Room 2-C explodes with chatter until Miss Flippo gets our attention again.
“This is a very important and exciting discovery,” she says. “The professor is sending it off to be studied, and we’ll know more in about a week. In the meantime, he wants to visit the place where the fossil was found.”
All eyes turn to Stewart Swinefest, who isn’t celebrating. Instead, he’s shrinking. Lower and lower into his seat he slides.
“Stewart?” Miss Flippo asks. “Would you be able to show the professor the exact spot that you found the fossil?”
Stewart looks greener than he did the day he ate too many apples on the field trip to the orchard.
“Yes,” he says quietly.
Yes? Is he really going to keep on lying?
Stewart slinks out of his seat and walks over to the specimen counter. “Right here,” he barely whispers. “I’m sorry. I lied. I didn’t find it in my backyard. I found it sitting here before school.”
Miss Flippo tells Stewart she’s pleased he has decided to tell the truth, but she’d like to talk to him at recess.
“So, then,” she says. “Lucy, would you be able show the professor exactly where you found the fossil?”
I sit up straight and tall. “You bet!”
Chapter 14
A Mammoth Decision
In the backyard after school, I find Dad chopping up a small limb that fell from one of our trees.
“Glad this missed your playhouse, Lucy,” Dad says as his ax hits the branch and snaps it two.
“My lab, Dad!” I correct him. “It’s my science lab.”
“Oh, of course. I forgot,” Dad says. “Stand back, you never know when an ax head could fly off its handle.”
Oh, my goodness! Is that really why people say “fly off the handle”? I can’t wait to tell Mom that I figured it out. Well, kind of. I didn’t really have to do any research.
I tell Dad all about Miss Flippo and the professor and the fossil and Stewart’s confession.
“Well, what do you know? A wooly mammoth! Don’t tell Thomas, or that’ll be the next animal he decides he wants as a pet!”
“Speaking of pets, do you think we can go to the pet store this weekend?”
“Are we looking or buying?” he asks.
“I guess that will be up to you!”
On Friday, Cora is back at school. She brings the fern-like fossil she found at the Nine-Mile Creek. Miss Flippo puts it in the Science Lab for the whole class to observe with magnifying glasses.
“You missed all the excitement,” I tell Cora while we’re in line to sharpen our pencils.
“Well, not all the excitement,” Miss Flippo says. I didn’t even know she was behind me! “I have some news from the university.”
Miss Flippo winks, and I know the news must be good.
When Mrs. James has finished saying the announcements over the loud speaker, Miss Flippo calls us to our morning meeting.
“The paleontologist from the university called with some information about Lucy’s fossil.”
I sit up on my knees. The whole room is quiet. It’s like waiting for a big award to be announced.
“Early testing shows the fossil is most likely from the Ice Age, and almost certainly a part of a wooly mammoth’s tusk!” she says, smiling.
“Yippee!” Tessa cries, and everyone claps.
“Lucy, this is very special,” Miss Flippo says. “What you found is evidence that can be studied. It could provide important clues to what Granite City was like long before there were people and houses and schools here.”
I can’t believe it. We were just walking in an ordinary creek in an ordinary field and we found something really important.
When we pull into the driveway on Saturday evening, it’s already dark.
“Winter’s just around the corner,” Dad says, looking at the clear sky full of stars.
“I hope Thomas is still awake,” I say as the box on my lap jiggles a little.
“Oh, I’m sure he couldn’t possibly sleep until he sees if we brought something home,” Dad assures me.
I’m so excited about our new pet, I can hardly stand it. The box feels heavier than I expected it would, and when it moves around, the box is unsteady in my hands. Dad holds the door for me, and before I can even get into the living room, Thomas is there in his brachiosaurus pajamas.
When he sees the box, my brother starts to pout. “That box is too small for a dinosaur! You got a guinea pig, didn’t you? I don’t want a guinea pig. I want a dinosaur.”
Mom comes in the room and smiles. “Ah, I see your trip to the pet store was a success!”
We set the box on the kitchen table, and Thomas climbs up on a chair.
“Thomas, you know dinosaurs are extinct,” I say. “We couldn’t get a dinosaur, but we got the next best thing.”
I open the box carefully, and the Bearded Dragon inside looks up at us, showing off his scaly skin and spikey neck. He blinks and takes a few steps, moving his long, lizard tail back and forth.
“You did get a dinosaur!” Thomas squeals.
“It’s a Bearded Dragon,” I say. “And you have to be calm and quiet so that you don’t scare it.”
“Okay,” Thomas whispers. “I will be very quiet.” He stares at our newest pet and grins. “I don’t want to scare it.”
“So,” I ask Thomas, “do you like him?”
“Yes!” he cries. “If we can’t have a dinosaur, a dragon is perfect! Except—”
“Except, what?”
Thomas shakes his head. “We’re going to have to keep it away from Cora.”
“Cora? Why?” I ask.
“Because princesses never get along with dragons!”
About the Author
Michelle Houts is the award-winning author of several books for young readers. She lives on a farm with a farmer, some cattle, goats, pigs, and a Great Pyrenees named Hercules. She writes in a restored one-room schoolhouse. As a second-grader, Michelle begged her parents for a chemistry kit but wasn’t quite sure what to do when she actually got it. Lucy’s Lab allows her to be the scientist she always wanted to be.
About the Illustrator
Elizabeth Zechel is an illustrator and author of the children’s book Is There a Mouse in the Baby’s Room? Her illustrations appear in books such as Wordsbirds by Liesl Schillinger, The Little General and the Giant Snowflake by Matthea Harvey, and cookbooks such as Bubby’s Homemade Pies by Jen Bervin and Ron Silver, as well as a variety of magazine and literary journals. She lives in Brooklyn, NY where she teaches kindergarten.
The Colossal Fossil Fiasco Page 4
