by Tom Fletcher
William screwed up his face. There was NO WAY he was going to give Brenda Payne a hug.
Nope.
No way.
Not a chance.
Then he looked at the girl in front of him, crying in the snow. The Christmasaurus snorted like a horse and frowned at William: HUG!
William rolled his eyes: OK!
He wheeled his chair a little closer to Brenda, who was now crying with her face in her hands. He looked at the dinosaur one last time and gave him a look that meant: You’d better be right about this! Then he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, leaned forward with his arms wide open, and gave the meanest girl in school—possibly the world—a warm, friendly hug.
When he opened his eyes, he was shocked to find that Brenda was hugging him back.
Then suddenly they both dropped their arms and stared at the ground awkwardly.
“Don’t you dare tell anyone about that!” said Brenda.
“Don’t worry, I definitely won’t!” replied William.
Then he saw the corners of Brenda’s mouth rise up into a perfect little smile again.
“Thanks, though,” she said. “I needed that.”
The Christmasaurus poked his head over and looked at William: Told you so!
“Why are you outside? Does your mom know you’re out here?” asked William.
“Nope! She’d freak out if she caught me, but she’s too busy avoiding Christmas to notice anyway,” Brenda explained. “I just wanted to look at the other houses. They’re so Christmassy. Besides, I’m in no rush to get back inside tonight. There won’t be any presents waiting for me.” She sniffed.
“Why not?” said William. “What about that plan of yours, at the mailbox?”
“Oh, yeah. That,” Brenda said, kicking at the snow sheepishly. William could see she was remembering how she’d secretly edited innocent Nice List kids’ letters to Santa, adding her own address.
“Why did you do it?” asked William.
Brenda took a deep breath.
“I guess that between the way I’ve behaved since Dad left, and Mom turning into the actual, real-life Grinch, I just thought my chances of getting any Christmas presents were so slim that I had to do something about it. I’m not even sure I believe in Santa anyway—but if he does exist, then he’s not an idiot. He’d have spotted my plan a mile off!” Brenda sighed. “I won’t be getting anything tonight. He’s definitely put me on that Naughty List this year.” Brenda sniffed hard again and swallowed the snot that had frozen up her nose from sitting in the cold for so long.
“Well, maybe…maybe it’s not Santa who puts you on the Naughty List. Maybe you put yourself there…,” said William.
Brenda instinctively tightened her fingers into a fist, ready to punch William in the nose. But that was the old Brenda.
“I suppose you’re right. Well, you know all my secrets now, William. I think it’s time you told me yours!” she said, taking William by surprise.
“Secrets? I, er, don’t have any secrets,” replied William, who suddenly realized that his biggest secret was sitting a few yards away, on the other side of Brenda’s gate.
“Oh, really?” said Brenda suspiciously. “Then tell me this, Mr. Willypoos: what are you doing wandering the streets alone in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve?”
William was stumped. What could he say? How could he escape without Brenda seeing the Christmasaurus?
“Erm…is it the middle of the night?” William said in his best fake shocked voice, pretending he’d lost track of time. “Oh well, we’d really better be going!”
“We? Who’s WE?” asked Brenda, becoming more and more suspicious as William started backing away, wheeling himself in reverse out of her front yard.
“Wait…where are you going? What are you hiding?” she called after him.
William wasn’t watching where he was going, and he failed to see the tip of the Christmasaurus’s scaly tail lying on the ground across the open gate.
There was a deafening dinosaur yelp as the wheels of William’s chair rolled painfully over the Christmasaurus’s tail.
Complete stunned silence filled the air.
Brenda took one look at the unbelievable creature in front of her. She tried to stay on her feet, but…
She fainted into the snow.
When Brenda finally came to a few minutes later, William was staring down at her anxiously. The Christmasaurus was licking the snow from her face.Brenda let out a scream.
“William! Isn’t that…it’s a…d-di—”
“A dinosaur!” William finished the word for her. Now that Brenda had seen it, he didn’t think there was any reason to keep pretending. “It was a Christmas present from Santa!” he added proudly.
Brenda couldn’t believe her eyes. She looked at the dinosaur’s beautiful snowflake pattern, his icy-bluish scales that seemed to reflect every bit of light like diamonds.
“He’s unbelievable!” she said.
“I know,” agreed William.
“He won’t…eat us, will he?” Brenda gulped.
“Don’t be silly—he’d never hurt us. He’s my friend!” said William, and the Christmasaurus raised his head with pride. “And he’s my secret, Brenda. No one can know about him!”
William looked at Brenda, and he could tell she saw in his eyes that he meant it. She took a look through the window at her mom, who was now flicking through hundreds of television channels, trying to find something un-Christmassy to watch.
“Let’s shake on it,” she said. “You know my secret, and I know yours, and we’ll never tell a soul.”
William took her hand and shook it hard. “Never tell a soul,” he repeated, and that was that.
“Well, what sort of dinosaur is he?” questioned Brenda, who was still looking a little nervous about the dinosaur in her yard.
