Chapter 5
494 Words
She’d been sitting in the booth ever since.
She glanced at the clock above the cooler. It seemed unbelievable because of the dark brought on by the storm, but the hands above the Dr. Pepper logo read only 11:16 am. The long hand of the clock twitched once. 11:17. Nearly three-and-a-half hours had passed, and still no luck with either the telephone or the airwaves.
She took a deep drag off the Marlboro and exhaled slowly, leaning back in the booth and closing her eyes.
The radio on the counter went: S-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s ...”
A hodge-podge of the radio-preacher’s words played back in her mind, she didn’t know why. ‘We know now there can be no compromise ... for I have seen a light in the sky, and we must ready our souls ... throw wide the gates of hell, and let loose the beasts of prey ...’
What the hell had he been talking about?
Savanna saw clouds boiling in her mind’s eye—clouds full of strange lights, like something from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. She saw the lizard-thing’s head poking up through the hole in the floor, turning on Roger.
‘And let loose the beasts of prey ...”
There was a tap on her shoulder. “Honey?”
Savanna jumped, opening her eyes. Clara was standing by the booth, holding some magazines.
“Yes?” Savanna said.
The woman held the magazines out to her. “I managed to squeeze by the riff-raff and get you these. I don’t know what you like to read, I grabbed a selection. I thought maybe it would take your mind off everything.” She laughed. “Videogames seem to be working for me.”
Savanna took them, impressed by her concern. “Thank you, Clara.”
The big woman shrugged it off and walked back toward the arcade. Savanna heard one of the bikers sing: “Here she comes, Miss America ...”
She shook her head and looked through the magazines; there was a U.S. News & World Report, a Cosmopolitan, a Better Homes & Gardens, a Discover. This latter’s cover had a picture of a dinosaur on it. She flipped through its pages absently—and passed something which caught her eye. It had looked like ...
She rifled back in search of it, and found it was part of a four-page fold out. She pulled out the staples with her fingernails, her pulse quickening, and spread the diorama out on the table. It was captioned: The Great Dinosaur Predators, and depicted a line-up of nasty-looking saurians. Scanning it, she found Roger’s attacker somewhere in the middle. She stared at it intently. The likeness was almost perfect: the monitor-like face, the avian anatomy, the strange arms. That’s the one, officer, she thought insanely.
She examined it closer. It’s mini-caption read: Velociraptor Antirrhopus. Eighty-million years ago; six feet long; Asia. Aka ‘Dinosaur with an Attitude.’
Trembling, she took a final hit off the cigarette and crushed it out in the little tin ashtray on the sill.
Dinosaur ...
She looked outside, actually noticing the huge snowflakes. What in God’s name is going on? she thought.
––––––––
- Writer
