Raising Rufus (12 page)

“I dunno, Martin. I'm overdue at the U.” The U was the university down the road in Granville, where his graduate studies kept him busy when he wasn't teaching.

“It's really,
really
important,” said Audrey.

Mr. Eckhart still didn't look at them. “What's up?”

Martin braced himself for the big announcement. “Um…remember when I asked you about lizards with three toes?”

“Yeah. Glasses. Where the heck did I…?”

“What if I told you I have one that's seven feet tall?”

“Really?” said Mr. Eckhart dully, still not paying attention.

“It's a dinosaur, Mr. Eckhart,” said Audrey.

“Tyrannosaurus rex,” said Martin.

“Mm-hm,” said Mr. Eckhart, and a few seconds later it finally registered. He stopped what he was doing and looked at the two of them, one eyebrow up and mouth pinched to the side.

“I found this egg, and it hatched and he grew up. Well, he's
growing
up.”

“And no one else knows about him,” Audrey said, “but now he's too big for that stupid barn and we had to tell somebody.”

“And we wanted it to be you,” Martin added quickly, “because you would know the best thing to do with a dinosaur.”

Mr. Eckhart's eyes shifted back and forth between them, his face frozen in a twisted frown. They returned his gaze nervously for what seemed to Martin like about an hour and a half. Finally, the sides of his mouth turned up ever so slightly.

“Okay, I get it. You two are funnier than I gave you credit for.”

“It's not a joke!” Audrey insisted.

“I know it sounds crazy,” said Martin, “but it's true, I swear!”

Mr. Eckhart resumed throwing papers into his briefcase. “Look, I don't know what you two are up to, but right now I do not—”

Audrey shoved a handful of papers in front of his face—the color printouts of the photos they had taken with Rufus.

As Mr. Eckhart took them and glanced through the first two or three, his face went through a whole series of vivid expressions that could have gotten him the lead in the school play. At first he seemed taken aback, but gradually a skeptical smirk took over.

“You guys are very good with Photoshop, I'll give you that.”

“They're not fake,” said Martin.

“We don't even have Photoshop,” said Audrey.
“Look.”

Mr. Eckhart leafed through the rest of the photos, one by one. With each new picture he looked more and more confused, like he was doubting his own eyes.

M
r. Eckhart called his colleague at the U to postpone their appointment, and as he drove Martin and Audrey to the Tinkers' house, Martin told him the whole story. But Mr. Eckhart didn't seem to be buying a word of it, and the disruption to his day put him in a bit of a testy mood.

“I'm here to tell you, Martin,” he said as he followed the kids across the backyard, “a sixty-five-million-year-old egg does not just thaw out and hatch. If anybody should know that, it's you.”

“When you see him, you'll believe it,” Martin said. They rounded the far corner of the barn and climbed down the slope toward the double doors leading to the lower level.

“Well, if this turns into a punch line, there will be major detentions in your futures, both of you.”

Suddenly, Audrey let out a gasp, and she and Martin stopped in their tracks. Mr. Eckhart almost ran into them from behind.

“Oh, no!” she moaned as they stared at the scene just ten feet in front of them: a pair of wooden barn doors, hanging wide open.

Martin and Audrey ran through the doors and into the barn cellar. “Rufus?” Martin called, hoping that his scaly friend would wander out from behind a pile of junk, like he usually did.

Not this time.

Audrey and Martin ran all around the lower barn room, frantically checking every nook and possible hiding place. But it didn't take long for the horrible truth to sink in. Martin ran over to check out the metal latch on the door, and saw that it had been chewed on by a set of very sharp teeth.

“Wow. I never thought he could do that.”

They both ran back outside and called into the woods. “Rufus!” they shouted, nearly in unison. The silence that greeted them in return made Martin's stomach feel like an overloaded bug jar.

“This is very, very bad,” said Audrey.

Mr. Eckhart was starting to twitch impatiently. “All right, look, you two—”

“We've gotta find him,” said Martin, and in a flash he and Audrey were racing into the woods.

Mr. Eckhart put on his sternest voice. “Martin!” But, seeing that he was scolding the clear September air, all he could do was throw up his hands and follow them.

He halfheartedly tried to keep up as they scurried around, calling for Rufus in all directions. Audrey was a good whistler and she tried that, too—but all that came of their combined efforts was more of that disheartening silence.