“He’s a…well, it’s obvious, really. He’s…” William realized that he didn’t actually know the answer.
“You mean, you don’t even know what sort of dinosaur you’re hanging around with? I thought you were supposed to know everything about dinosaurs!” Brenda fired back.
“How did you know that I like dinosaurs?” asked William, who didn’t think Brenda took any notice of him and his interests.
Brenda’s cheeks went a bit red as she quickly looked at the floor. “Oh, I think I heard someone at school say it once….”
William looked at the dinosaur in the yard and realized that Brenda had a point. Why couldn’t he work out what kind of dinosaur this was?
That gave William an idea.
“I know exactly where I can find out what kind of dinosaur he is!” cried William. “The museum!”
He spun his wheelchair around to face the Christmasaurus. “Want to see some other dinosaurs?” William asked with a smile.
The Christmasaurus jumped to attention. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Other dinosaurs? There were more dinosaurs? So he wasn’t the only one after all! He quickly nodded, desperate to see these dinosaurs William was talking about.
“It’s not far!” William said to his dinosaur friend.Then he turned to Brenda. “Do you want to come with us?”
But Brenda didn’t say anything.
Her face went white.
She was staring straight into her front room at her mother…who was staring straight at the dinosaur in the yard.
Suddenly, the face at the window disappeared.
“Quickly, we need to hide him!” said Brenda as her mother’s footsteps came stomping down the hallway just on the other side of the front door.
The Christmasaurus jumped back, tripped over William, and fell into Brenda’s stack of perfect snowballs. He quickly jumped to his feet with a pile of powdery snow on his head.
William had an idea.
“Quickly, cover hi
m in snow!” he hissed as the sound of Brenda’s mom turning the key in the lock rattled behind them.
Brenda and William scooped up as much snow in their hands as they could and threw it over the snowflake-patterned scales of the dinosaur in the yard.
“Hold still, dinosaur!” William whispered frantically, patting down the snow.
Brenda quickly took off her scarf and wrapped it around the dinosaur’s thick, snow-covered neck just as her mom opened the door.
“What’s all this?” said a very un-merry voice from the doorway.
“H-hello, Mrs….I mean, Miss…Brenda’s mom,” stuttered William nervously.
“It’s Miss Payne. What are you doing in my yard? It’s the middle of the night!” Miss Payne said sharply as she scanned the yard, looking for the unbelievable creature she’d seen through the window. “I thought I saw—”
“William was just making a snowman, Mom, see?” said Brenda, gesturing toward the lumpy snow-covered dinosaur, who now looked like an extremely poorly made snowman.
Miss Payne stared intently at their so-called snowman, looking it up and down, and just as she opened her mouth to say something, she stopped. She was staring straight into the dinosaur’s ice-blue eyes, which were gleaming out mesmerizingly from the snow.
That’s when William saw it. Brenda did too. A reluctant little smile in the corner of Miss Payne’s mouth, just like Brenda’s. William couldn’t help but think that her cold heart had thawed just a little.
“Well, that’s enough of that,” Miss Payne snapped. “Brenda, inside now.”
Brenda marched into her house, and William heard her footsteps as she ran up the stairs.
“And you…”
“It’s William, Miss Payne.”
“Go home at once,” she ordered.
“Of course. Merry Christmas!” William said with a smile. He wheeled himself out of Brenda’s front gate into the street, giving the snowman a little wink on the way.
The second William heard Miss Payne close the front door, he turned back and waited for the Christmasaurus, who was already shaking off his snowy disguise.
“Phew! That was close!” William said as he looped the Christmas lights and tinsel around the dinosaur’s head again. “Ready to see some dinosaurs?”
The Christmasaurus let out a quiet but excited roar.
“Willypoos!” a small voice called out.
William looked up to see Brenda sneakily calling down from her bedroom window.
“I owe you…BIG-time!” she called down. “If you ever need anything, you know where you can find me!” With that, Brenda closed her window and disappeared inside her un-Christmassy house.
William couldn’t quite believe his ears. Becoming friends with Brenda Payne was certainly the last thing he ever thought would happen this Christmas. Then he remembered that he was sitting behind a REAL dinosaur, and they were on their way to his favorite place in the world—and he couldn’t help but think that this might just be the best Christmas ever.
The Hunter woke up to the smell of steaming dog breath as Growler licked him with his dry, crusty tongue.
“Get away, you disgusting giant tick-bus!” he snapped as he wobbled to his feet and tried to make sense of what had just happened. First he recalled falling from the roof. Then he remembered—
“The dinosaur! He got away!” the Hunter gasped. “No. No. No. Not fair. That’s not fair at all. NO NO NO!” he whined, and kicked in the snow like a spoiled toddler. “I want that dinosaur. I want its head. I want it hanging on my wall, and I want it NOW!” he screamed.
