Tiny-Tricera Troubles

by Dustin Hansen

  “Or aqua blue,” Lin said. “It’d bring out his eyes.”

  “Right you are, Miss Lin. Right you are, and I have just the stuff. Come on, I’ll need your help to get it down.”

  Lin and Kathleen scurried toward a shelf of bluish-green material, but I still had no idea what was going on.

  “Um. What is going on? We can’t superhero our way out of this,” I said.

  “Don’t you see, Danny? We’re getting costumes,” Lin said.

  “Yeah. I can see that, but why?” I asked.

  “So we can march in the parade. Isn’t it obvious?” Lin said, then reached up and pulled down some aqua material.

  “You’re telling me we’re going to dress up the Microsaurs and march right out of here like it’s no big deal?” I said.

  “Exactly, Danny. Hiding in plain sight is the name of the operation today,” Professor Penrod said from the camera phone.

  “Well, then I’m going to need to go visit Gino,” I said.

  “Why?” Lin asked.

  “Because I need a pair of green goggles big enough to fit a triceratops, and I need them fast,” I said.

  “Oh, that’d be perfect for his costume. Now you get it, Danny,” Lin said.

  “Actually, it’s a complementary color thing. You see, Bruno has this habit where he charges everything red he sees. If I can get him to wear green glasses, everything red will appear gray. No more red, no more charging. So, where do I find Gino?” I asked Kathleen.

  “He’s in the next trailer over. It’s his tinker truck, and if you need goggles welded together, that is the perfect place to start,” Kathleen said.

  “Hurry back, Danny,” Lin said. “I’ll pick you out something nice to wear.” She put a feather scarf around her neck and a pink hat on her head.

  “Oh great. Now I’m afraid,” I said.

  I squirmed past the patiently waiting Microsaurs, out the back door of the costume shop, and ran over to Gino’s tinker truck. I rapped on the back door three times, RAP-RAP-RAP, then waited. It seemed like it took forever, but three raps came back, and then the back door swung open.

  Gino was wearing large gloves and a welding helmet. He flipped up the visor and looked down at me. “Well, hello there, young man. You look like you need some help.”

  “How did you know?” I asked.

  “Honestly, knocking on my door always means someone needs help. It’s what I do. I help,” he said, then lowered a gloved hand and helped me into his truck.

  “Well, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t need help. I hope that’s all right,” I said as I got a first glance at his truck. “Oh man. This place is awesome.”

  Gino beamed with pride. “I’m glad you think so. Not everyone can appreciate my idea of organizing things,” he said.

  There were piles and stacks of metal and boards all over the place. The room had gears, wires, glass light bulbs, long tubes of metal and brass. There were stone steps, iron hammers, welding equipment, and more tools than I could count.

  “I love it. My dad is an inventor, so I’ve been around workshops my entire life. This is perfect,” I said.

  “The son of an inventor, eh? Well, then I’m sure you have more than just a need. I bet you have a plan,” the small, mustached man said.

  “You bet I do,” I said as I spied a chalkboard screwed to the wall of the rolling toolshed. “Can I use that?”

  Gino pulled off one huge glove, then dug deep into an oversized pocket. He pulled out his hand and offered me a piece of chalk. “I can’t wait to see what you have up your sleeve,” he said.

  “Arms,” I replied, and we both laughed.

  I drew my idea for Bruno’s goggles on the board. Luckily, while Kathleen had done her measurements I’d paid close attention, and I added them to the drawing as well. The handyman and I discussed a few details, he made some suggestions, and then we got to work.

  “The only problem I have is knowing what to make the lenses out of,” I said.

  “Why do they need to be green? Is it to match his costume?” Gino asked.

  “Actually, it is so he won’t see red anymore. You see, when Bruno sees the color red, he goes nutso. If we can make him look through green goggles, then all the red will just look gray. We tested it in the Hall of Mirrors,” I said.

  “Well, if you say so. You’re the inventor,” Gino said. He sparked up his welder, and a little blue flame sputtered to life. “In a drawer over there labeled ‘Gels’ you’ll find every color you can imagine. Find the right shade of green and we’ll get going.”

