“Did the Nothosaurus attack them?” Sam asks excitedly.
“No, Sam. It dove back into the river before the boys got a good look. One of them—a kid named Bart Matthews—saw part of the tail. He started screaming that it was a river monster. I tried to explain that it was a Nothosaurus. He didn’t believe me. No one did.”
“Not even Gram and PopPop?” I ask.
“I told them about it when I got home. They wanted to believe me,” Dad says. “We went back to the river dozens of times. I never saw it again. As I grew older, I worried that I imagined the Notho.”
“You didn’t imagine it, Uncle Brian. If Peanut is real, I bet your river dinosaur is real too,” Sam says.
“That’s what I was thinking.” Dad smiles.
“What about Bart Matthews?” I ask. “Did people believe him?”
“Bart always claimed it was a river monster. He drew a two-headed beast and told everyone in school that’s what we found. So I drew my own picture. I didn’t want to forget.” Dad takes his paper back.
“Wait!” A thought hits my brain. “Is Bart the guy from the TV? Bart’s River Monster Tours?”
“I’ve seen his commercials!” Sam yells. “My mom says he’s crazy.”
“That’s him,” Dad says.
“He’s a friend of yours?” I ask.
“We aren’t exactly friends,” Dad explains. “I haven’t seen him in twenty years. But tomorrow I think we should visit him.”
The Dino Files #2 Page 5
