Raising Rufus Part 8

"Shhhh! You have to be quiet!" He went over to try to calm his jumpy dino.

"Martin, what is that?!"

"My lizard, I told you."

"You call that a lizard?"

"A dinosaur, actually."

"A what?"

Rufus seemed in a near panic, desperately trying to climb a wall to escape this noisy human. Martin gently put his arms around him.

"Rufus, relax. She's not going to hurt you."

"A dinosaur?"

"Come on, boy, you have to meet her. She's not so bad."

"Oh, thanks. Ai-yai-yai..."

Rufus calmed down a bit, and Martin managed to pull him toward Audrey-who let out an unsteady "Gahhh" and backed away.

"Stay there," Martin said. "He needs to know you're not afraid."

"Who says I'm not?"

"You did." He kept edging Rufus toward her. "Come on, boy. She won't bite you. I promise."

"I won't bite him?"

"See?...She's just a girl."

He got Rufus just close enough to Audrey so he could stretch out and give her another good sniff. She stood there like a toy soldier at attention and emitted the tiniest of squeaks.

"You can pet him." He gently ran his hand across the back of Rufus's head. "Try it."

"I'm not touching that thing."

"It's okay. He likes it. And he really likes this."

He scratched Rufus under the chin, and the big creature tilted his head back and squinted his eyes like a contented ba.s.set hound.

Audrey looked like she was watching somebody eat a worm. "You know what, Martin? You are weird."

"Go ahead."

She swallowed hard and very slowly reached her hand toward Rufus. But before she could touch him, he gave a sharp hiss and snapped his teeth, backing her off in a hurry.

Martin gave him a little smack on the snout. "No! Bad T. rex. We don't bite people. Roger that?"

"Did you just say T. rex?"

Rufus seemed a bit calmer now, so Martin gently pushed him toward her again.

"Okay. Try it."

"Pa.s.s!"

"He'll be okay now. I promise."

She exhaled deeply, rolled her eyes, and slowly reached for Rufus's head one more time. Rufus kept an eye on her, but he didn't complain this time as she touched the tips of her fingers to the back of his neck and stiffly stroked up and down, a lemon-puckered look on her face.

"See?" Martin said. "He likes it."

"I don't believe this. I'm petting a vicious prehistoric beast."

"He's not vicious."

"Martin, this is majorly crazy. Dinosaurs are extinct."

"That's what I thought."

She gasped and jerked back as Rufus suddenly broke away and went after the can Martin had put on the ground.

"Slow down, Rufus," he said as he pulled the top off the can and got set to whip up a good dino lunch.

- It didn't take long for Rufus to polish off his meal, or for Audrey to start feeling a bit more comfortable around him. Martin told her all about the quarry and the egg, and how Rufus had imprinted on him as soon as he hatched. Rufus seemed to get more comfortable with Audrey, too, and before long they were like three old friends, just hanging out on an early June afternoon.

Martin was glad he had let Audrey in on his secret; she seemed like somebody he could talk to, and he felt confident she wouldn't blab.

"Do you ever take him outside?" she asked.

"Not really."

"He'd probably run away, huh."

"I don't think he would. He's really attached to me."

"Or somebody might see."

Martin shrugged.

"You'll have to take him out sooner or later, though, right?"

Martin thought about it, and he realized she was absolutely right. "Okay," he said, heading for the stairs. "Let's take him out."

"What, now?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Well...I don't know, I was just kind of like...throwing it out there."

"We'll just go for a few minutes."

"What if he runs away?"

"He won't."

"But you don't know for sure."

Martin really wasn't too worried about it, but to put her mind at ease he found a length of old clothesline and knotted it into a leash, then gently dropped the loop over Rufus's head. Rufus twitched and thrashed at first, not at all happy having a rope tied around his neck; but after a couple of minutes he seemed to forget it was there.

There was a pair of creaky old wooden doors that led from the barn's lower level straight out into the far end of the yard. But they hadn't been opened in ages, so Martin had to go outside and pull away a bunch of weeds and brush that were blocking them. He finally managed to get one of the doors partway open, and Audrey poked her head out.

"Know what I forgot?"

"What."

"I have to call Jade."

"We'll just be a few minutes. Can you call her when we get back? It's only three o'clock."

