“Millions of years. It’s been alone in this lake for millions of years.”
Joel said, “It was safe until people put their damn motorboats on the lake. How can it know about motorboats?”
“I bet it had a good life.”
“Millions of years alone? That doesn’t sound good.”
“It had a lake full of fish to eat and miles to swim in and nothing to be afraid of. It saw the dawning of a great nation,” Gail told him. “It did the backstroke under the moonlight.”
Joel looked at her in surprise. “You’re the smartest little girl on this side of the lake. You talk just like you’re reading from a book.”
“I’m the smartest little girl on either side of the lake.”
He pushed the tail aside and sloshed past it, and they walked dripping onto the shore. They came around the hind end and found Ben playing with his tin cowpoke, same as they’d left him.
“I’ll tell him,” Joel said. He crouched and ruffled his little brother’s hair. “Do you see that rock behind you?”
Ben didn’t look up from his cowboy. “Uh-huh.”
“That rock is a dinosaur. Don’t be afraid of it. It’s dead. It won’t hurt anyone.”
“Uh-huh,” Ben said. He had buried his cowboy up to his tin waist. In a small, shrill voice, he shouted, “Help! Ah’m a-drownin’ in this heah quicksand!”
Joel said, “Ben. I’m not playing pretend. It’s a real dinosaur.”
Ben stopped and looked back at it without much interest. “Okay.”
He wiggled his figure in the sand and returned to his shrill cowboy voice. “Someone throw me a rope before Ah’m buried alive!”
Joel made a face and stood up.
“He’s just useless. The discovery of the century right behind him, and all he wants to do is play with that stupid cowboy.”
Then Joel crouched again and said, “Ben. It’s worth a pile of money. We’re all going to be rich. You and me and Gail.”
Ben hunched his shoulders and put on a pouty face of his own. He could feel he wasn’t going to be allowed to play cowboy anymore. Joel was going to make him think about his dinosaur, whether he liked it or not.
“That’s all right. You can have my share of the money.”
“I won’t hold you to that later,” Joel said. “I’m not greedy.”
“What’s important,” Gail said, “is the advancement of scientific progress. That’s all we care about.”
“All we care about, little guy,” Joel said.
Ben thought of something that might save him and end the discussion. He made a sound in his throat, a great roar to indicate a jolting explosion. “The dynamite went off! I’m burnin’!” He flopped onto his back and began to roll desperately around. “Put me out! Put me out!”
No one put him out. Joel stood. “You need to go get a grown-up and tell them we found a dinosaur. Gail and me will stay here and guard it.”
Ben stopped moving. He let his mouth loll open. He rolled his eyes up in his head. “I can’t. I’m burnt to death.”
“You’re an idiot,” Joel said, tired of trying to sound like an adult. He kicked sand onto Ben’s stomach.
Ben flinched, and his face darkened, and he said, “You’re the one who is stupid. I hate dinosaurs.”
Joel looked like he was getting ready to kick sand in Ben’s face, but Gail intervened. She couldn’t bear to see Joel lose his dignity and had liked his serious, grown-up voice and the way he’d offered Ben a share of the reward money, without hesitation. Gail dropped to her knees next to the little boy and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Ben? Would you like a brand-new box of those cowboys? Joel says you’ve lost most of them.”
Ben sat up, brushing himself off. “I was going to save up for them. I’ve got a dime so far.”
“If you go and get your dad for us, I’ll buy you a whole box of them. Joel and I will buy you a box together.”
Ben said, “They’ve got them for a dollar at Fletcher’s. Do you have a dollar?”
“I will after I get the reward.”
“What if there isn’t no reward?”
“You mean to say what if there isn’t any reward,” Gail told him. “What you just said is a double negative. It means the opposite of what you want things to mean. Now, if there isn’t any reward, I’ll save up until I have a dollar and buy you a box of tin cowboys. I promise.”
“You promise.”
“That’s what I just said. Joel will save with me. Won’t you, Joel?”