  I found the big sheets of colored plastic gels exactly where Gino said they would be, and sure enough, he had the perfect shade of green. I helped him find scraps and parts for our project, and we took turns welding, cutting, and assembling until we had the perfect pair of Bruno glasses in our hands.

  “So. Do you think these will work?” Gino asked.

  “Are you kidding? They are perfect. I can’t wait to try them on my dinosaur,” I said.

  “You mean your dinosaur puppet, right?” Gino said.

  “Um, yeah. My puppet. Right,” I said. “Thanks again, Gino.”

  I flung the goggles over my shoulder and jumped down out of the truck. I was halfway to the costume truck when Gino leaned out the door and hollered after me.

  “Hey, Danny. I’m confused again. If Bruno, as you call him, is a puppet, then why does he need glasses to keep him from charging red?”

  I stopped dead in my tracks. “Um. Because Bruno has a complicated artificial intelligence computer controlling him, and one time there was a lightning storm and it fried his circuitry, and then…”

  Gino winked and waved. “Don’t worry, son. Your secret is safe with me,” he said, then closed the door to his tinker truck.

  CHAPTER 11

  TALK ABOUT A MAKEOVER

  “Danny. Hurry. It’s an emergency,” Lin’s voice said in my Invisible Communicator as I arrived at the costume truck.

  “I’m here. Open the door. What’s wrong?” I asked in a panic. In a flash I imagined the worst. Maybe the Microsaurs had escaped again. Perhaps the Ruby Girls had returned to the truck and discovered Bruno and the twins. What if Bruno’s blindfold had slipped off and he’d gone bananas in the back of the truck, tearing every scrap of red material into shreds? But nothing prepared me for what I saw when Lin opened the back door of Kathleen’s costume truck.

  “Is that your real hair?” I asked. Lin’s hair was so bright pink that I had to blink a few times before I could focus on it. She had two puff balls of hair poking up from either side of her head. “And are those glitter freckles?”

  “Rrrgh!” Lin growled with her teeth gritted tight.

  “I told you. Pink is totally your color,” Vicky said.

  “One word and I will never speak to you again,” Lin said. Vicky was behind her with a large suitcase full of makeup. Kathleen was pinning a massive silky saddle thing on Bruno’s back. But Lin was the real shocker.

  “Actually,” I said as I climbed in the truck, “you look like a real Ruby Girl.”

  I knew that was the wrong thing to say.

  “It’s a wig, Danny, and if you know what’s good for you you’ll stop talking right now,” Lin said, then growled again.

  “You look totally punk rock,” I corrected myself. “I’m serious.”

  This softened Lin a little, but there was still a ways to go before she would be back to normal.

  “I told her she looked like a real Ruby Girl, too,” Vicky said, and Lin growled AGAIN. “It’s a compliment, Lin. Really.”

  “This isn’t helping, Vicky,” I said.

  “Well, maybe this will,” Vicky said with an excited grin. “You’re next.”

  “Oh no. I don’t think so,” I said. “Besides, I need to try on Bruno’s goggles.”

  “There’s no way those will fit. They are too big for you,” Kathleen said. I was about to correct her when I noticed she was joking.

  “Help me out?” I asked Lin, ha
nding her one side of the massive goggles. She took it and blinked, and I noticed she had long fake eyelashes on. I didn’t say a word about them.

  “So, what’s up with the goggles?” Vicky asked.

  “They will make it so he won’t see red,” I said.

  “More like, he won’t charge red,” Lin said.

  “That’s the hope.” I walked around Bruno, rubbing his backside as I made the journey. “It’s okay, boy. It’s just me, and I bet you want this thing off, don’t you?”

  “Is he ready?” Lin asked.

  “We have to do it fast. In one movement,” I said. “We pull off the blindfold, then put the glasses on as fast as possible.”

  “Wait. I have an idea,” Vicky said. “You two get the glasses ready. You know, hold them right over his eyes, and I’ll yank the blindfold off. That way all you need to do is basically drop them in place.”

  “Great. Let’s do it,” I said.

