His Mother's Eyes

Chapter 4

This chapter is dedicated to hopanscurse on Instagram in honor of their Birthday, July 16th! I'm so glad I met this incredibly talented and sweet person! Here is part one of your gift! Love you!

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"Are you ready to begin your adventure into Pangea?"

Ryan looked down at James, sitting in his lap, who was staring around in apt wonder as he listened.

A week had passed since the funeral and kindergarten would start the following week.

Hope wanted to take James to something fun before school started to help take his mind off things. They did some research and Ryan found the perfect thing.

A Dinosaur Safari Park.

A new one opened recently near their location. The dinosaurs, of course, weren't real, but they were nearly life size. The park gave them 'survival' packs and scavenger hunt items to look for as they drove slowly—at about five miles per hour—through a safari of dinosaurs. They would play an audio tour using the car's Bluetooth connection to the app on Hope's phone. There would be places to stop at each safari check point so they could be sure to see everything and even 'help' a dinosaur family along the way. Since the rear mirrors wouldn't open all the way, they decided James would sit up front with Ryan when they arrived. Hope would drive.

They hadn't told James where they were going until they got there. The second his eyes fell on one of the dinosaurs at the park entrance, his face lit up and his excitement proved contagious.

As they listened to the audio of the 'park ranger' introducing them to the park while waiting for their turn, Ryan's eyes met Hope's. She was smiling too. It was the first time in a week that he had seen a real smile on her face.

She was trying, but he could tell she wasn't doing well.

After she broke down the night of the funeral, she stuck that brave face on again and tried to get on with life. But she was just going through the motions, moving as woodenly as she had the day of the funeral.

He was worried about her.

Seeing her smile was like a breath of fresh air. He didn't know how long it would last, maybe only the duration of the safari tour, but he was glad to see some kind of breakthrough.

James' excitement notched up to a solid twenty out of ten when they could finally enter the park. They came to the first checkpoint and James started pointing and bouncing. His exclamation over each dinosaur made it hard for them to hear the audio, but they just started it over again since none of the audio clips were too long. A lot of the history of dinosaurs and their movement over time before the earth broke into continents were recited, information that Ryan had gleaned long ago from things James told him. James, once he settled down enough to listen, absorbed every word like he was hearing it for the first time.

Hope manned the scavenger hunt list, helping to mark off each item once James spotted it—whether it was a specific kind of dinosaur, bird, or plant indigenous to those times.

Ryan, of course, manned James so he didn't try to climb out the window in his excitement.

Then they arrived at the triceratops check point where one of the staff was holding what 'appeared' to be a baby triceratops wrapped in a blanket. The staff member brought it up to the car window for James to touch.

James was so excited he actually went quiet because he was so overwhelmed. He petted it in amazement. His mouth and eyes open wide.

"How does it feel?" Hope asked.