“Go! Go!” said Jack. He threw his notebook into his pack. He pushed Annie toward the rope ladder.
“Bye, Henry!” she said.
“Go!” said Jack. He gave Annie a big push.
“Quit it!” she said. But she started up the ladder. Jack scrambled after her.
They tumbled into the tree house.
They were panting as they looked out the window at the dinosaur. He was standing on the hilltop. Eating flowers off a tree.
“Oh, man,” whispered Jack. “We are in a time long ago!”
The dinosaur looked like a huge rhinoceros. Only he had three horns instead of one. Two long ones above his eyes and one on his nose. He had a big shield-like thing behind his head.
“Triceratops!” said Jack.
“Does he eat people?” whispered Annie.
“I’ll look it up.” Jack grabbed the dinosaur book. He flipped through the pages.
“There!” he said. He pointed to a picture of a Triceratops. He read the caption:
The Triceratops lived in the late Cretaceous period. This plant-eating dinosaur weighed over 12,000 pounds.
Jack slammed the book shut. “Just plants. No meat.”
“Let’s go see him,” said Annie.
“Don’t you want to take notes about him?” asked Annie. “We’re probably the first people in the whole world to ever see a real live Triceratops.”
Jack sighed. She was right.
“Let’s go,” he said.
He shoved the dinosaur book into his pack. He slung it over his shoulder and started down the ladder.
On the way down, Jack stopped.
He called up to Annie, “Just promise you won’t pet him.”
“I promise.”
“Promise you won’t kiss him.”
“I promise.”
“Promise you won’t talk to him.”
“I promise.”
“Promise you won’t—”
Jack went.
Annie followed.
When they stepped off the ladder, the Pteranodon gave them a kind look.
Annie blew a kiss at him. “Be back soon, Henry,” she said cheerfully.
“Shush!” said Jack. And he led the way through the ferns. Slowly and carefully.
When he reached the bottom of the hill, he kneeled behind a fat bush.
Annie knelt beside him and started to speak.
“Shush!” Jack put his finger to his lips.
Annie made a face.
Jack peeked out at the Triceratops.
The dinosaur was incredibly big. Bigger than a truck. He was eating the flowers off a magnolia tree.
Jack slipped his notebook out of his pack. He wrote:
Annie nudged him.
Jack ignored her. He studied the Triceratops again. He wrote:
Annie nudged him hard.
Jack looked at her.
Annie pointed to herself. She walked her fingers through the air. She pointed to the dinosaur. She smiled.
Was she teasing?
She waved at Jack.
Jack started to grab her.
She laughed and jumped away. She fell into the grass. In full view of the Triceratops!
Too late. The big dinosaur had spotted Annie. He gazed down at her from the hilltop. Half of a magnolia flower was sticking out of his mouth.
“Oops,” said Annie.
“Get back!” Jack shouted at her.
“He looks nice, Jack.”
“Nice? Watch out for his horns, Annie!”
“No. He’s nice, Jack.”
Nice?
But the Triceratops just gazed calmly down at Annie. Then he turned and loped away. Down the side of the hill.
“Bye!” said Annie. She turned back to Jack. “See?”
Jack grunted. But he wrote in his notebook:
“Come on. Let’s look around some more,” said Annie.
As Jack started after Annie, he saw something glittering in the tall grass. He reached out and picked it up.
A medallion. A gold medallion.
A letter was engraved on the medallion. A fancy M.
“Oh, man. Someone came here before us,” Jack said softly.
