of a paleobotanist and a member of the target audience. I`ve got a jet standing by at Choteau."
Alan speaks up and says "No, I`m sorry, that wouldn't be possible. We`ve just discovered a new skeleton and-."
"I could compensate you by fully funding your dig."
"This would be an unusual time-."
"For a further three years."
The three of us paused and looked at each other.
"Where`s the plane?" Mom asked.
"Yeah, ok."
Alan and mom hugged each other, than mom hugged me tightly.