  Vicky climbed on Bruno’s back and untied the blindfold behind his wide crest, and Lin and I balanced the new green goggles above his head.

  “Okay. On the count of three,” Lin said. “One, two, THREE!”

  Vicky yanked, and Lin and I dropped. Then we swung the straps back to Vicky, and she fastened the big buckle in the back behind Bruno’s head. The big, lovable puppy-saurus looked around the room, his round eyes blinking behind a thin layer of glass and green plastic gels. As he tried to figure out his surroundings, Kathleen was petting Pizza and feeding him a leftover hamburger while Cornelia tore the stuffing out of a pillow. I was worried that he was going to panic and start charging the place into a pile of rubble, but something about seeing his friends enjoying the place must have worked, because Bruno lolled his tongue out of his mouth and smiled.

  “Hey. He likes them,” Lin said.

  “Thank goodness,” I agreed.

  “And he looks so cute I could just squeeze him,” Vicky said.

  “Go ahead. He’d like that, too. Group hug,” I said, and the three of us surrounded Bruno and gave him the best hug ever. Even Kathleen joined in, which didn’t surprise me being that she was the sister of a famous micro-paleontologist.

  We hugged and laughed and told Bruno how great he was for a bit, and then Vicky caught on to my game.

  “Hey. You did that to stall. You don’t want me to do your makeup,” she said. She was 100 percent correct. I shrugged my shoulders. “Well, too bad, mister. Up in the chair.”

  Vicky pointed to a chair next to the mirrors. There was no arguing with her now. She had that getting-down-to-business look in her eyes that let me know there was no way I was getting out of this.

  Lin laughed and made horrible suggestions while Vicky covered my face with makeup. She put stuff around my eyes. She patted powder on my cheeks. She even put something I swear was blue glue in my hair and combed it up into a pretty tall Mohawk. And while she was doing all this stuff, Kathleen was busy in the back, hunched over her sewing machine, making something for us to wear.

  Vicky stood back from me in the makeup chair. She put her hands on her hips, tilted her head, and thought for a second. She went to her bag, pulled out three tubes of lipstick, and held them up to the light. She selected one and looked at Lin, and Lin shook her head.

  “Guys. All this silence is freaking me out,” I said. They just smiled while Lin pointed to one of the lipsticks Vicky held up. Vicky nodded in agreement, took the cap off the lipstick, then moved in for the final touches.

  “Magnifique!” Vicky said. “Ready to see the masterpiece?”

  “No. Not even one little bit,” I said. I’d been turned away from the mirror the entire time, but it looked like that was coming to an end.

  Vicky swiveled my chair around, and I saw a stranger in the mirror. Lin and Vicky crowded around me, joining me in the mirror. At first I didn’t know what to think, and then I relaxed as I realized something amazing.

  “You know. I look awesome,” I said as I watched the grin in the other me in the mirror show my white teeth.

  “Yes you do,” Lin said. “And now that I see us both together, I have to say we both look pretty punk rock.”

  “Just wait till you see me,” Vicky said. “Out of the chair, Danny. It’s my turn.”

  While Vicky did her own makeup and hair, Kathleen fitted us into our new costumes. We looked like superhero punk rockers that had an accident in a glitter factory. It wasn’t something I would wear to school, but dressing up in something totally different felt great. Vicky got dressed in her new outfit. And the three of us posed for a few pictures with the costumed Microsaurs for Kathleen. We even talked her into taking a selfie with us. Then Vicky’s phone rang.

  “Oh, hi, girls. Yes. We’re almost ready. Is it time for the parade?” Vicky said into the phone. “Well, we’re not going to fit on the actual float with you, but I promise we’ll be a sight you won’t forget. I thought we could just walk alongside of the float and wave.” Vicky paused as the person, or people by the sound of it, responded. “Sure. Great. Be there in a jiffy. Love ya, and remember, RG forever!”

  “RG forever?” I asked. “Who was that?”

  “Oh, that was my girls,” she said as if it were no big deal. “My Ruby Girls, that is.”