The Hunter snatched up his rifle from the snowy bush and marched across the street to William’s wonky little house. He had had enough. No more hiding. He was going to burst through the front door, march inside, and…
The Hunter stopped. He was standing at William’s gate, staring at a hole in the front door…a dinosaur-shaped hole in the front door.
Then he noticed something on the ground at his feet.
“Dinosaur tracks!” he gasped.
There were large, clear dinosaur footprints in the snow, heading off down the street. Running through them were the thin tire tracks of William’s wheelchair.
“Ha ha! I’ve got him now!” the Hunter scoffed as he bent down and picked up a lump of snow that had been squashed by the Christmasaurus. The Hunter poked out his horrible tongue and tasted it.
“Yes. Yes,” he said to himself, trying to decipher the distinct taste of the dinosaur’s tracks. “That pesky little bullet-dodger was lucky this time. I never miss a shot! Next time he won’t be so lucky. GROWLER!” he cried, and his dog stood at attention at his side. “Find that dinosaur!”
The dog instantly set to work, sniffing back and forth along the footprints and tire tracks. He found the scent and let out a howl of excitement.
The hunt had begun.
William yanked hard on the Christmas lights, and the Christmasaurus came to a halt. They had stopped at the entrance to a magnificent building with columns that extended from the snowy pavement to the sky above and an enormous archway overhead that was covered with intricate carvings of angels, animals, plants, and people. The museum! The Christmasaurus thought it looked so wonderful that it would feel right at home in the North Pole.
“Pretty cool, right?” William said. “One problem, though. We’re not exactly visiting during regular hours….”
William pointed to the enormously grand doors that were very obviously locked shut behind a large sign that said CLOSED UNTIL NEW YEAR.
The Christmasaurus sighed and dipped his head in disappointment.
“Not to worry, though,” William said with a mischievous grin. “I know a secret way inside!” He pointed toward a small, shadowy archway over a metallic-looking black door, barely visible from the road.
The Christmasaurus tilted his head, and his tail started wagging like an excited puppy’s. He’d never felt so excited before. He’d thought he’d never get to see other dinosaurs! He ran over toward the secret door in the shadows, dragging William’s chair behind him, but he was suddenly stopped short.
Stairs!
The small, secret door sat at the top of a large, icy flight of stairs. He may not have been the smartest dinosaur, but he knew that there was no way William’s chair could make it up a flight of stairs.
“In the daytime I use the wheelchair ramp,” William said. “But that only goes to the main entrance, not this door.”
William hadn’t thought about this. Maybe they wouldn’t be going to the museum tonight after all. But the Christmasaurus wasn’t going to let a few measly steps get in the way of him meeting other dinosaurs! He turned to William, lay down on the ground next to the wheelchair, and let out a little grunt. William knew exactly what the dinosaur was saying: HURRY UP!
William didn’t need any encouragement. He scrambled excitedly out of his chair, using all his strength to heave his legs over the dinosaur’s back, and with a little nudge here and there from the Christmasaurus, he was finally sitting on top of the creature’s smooth, scaly back. William untangled most of the Christmas lights from the dinosaur’s neck until they were detached from the wheelchair.
“This is much better,” said William as the Christmasaurus stood and headed up the stairs toward the secret door. “I wish I could ride you to school!”
When they reached the top of the steps and arrived at the shadowy door, the Christmasaurus gave it a nudge, but it was locked.
“We need to type in the security code,” said William, pointing to a small box next to the door. The box was covered in numbers and flashing lights. The Christmasaurus had never seen such a weird contraption before. There were no security boxes or codes in the North Pole—it was protected by magic.
“Luckily, I just happen to know how to work out the code!” William said proudly. “It’s quite simple, really. I’ve
seen it in a movie! It’s so cold out tonight that the little number box is almost completely frozen, see?” William pointed at the little box. “All the numbered buttons are covered in frost. All except for three of them.”
The Christmasaurus sniffed and studied the frosty numbered box, but it looked awfully confusing to his dino brain.
“You see, these three numbers don’t have ice on them because these three have been pressed lots and lots today, so the ice has melted from them,” William explained. “That means the security code must use these three numbers!”
The Christmasaurus looked closely and he could see that William was right. All the buttons were frosted over except for three of them!
“So all we need to do is work out the correct order of these three numbers!” William exclaimed. “Let’s see: the unfrozen numbers are ONE, TWO, and FOUR. Let’s give it a try.”
He reached out his hand (which was now shaking with cold, as he was only wearing his dinosaur pj’s and a thin bathrobe), and he pressed the number ONE.
A little green light flashed.
“Yes! A green light means correct!” William told the Christmasaurus. “OK, so we know it starts with number one!”
He reached out his freezing finger and pressed the number TWO.
The little green light flashed again.
“YES! That means it was the right number, so the code starts with one, two!” William’s insides were all fluttery with excitement. He reached out again and pressed the next number. “OK…number FOUR!”
A red light flashed. Incorrect!
Hmmmm, William thought to himself, then started the code from the beginning, with number ONE and TWO.
Green light!