“We better split up,” said Martin.

What little was left of Mr. Eckhart's patience seemed to be pretty much spent. “Okay, just hold on one second here—”

“Could you please come with me, Mr. Eckhart?” Audrey interrupted. “I don't know these woods that well.”

“Oh, and I do?”

“I'll feel safer. Please?”

His mouth was open, but his vocal cords were not serving him at the moment. Maybe he was thinking of tomorrow's headline:
GIRL DISAPPEARS IN WOODS; TEACHER CHARGED WITH CHILD ABANDONMENT.

“I'll meet you guys at the white rock in twenty minutes,” Martin said
authoritatively.

“Okay,” said Audrey, and in an instant they were on their separate ways. Mr. Eckhart trudged after her, grumbling under his breath.

Martin made his way deeper and deeper into the woods, and after a good quarter hour of shouting at the top of his lungs for his missing pet, his voice was getting hoarse. By the time he arrived at Winoka Lake, both his energy and his spirits were sagging.

He plopped down on his usual thinking rock.
How could this happen? How does a seven-foot-tall dinosaur just vanish? I should have known that latch wouldn't hold him. Where would he go? Doesn't he miss us? What if somebody else finds him? Or a hunter shoots him or something?!

Not liking where this train of thought was going, Martin stood up and drew a deep breath for one big call across the lake.

“Ruuuuuuu—”

Hearing a rustling sound behind him, he cut off in midcall. His heart leaped as he spun around to see…

The absolute last person in the world he wanted to run into at this or any other moment: Donald Grimes.

“Heeeyy! Small world, huh, Tinky?”

By pure bad luck, Donald had chosen this time and this spot to do a bit of after-school fishing. He stood there, pole in one fist and tackle box in the other, grinning at Martin like an evil Cheshire cat.

Martin's face went blank, and their gazes locked for a long moment. Then—
voom!
He took off at maximum speed. Donald dropped his gear and streaked after him.

“Ohhhh, no. You're not getting away this time, you little slug!”

They flew through the woods, blasting through brush, vaulting over rocks and logs, skipping across a stream. Martin pumped his legs as fast as they would move, and actually managed to stay a comfortable distance ahead of Donald.

But his run of bad luck was not over. Just when he thought he might actually get away, he tripped on an exposed root and went sprawling to the ground. It was a muddy spot, and he couldn't get up fast enough to stop Donald from crashing on top of him like a TV wrestler.

“So, Tinkerbell. Try to make me look bad in front of
everybody,
huh?” He sat heavily on Martin's back, twisting his arm behind him.

“Ow! Grimes!”

“You know what happens to little guys with big yaps? They get their mouths washed out with mud. How would you like that, huh?”

“Leave me alone!” Martin rasped.

Donald scooped up a big handful of mud and got set to deliver it. “Snitchety snatch, down the hatch!”

Then, just as he was about to shove it in Martin's face…

ROWWWRRR!

Donald twisted around to see a twelve-foot-long, seven-foot-high tyrannosaur with rows of razor-sharp teeth and a look in its eye that was—well, not the look you want to see when you meet up with a seven-foot-tall tyrannosaur.

Donald, of course, had never seen anything quite like it before, and did exactly what his instincts dictated: he screamed like a banshee.

“AAAAA­AAAAA­GGHHHH!”

“Rufus!” Martin shouted.

ROWWWWRRR!
Rufus replied, and immediately charged. Donald sprang off Martin and tried to scamper away, but Rufus cut him off and snapped at him angrily, barely missing his left foot.

“Rufus! No!” Martin hollered.

“AAAAA­AAAAA­AGGHHHH!”
Donald screamed over and over as Rufus kept lunging and snapping at him. It was only by sheer luck that he didn't lose an arm—or worse.

Martin wrapped himself around Rufus's leg, trying to stop the onslaught. “No, don't hurt him! We were just playing. Stop! Rufus, no biting people!”

The extra weight slowed Rufus down just enough to give Donald a fighting chance.

“You're crazy, Tinker!” Donald gasped as he ducked and dodged more nimbly than he thought he knew how. “I quit! I promise I'll never bug you again!”

Rufus let out one more giant
ROWWWWRRR!
and took another snap at Donald, who finally spotted an escape route and rocketed off into the forest.