  “How do you know them so well?” Lin asked. “I mean. You introduced them in the concert, and you were with them signing autographs.”

  “Oh, and you guys missed my special musical number,” she said. “But don’t worry. My dad recorded it. And so did everyone else with a camera phone, I bet.”

  “Sheesh. It’s like you’re one of them,” I said.

  “Well, not exactly, but you never know. However, this will probably give you a clue,” Vicky said. She opened her phone and swiped through the pictures until she found what she was looking for. It was an old picture of five Ruby Girls from their first album.

  “Why are there five? I thought there were only four Ruby Girls?” I asked.

  “Good catch, Danny. But look a little closer,” Vicky said.

  Lin leaned in closer to the picture. “No way. Is that really her?”

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Your mom,” Lin said, then looked into Vicky’s eyes. “Your mom was an original Ruby Girl?”

  “In all her sparkling glory,” Vicky said. I don’t think I’d ever seen her look so proud. “But I’ll tell you about that later. Right now, we need to get to the parade.”

  “Not without me, you don’t.”

  We looked back toward the sewing machine and saw our gray-haired seamstress dressed like a punk-rock superhero.

  “Kathleen. You look awesome,” Lin said.

  “Do you think Penny will be surprised to see me like this? Because there is no way I’m letting you go back to the Microterium without me,” she said.

  “Now you’re talking,” I said.

  “And now we’re walking,” Vicky said as we headed out of the costume truck.

  CHAPTER 12

  EVERYONE LOVES A PARADE

  “This might be the craziest thing we’ve tried yet,” I said as we walked boldly out of the costume truck and made our way to the line of parade floats.

  “And that includes trying to hug a spinosaurus in a swamp,” Vicky said as she waved to the crowd.

  “Great costume!” someone dressed like an overstuffed tomato yelled as we passed.

  “Thanks!” Lin said with a wave. “But you have to admit, walking out in the open with three Microsaurs is pretty crazy,” she said, turning her attention to Vicky.

  “We’re not walking out in the open, Lin. We’re riding,” Vicky said. “And don’t worry. Riding dinosaurs in a parade is something the Ruby Girls would totally do. Nobody will suspect a thing.”

  As proof, the other parade attendees shouted to us as we rode by. “Wow, where did you get those robotic superhero dinosaurs?” “Where can I get one of those?” “Can anyone ride those or is it just you?”

  “See. They have no idea,” Vicky said.

  “The only t
hing that will give us away is that they don’t smell like robots,” Kathleen said, and for the first time I noticed that Bruno really did smell like a dinosaur. I couldn’t believe I’d spent the entire summer with the Microsaurs and hadn’t ever thought that they smelled like anything, but the costume creator was right. They smelled just like dinosaurs.

  We had made it to the front of the line of parade floats. Vicky jumped down from behind me, sliding off Bruno’s wide rump. She ran ahead. The float was magnificent. Stars the size of sofa cushions rose up out of the float on glitter-covered beams. There were laser lights pointed at a disco ball that seemed to spin in midair, shooting tiny rainbows everywhere, and there were five platforms that spun around slowly, and I was sure Vicky and the four Ruby Girls were going to be standing on those, waving to the crowd soon.

  A loud voice boomed out of a bullhorn, and I turned to see a man dressed in a red tuxedo and top hat trying to get our attention.

  “All right, everyone. The parade will be starting as soon as our special guests arrive. Our Grand Marshal, Victoria Van-Varbles, is here now, so be alert, people. We’re going to be starting soon.”

  “Where is this parade taking us?” I asked.

  “Through the festival, then down Main Street. After that, it turns and makes a loop around the park, and ends back here,” Kathleen explained.

  “Well, follow us, then. We’ll be peeling off before we get to the park and heading toward the Microterium,” I said. Kathleen gave me a thumbs-up sign, then scratched the top of Pizza’s head as she rode on his back. The playful T. rex looked like he was loving every second of it.

  “Sounds like a plan,” she said.

  The sound of a helicopter whirred from above, and the crowd of parade people turned at once and looked. They started to cheer and holler as the helicopter began to lower toward us.