by Tom Fletcher
Maybe the next number was repeated. He reached out and pushed ONE and waited for a green light, but…
Red light. Incorrect!
He slumped down heavily on the dinosaur’s shoulders.It looked so hopeless all of a sudden.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” William said. “I don’t think I can work out the code. It’s useless! What a rotten way to spend Christmas Eve.”
In the distance, a loud CLONG! echoed through the streets. It came from the clock tower as it chimed one o’clock in the morning.
“Well, I was wrong—it’s not Christmas Eve anymore. It’s Christmas Day! What a rotten way to start Christmas Day….Wait just a second!” William had a thought. “Yesterday was Christmas Eve, December twenty-fourth. TWO and FOUR are two of the unfrozen numbers in the code…but that was yesterday.” William’s brain was ticking faster than the clock tower, and it suddenly ticked up an idea!
“What if…,” he wondered, leaning in for one last crack at the code. “What if the security code is the day’s date?”
He quickly punched in the first numbers of the date: ONE, TWO.
The little green light twinkled.
“Which means that at midnight, the code changed, making one of these unfrozen numbers wrong.…”
He reached out and pushed TWO.
The green light twinkled again. Maybe William was right! With a shaky finger, he punched in the frosted number FIVE….
The lock flicked open.
“IT WORKED!” cried William. “ONE, TWO, TWO, FIVE…twelve twenty-five…today’s date! Merry Christmas!”
He punched the air in victory as the Christmasaurus nudged the door open with his nose and they stepped inside the museum.
William’s night was getting more and more bonkers. First Santa had brought him a real dinosaur for Christmas, and now he was riding on that dinosaur’s back through the deserted museum in the middle of the night. What an adventure!
William steered the Christmasaurus out into the main hall, an enormous, gigantic, massively impressive room with something wonderful in the center. It was a huge skeleton of a great Diplodocus that was taller than a tree and as long as a train! It was one of William’s favorite things in the museum.
The Christmasaurus couldn’t believe his eyes. He’d never seen anything so huge in all his life!
Is this what other dinosaurs were like? he thought.
He walked closer to the towering dinosaur skeleton and saw that on one side there was a display with pictures and drawings of what this dinosaur would have looked like when it was alive, where it would have lived. The dinosaur’s home looked so green and hot—nothing like where the Christmasaurus lived.
It was dark after hours in the museum. All the lights that usually illuminated the displays and exhibits were switched off, and the only light came from the streetlamps outside. It trickled in through high stained-glass windows in streaks of jagged color. The effect was beautiful but a little scary as it fell on the lifeless faces of all the weird and wonderful creatures on display, casting long, distorted shadows of the skeletons across the marble floor.
William had never felt scared here before, but he was now. He was glad he wasn’t alone!
As he clung tightly to the Christmasaurus’s back, the dinosaur’s footsteps echoed around the halls. The echoes seemed to travel for miles through every hallway, every stairwell, bouncing off the ceiling and back to their ears, so that even when they stopped moving, it sounded as if someone were still walking behind them.
William kept checking over his shoulder nervously. Surely there was some sort of security guard at the museum somewhere, walking around and checking on the place. Were the footsteps he could hear the echoed ghost footsteps of the Christmasaurus, or was someone else in the museum?
And now William had the word ghost in his head! If there was one place he’d always thought must be haunted, it was the museum. It was full of ancient artifacts from around the world. Caskets of mummified Egyptian pharaohs that had been dug up from their tombs. Hundreds of real, dead animals on display, from birds and fish to giant ship-sinking squid from the deep, dark oceans, and jars full of real animal eyeballs and millions of insects in glass display cases. They were all deader than dead, but their ancient ghosts had to hang around somewhere, right?
It gave William the shivers, and the Christmasaurus must have noticed it too, as he’d started walking on his tiptoes.