“Help! It's gonna eat me! I'm dying! Help, somebody, please!
He-e-e-e-e-elp
…”

His screams gradually faded as he disappeared into the woods. Martin knew this would lead to trouble, but for now he was glad the worst seemed to be over.

With his prey out of sight and, it would seem, out of mind, Rufus gradually calmed down, and Martin let go of his leg.

“Where have you been?” he scolded. “I was worried sick.”

Rufus nuzzled him in the small of his back.

“Well, I found you, I guess that's the main thing. C'mon, we've got stuff to do.”

He started on his way, but soon realized there were no footsteps behind him. He turned and saw Rufus standing there, sniffing at a low-hanging branch. He didn't seem in any particular hurry to go anywhere.

“Come
on,
” Martin insisted.

Rufus slowly, lazily fell into step behind him.

There was a big round rock, a good eight feet high and noticeably whiter than the other rocks nearby, that people used as a landmark to orient themselves in the woods. As Martin spotted it up ahead, he could see that Audrey and Mr. Eckhart were there waiting. It had been a half hour since he had split up with them, and they were both looking pretty nervous.

“Can't believe I'm letting a couple of seventh graders take me on some lame-brained unicorn hunt,” Mr. Eckhart groused, pacing impatiently.

He wasn't paying attention as Martin appeared out of the brush, with Rufus trailing close behind. As the teacher bent over to tie a loose shoelace, his glasses fell off and he had to feel around on the ground for them.

“You found him!” Audrey shouted.

“This is Rufus, Mr. Eckhart,” said Martin.

“Hmm, what?” he replied as he returned his glasses to their rightful place on his nose. Then, as the world came back into focus, he suddenly jumped a good three feet in the air. “What in the holy—”

With surprising athletic skill, he clambered on top of the white rock in about two seconds flat. “You weren't kidding!”

Alarmed by the sight of yet another strange human, Rufus growled and crouched down like a startled jungle cat.

“Relax, Rufus,” Martin said. “He's a friend.”

“You've got a bloody dinosaur!” Mr. Eckhart croaked from atop the rock.

“I told you we did,” said Martin.

“Audrey, look out! Martin, watch your—get the—put the—”

“He's not dangerous, Mr. Eckhart,” Audrey said calmly. “You don't have to stay up there.”

“What?”

“Please, we need your help,” said Martin. “Donald Grimes saw him and now everybody's gonna know.”

Audrey's eyes widened. “Donald
saw
him?”

“He needs a real home. You're the only one we trust.”

Mr. Eckhart was still too thunderstruck to register much of what Martin was saying. He squeezed his eyes shut and mumbled to himself. “Okay, this is not happening. It's three a.m., I'm sound asleep in my bed…”

“We need to get him back to the barn,” said Audrey. “Please come back with us, Mr. Eckhart.”

“I believe I'll stay right here, Audrey, if it's all the same to you.”

Martin and Audrey looked at each other nervously. Maybe this whole thing hadn't been such a hot idea.

“Okay,” Martin said, “stay here, and when he's in the barn we'll come back. Okay?”

“Uhhhhhhhh…”

Taking that as a yes, they headed off, with Rufus following.

Mr. Eckhart stayed put on the rock as they moved briskly down the footpath. Martin hoped that Mr. Eckhart would come down and follow once they got a safe distance ahead, and when he turned around to look, that was exactly what happened.

When Martin and Audrey arrived back at the barn, the big doors were still wide open, just as they had left them.

“C'mon, boy. Inside,” Martin said as he stepped aside to let Rufus pass.

Rufus, though, had other ideas. He huffed and paced back and forth, ready to take off back into the woods.

“He doesn't want to go in,” Audrey said ominously.

Martin tried to sound firm as he faced Rufus. “You can't stay out here. You have to go in now.”

“Oh, wow…he's not gonna go in…”

Determined to prove her wrong, Martin snapped loudly, “Rufus!
In!
Now!”

His sudden burst of authority was enough to get Rufus's attention, and he slowly trudged through the opening into his unhappy cage. As Audrey closed the doors behind him, Martin went over and grabbed some cinder blocks from a nearby pile and stacked them in front of the doors so (he hoped) Rufus couldn't push them open again from inside.

Audrey pitched in. When they had laid down about a dozen blocks, Martin tugged hard on the doors; they didn't budge. “This should do it.”