She seemed a little unsure. "Okay."

"Ready?"

She nodded and handed the end of the leash to him, and they both pushed the door the rest of the way open.

At first, Rufus hesitated to step out into this odd, unfamiliar world. Martin thought maybe he remembered that scary day when he was almost left all alone out there. He finally stepped through the door, looking around, taking a few sniffs of the gra.s.s at his feet.

"Well," Audrey said, "I guess he- Whoa!"

She had barely gotten the words out when Rufus, spotting a sparrow as it rocketed through the air from the yard into the woods, made a sudden dash after it.

The leash immediately went taut in Martin's hands, and he was yanked right along with the charging dinosaur. "Hold on, Rufus!"

"Ai-yai-yai!" Audrey cried, and she quickly grabbed the leash to help Martin hold on.

Between the two of them, they were able to halt Rufus's mad dash. But he was over eighty pounds of pure muscle now, and he kept tugging and twisting, trying to get free of the rope. Martin and Audrey held on for dear life.

"You said he wouldn't run!" she hollered.

"I might have been wrong on that."

"Oh, great."

Rufus somehow managed to get the rope between his teeth, and in a flash-snap! All they held now was a loose piece of rope, and Rufus was hurtling into the woods after the little brown bird, his powerful hind legs pumping like a Thoroughbred's.

"Ohhhhh!" Audrey rasped. "Not good. Not good!"

"Rufus! Come back here!"

They raced into the woods after him. By now the sparrow was long gone, but Rufus was so excited by all the other birds flapping around in the brush that he dashed every which way, trying to snap one up in his hungry jaws. The birds were much too fast, though, so his only meal was a big helping of fresh Wisconsin air.

He spotted a chipmunk hopping along a log; again, instinct took over and he lunged after it-until it easily escaped up a tree.

A b.u.t.terfly flitted past, and he snapped at it twice, three times, four times, trying to turn it into a light snack. But it was just too quick.

Rufus wasn't having much luck catching anything, but he did succeed in causing a near panic among all the small animals within fifty yards. A rabbit dashed into the underbrush, squirrels shot up into the trees, frogs leaped into a pond, and in the sky overhead a flock of restless crows sounded a shrill alarm.

Martin and Audrey tried their best to keep pace with their charged-up friend, but he was amazingly nimble, springing in and out of the brush like a spry fox, and they fell way behind.

"Rufus!" Martin shouted. "You come back here this instant!" For some reason he decided that the stern-parent approach was the way to go, even though his logical mind understood that this human concept would most likely be lost on a six-week-old prehistoric brain.

Before they knew it, Rufus was completely out of sight.

"Ohhh, man," Audrey moaned. "Ohhh, man. Now what are we-"

"Shhhh!"

Martin went perfectly still and listened. Audrey did the same. Their eyes slowly scanned the trees and brush on either side of the path.

A faint hissing sound, kind of like a leaky steam pipe, seemed to be coming from a small thicket across the way. As they tried to zero in on the spot, the hiss suddenly got much louder, and then it turned into a full-out yowr! Rufus jumped straight up in the air as a snarling snout with bared teeth and a set of cutla.s.s-like claws lashed out at him.

Rufus leaped out of the thicket and hightailed it through the brush and brambles, straight back to his own human "mom."

"Rufus!" Martin exclaimed, half laughing, as Rufus darted around behind him, cowering like a frightened puppy. "You bad boy! What did you do?"

"What was that?" Audrey said.

"There's a badger burrow over there. He must have gotten too close to the babies."

"Wow...learned something, eh, Rufus?"

They both smiled, relieved that he was back with them.

"Maybe we should fix the leash," she offered.

"Nah. I think he'll stay close now. C'mon, Rufe."

Martin's hunch was right: as they strolled farther along the path, Rufus showed no interest in leaving them this time. And within ten minutes they were like three old friends again, merrily strolling through the woods without a care. Martin talked more than he ever had in his life, providing the full scientific details on many of the rocks, trees, and bugs they came across along the way. Audrey seemed interested for a while, though eventually her attention started to wander a little.

When she stopped for a moment to jot down another note on her little pad, Martin gave her a curious look.

"What's your novel about?"

"Oh, the usual stuff.... Life. Love. Pa.s.sion. The condition of man."