“Walk that way…,” William whispered into the dinosaur’s ear. They crept along the corridor until they reached a large set of heavy wooden doors. The sign above them said DINOSAURS!
“Right, let’s see what sort of dinosaur you are!” William said, and the Christmasaurus pushed the doors open with his head. Once they were inside, William closed the doors behind them. That made him feel a bit safer!
This room was packed full of dinosaurs. There were dinosaur bones, dinosaur fossils, dinosaur skeletons, dinosaur paintings, dinosaur facts printed on the walls, dinosaur footprints molded into the concrete floor. There was dino stuff everywhere! The Christmasaurus tried to take it all in as tears filled his icy-blue eyes. William gave him a comforting rub on his head. These weren’t the sort of other dinosaurs the Christmasaurus had been hoping for, but they were still amazing.
The first dinosaur they saw was a large, round robotic model of a Triceratops. As they stepped closer, it automatically switched on, let out a fake, digital-sounding roar!, and bobbed its head up and down repeatedly. It had three pointy horns on its head.
“Nope! You’re definitely not a Triceratops,” William said, and they moved on to the next exhibit.
“Hmmmm, a T-rex…,” said William thoughtfully as they approached a tall skeleton of the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex. Its sharp, razor-like teeth grinned down at them. Even its lifeless skeleton was a frightening sight. “No, I don’t think you’re related!” said William. “Too scary!”
The Christmasaurus agreed. He wouldn’t like to meet that dinosaur!
They moved on to the other displays in their search for one that might be the same as the Christmasaurus.
There was a spiny Stegosaurus…
The Christmasaurus shook his head.
“Nope!” William cried.
A vicious Velociraptor…
The Christmasaurus huffed and grunted.
“Definitely not!” agreed William.
A breathtaking Brachiosaurus…
The Christmasaurus stood on his tippy-claws and sighed.
“No, I don’t think so either,” said William.
And so the search continued, but it began to seem hopeless. “I can’t seem to find any other dinosaurs like you anywhere!” William said, puzzled. “What on earth could you be?”
Just then, the Christmasaurus saw something over his head that made his heart beat so hard it felt as if it were doing cartwheels in his chest (which I suppose would be called heartwheels!). William looked up and saw that the Christmasaurus was gaping at a wonderful winged dinosaur hanging from the ceiling as though it were gracefully flying.
“That’s a pterodactyl,” William said. “They were flying dinosaurs!”
The Christmasaurus went all giddy and wobbly, spinning around and jumping up and down excitedly, so that William almost slipped off his back. There, hanging over the Christmasaurus’s head, was proof that a dinosaur could fly!
“Whoa! Calm down!” William cried. “They could fly because they had wings!”
The Christmasaurus looked up and saw the pterodactyl’s large wings stretching out on either side of its body.
“Only animals with wings can fly,” explained William.
But the Christmasaurus knew that wasn’t true. He knew eight animals that didn’t have wings, and he’d seen them flying earlier that very night: the reindeer!
Suddenly, a strange noise broke the silence of the museum.
“Ho, ho, ho
! Merry Christmas!” a deep, jolly voice called out.
Santa!
The Christmasaurus bolted in the direction of Santa’s voice. Was he really there at the museum? Could it be?
The sound led them to the room next to the dino hall: the museum gift shop. The whole shop was covered from top to bottom in Christmas decorations of all sorts. Tinsel, bells, icicles, baubles: you name it, they had it. But what do you expect? This was where Mr. Trundle worked, after all!
As they stepped inside, they saw a small plastic Santa, littler than an elf, positioned on the gemstone-and-fossil counter. Every few minutes, the tiny fake Santa would robotically wave his hand and chime one of a selection of recorded Christmas messages.
The Christmasaurus dropped his head in disappointment. First it was fake dinosaurs, now fake Santas! But then he saw something that gave him an idea.
Right in the center of the shop was a large display of Christmas cards for sale. He quickly trotted over and searched the rows of festive cards.
