Dream Journal

Dinosaurs from Comets Bring Christmas Presents

It was an ordinary day. School was typical, some homework here, some quizzes there, a piece of gum or two stuck beneath a desk. But why did today call for such a spectacular sunset? The sky was red, set aflame with streaks of purple and magenta unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was beautiful, but with a deadly undertone.

Clouds began to stir soon after. Heavy clouds made of thick yellow smoke, like sulfur-induced sacs hanging from the sky. They swirled and threw themselves nearer anad nearer to my house. My parents didn't know who to ask about this. They had never seen anything like it, either. My dad warned me to stay away from the bay window (I think he wanted me to pretend that it wasn't there), but I couldn't take my eyes away.

And then, the lightning came. A jet of golden lightning struck the earth behind the trees at the end of my road. Flames coiled up and down it. They licked the earth up within a second. Cars blew up into clouds of smoke, trees turned to vapor, and the asphalt was blown to bits. My dad shut the curtains and whisked us all into the center of the living room. More lightning strikes came. No thunder followed, but the explosions that rocked the earth made for a fitting substitute.

My sister and I began to cry. No one was sure what to think of this. We couldn't call a weather station or an emergency hotline because the phone lines were down. We didn't bother asking our neighbors simply because, well, what would they know that we didn't?

Pulsating wind beat against the bay window, and my dad, sure that it would break through and send glass raining down on our heads, shoved us hastily into the bedroom. The heavy wind battered the windows there, too. Enormous balls of earth and rock were hurled at the them unrelentlessly, but they held up well.

Is this the end of the world? I began to wonder. There were so many things that I hadn't been able to do in life. Drive a car, go on a date, graduate high school. I clutched my parents and started to cry, too.

Another few minutes went by, and the anxiety welling up within me was overwhelming. Another explosion came, but this one knocked me off my feet. The nicknacks on the shelf above my mom's bed fell and broke to pieces on top of one another, the windows blew out, and the curtains flew off their rods. The  bedroom door slammed shut behind me, and nearly tore my hair from my scalp. I screamed, but the air was sucked from my lungs. I squeezed my eyes shut and pretended that thirty-story flames weren't coming straight at us, scorching the sky and the grass and everything around. We were next.

* * *

I opened my eyes. I was standing upright in my backyard, facing a wasteland. There was still grass beneath my feet, hair on my head, and eyes in their sockets. Everyone else was gone. No animals, no birds, no sound. Only a towering lump jutting out from the earth. It was enormous. I could have been a mountain that sunk into the ground, and I was facing its peak. Rocky, black earth spilled over from it into sooty piles on the ground, and flames and gas bubbled spewed from craters. They radiated from its insides. A roar shook the very ground beneath my feet. I dug my heels into the crumpled grass, determined to keep my balance.

Everything went still.

A leathery worm lifted out of the ground, much too large to be any animal I'd ever seen. It reached up into an arc, and at last it came to an end. A bubble sat on its tail. Two beady eyes glared at me from afar and my heart dropped. It wasn't a tail, it was a head. And that was no worm.

A body rose up from the largest crater, and a dinosaur came to life right before my eyes. Luckily, it was a plant-eating dinosaur. One of those with a long neck and a long tail. But fear still pierced my heart. Stomping and trampling was not out of the question.

I wanted to run, but something kept me rooted to my place. A voice.

Stay still, we bring gifts. We do not want to hurt you.

I faced the dinsaur with wide eyes and my mouth hanging open. Tied to the end of the dinasaur's swiping tail was a straw bag, cleverly weaved. large squares and such poked out from its thick material.

Let us come closer. We want to help you.

More dinosaurs of huge form and stature headed toward me, but I trusted my instinct as well as their word and didn't move. I stood my ground. The dinosaur towered over me. I turned my head up and I swear I saw a smile. The dinosaur lowered its tail, but it reached well over the charred roof of my house. I hurried around to the front and there, in my neighbord's yard, the dinosaur had set down a blanket filled with wooden gifts.

I craned my neck and stood in the midst of all the gifts. I looked over them. All of it was wooden: cabinets, wardrobes, boxes, mannequins, toys.

Pick one for yourself and something for each of your family members. We, the dinosaurs, although we have reclaimed our planet, want to help rebuild it. And so, we have brought wooden gifts.

I went through the pile of gifts. I shuffled through dozens of small things and large things. Long things and fat things. Skinny things and oddly-shaped things. Finally, I found it. A small box hand-crafted with glittering beads. This would be for myself. For my sister, brother, father, and mother, I chose a wardrobe for them to share. It was large enough for whatever clothes might have survived the comet collision and the strange fire storm.

The sky began to turn to black, and night fell almost instantly. The storm had changed the planet, but I wasn't too sure that the dinosaurs were determined to change it back.