“What are you looking for?” asked William, completely befuddled by what the dinosaur was doing.
The Christmasaurus suddenly wagged his tail. He’d found what he was after!
He gently slurped up a Christmas card, using his slobbery tongue, and the card stuck to it like a postage stamp. He hurried back into the room full of dinosaurs and waddled around to the sign that said STEGOSAURUS. He started chewing and nibbling on the Christmas card in his mouth, dropping bits of cardboard on the floor. Then, when he was done, the dinosaur carefully used his tongue to stick the remaining bit of card over the sign. He stepped back so that William could see what it now said:
“‘CHRISTMASAURUS,’” William read. “You’re a Christmasaurus?”
The dinosaur wriggled excitedly beneath him and did a little jog on the spot.
“Wow! I’ve never even heard of a Christmasaurus before! Are there more of you?” William asked.
The Christmasaurus stopped his happy jog instantly and shook his head sadly.
“You’re the only one?”
The Christmasaurus nodded.
“The one and only Christmasaurus!” William exclaimed, stretching his arms triumphantly as his voice echoed around the hall, sounding far more epic than sad.
The Christmasaurus suddenly felt happier. Maybe being one of a kind wasn’t a bad thing after all! He looked around him at all the bones and skeletons, then noticed something on the wall behind them. It was a huge mural of a vast jungle landscape. The painted sky was ferocious, with flaming rocks streaking across it. It didn’t look like a nice place to live.
“That’s where you’re from,” explained William, but the Christmasaurus shook his head immediately. This wasn’t where he was from at all. This dry-looking, fiery place was not his home! He quickly carried William back out of the dinosaur hall into the Christmassy gift shop again, where there were dozens of Christmas cards and Christmas gifts with pictures and drawings depicting the North Pole. Although none of them were exactly right, they were closer to the Christmasaurus’s home than that terrifying mural in the other room!
The Christmasaurus picked up a mouthful of cards with images of the North Pole, the Northern Lights, Santa, and some flying reindeer, and he dropped them all on the floor in front of him so that William could see the selection. William looked over the Christmasaurus’s shoulder at the images, and he could see from the glimmer of love in the Christmasaurus’s eyes that he was looking at the dinosaur’s home.
“That’s where you’re from? The North Pole?” William asked.
The Christmasaurus nodded with a deflated sigh.
William was starting to think that perhaps this dinosaur wasn’t meant for him after all. Perhaps there had been some mistake. He started to wonder if maybe the Christmasaurus was lost.
“I think we’d better get back home,” said William as
rang out from the clock tower outside. They had been in the museum for an hour.
The Christmasaurus headed through the giant entrance hall, past the colossal Diplodocus, and out the door through which they had entered. He carefully walked William down the steps toward his waiting wheelchair, which now had a light dusting of snow on the seat. As they got closer, William noticed something.There was a rather large object sticking out from underneath his wheelchair. Something big and polka-dotted was caught in the under-seat basket in which William usually carried his schoolbooks.
“What on earth is this?” he asked as he lowered himself slowly from the dinosaur’s shoulders back into his chair. He reached around and gave a pull on whatever was stuck there. It took a few hard tugs before the object came free, but eventually he found himself sitting with a large, crumpled present on his lap.
“Ah! My Christmas present! I saw this sitting on my bed just before—”
He stopped for a second. He was having a moment of realization. William quickly unwrapped the present on his lap and saw two piercing golden eyes looking into his own.
He gasped. It was the most incredible toy dinosaur he had ever seen. William ran his fingers along the faultless red stitching and felt the smooth snowflake-patterned surface of its skin. He held it out in front of him and saw that it was almost a perfect replica of the Christmasaurus. It completely took his breath away!
The Christmasaurus hopped on the spot with excitement. He nudged the toy toward William, and William understood. The stuffed dinosaur was for him.
“Santa didn’t bring me a real dinosaur for Christmas, did he? This toy is my present. Which means that you…” He stopped as the Christmasaurus looked to the sky and let out a howl-like roar at another plane flying overhead. “You must be lost!”
Suddenly, something very strange happened. The hairs on William’s arms and the back of his neck all stood on end. It was very cold, but it wasn’t the temperature that had caused them to stand on end. It was because he felt as if he were being watched.
Then, out of nowhere, a waft of something sickly and bitter drifted through the air and found its way to William’s nose. It was a horrid smell. It smelled like smoke.
Pipe smoke!
The Hunter was close.
A bullet suddenly whizzed past, inches away from William and the Christmasaurus. It smashed the streetlight behind them, sending shards of glass showering down onto the street below.
“That was a warning shot!” screeched a villainous voice from somewhere at the far end of the street. “Now wheel yourself away from that dinosaur, you little lump of pointlessness—unless you want to join him on my wall. I’m sure I can make room for a little head like yours!”
William had no idea what to do. His heart was doing all different sorts of heartwheels. His brain was racing at a million miles an hour. The vision he’d had earlier of the Best Christmas Ever definitely didn’t involve saving a dinosaur from a hunter!
He thought fast, then pushed Stuffy back into the wrapping paper, shoved the toy under the seat of his wheelchair, looped the Christmas lights around the dinosaur’s head, and screamed, “RUN!”
The Christmasaurus burst into action instantly. He may have been pulling a boy in a wheelchair and a stuffed dinosaur, but he was still fast!
“Stop! Stop! Stop!” cried the Hunter as he saw his prize racing away. Gunshots suddenly cut through the air—BANG! BANG!—slicing snowflakes clean in half, but the bullets missed the Christmasaurus and William. They were too fast!
“Growler, fetch!” the Hunter commanded, and his trusty companion zoomed down the street after them.
“Faster, Christmasaurus, faster!” William cried, holding on for dear life, ducking and dodging the Hunter’s shots. Crouched low in his chair, William couldn’t see where the Christmasaurus was going. He could only feel him twisting and turning as he dashed between parked cars and whizzed along the street at the side of the museum.
The street at the side of the museum…Wi
lliam suddenly had an awful realization!
“It’s a DEAD END!” he screamed as the Christmasaurus dug his claws into the snow and skidded to a halt, stopping just before they slammed into a brick wall.
They were trapped.
They waited, trembling, at the end of the long, straight dead-end street. The large museum towered over them on one side, and a row of locked offices loomed on the other. The only way out was the way they had entered, and Growler was just prowling around the corner, baring his sharp, hungry teeth, cutting off their only chance of escape!
A few moments later, the Hunter caught up. He appeared in the distance with his rifle raised and aimed it at the Christmasaurus and William.
“Good dog, Growler,” he said, and he dropped a scrap of raw meat from his pocket as a reward. “Game over, little boy. You’re trapped. HA! You’d have to fly to get out of this one!”
William suddenly caught the Christmasaurus’s eye and saw that there was a twinkle in it that he hadn’t seen before. As if the dinosaur had changed somehow. The Christmasaurus looked back at William, and William knew exactly what he was thinking.
“That’s it!” William whispered. “You have to fly!”
He heard his father’s voice in his head. “Believing is seeing,” Mr. Trundle had explained. William looked the Christmasaurus square in the eyes. “I know you can do it!” he said. “I never would have believed that a dinosaur existed, but here you are. I never would have believed that a real dinosaur would be my friend, but here you are! There are so many things that I never would have believed before tonight, so many seemingly impossible things that just might actually be possible—you just need to believe. Well, guess what, Christmasaurus? I believe that you can fly!” said William, completely honestly. “I believe in you!”
As those words left his lips, something incredible happened. All the fairy lights that were wrapped around the Christmasaurus and William’s wheelchair lit up! They glowed brighter and stronger than William had ever seen.
