Jackson Humes is Not a Superhero

CHAPTER TEN

"Now what do we do?" Shannon sounded as helpless as I felt.

"This definitely complicates matters." Mr. Saltzman scratched the bald spot at the top of his head. "I was hoping to get you all back to my house, but we'll have to do it here. Jackson, I need you to remove Graham's leash and wrap it around that tree making sure you loop it so that he can't run away."

It was a strange request, but I did as I was told while Mr. Saltzman held Graham's collar firmly with both hands. Graham started getting antsy again and began to growl at Marv. I clipped the leash back onto his collar and took a few steps back. Mr. Saltzman held on to the large Great Dane in a bear hug.

"Okay," he instructed Marv, "get as close to Graham as you can."

The velociraptor took several tentative steps forward until he was just out of biting distance from Graham. Mr. Saltzman did his best to calm the dog down, but Graham wasn't having any of it. From Graham's point of view, it must have appeared like he was being offered as a sacrificial meal. The Great Dane barked and snapped wildly.

"Now get eye level with him" Mr. Saltzman urged, struggling to keep the dog still. "Do it now!" Mr. Saltzman barked. Marv hunched over until he was inches away from Graham. "Now I want you to imagine you are seeing the world through his eyes. I want you to picture yourself as a Great Dane. Concentrate."

Minutes ticked by with the two animals locked in a staring contest of Mr. Saltzman's making. Graham's hysterical barking must have made it hard for Marv to concentrate because the velociraptor finally shook his head and exhaled. "I can't do it."

As if he had understood perfectly, Mr. Saltzman said, "Come on, you can do it. You just need to concentrate. It's not enough for you to picture yourself turning into Graham; you've got to imagine it with every fiber of your being. Now try again."

"This is ridiculous. I don't know why I'm even listening to this crazy old man," Marv said, throwing his claws in the air and stomping away in a velociraptor huff.

Never in a million years would I have ever imagined that I would live to witness a dinosaur throw a hissy fit. I hurried after the cranky velociraptor and jumped in front of him to block his path. "You have to try harder," I pleaded.

"This is stupid." He motioned toward Mr. Saltzman and his giant growling dog. "How do you know we can even trust him? For all we know he could be messing with us."

"He knows something," I said, dropping my voice to a whisper so I wouldn't be overheard. "How do you explain the fact that he didn't lose his shit when he saw you for the first time? And how did he know you could talk and that I could understand you?"

Marv tried crossing his arms in front of his chest, but his unwieldy talons didn't allow for such a human gesture. He threw his arms up in defeat. "I don't know. He looks old enough to have been around when dinosaurs were still alive." The fact that he was cracking jokes was a good sign.

"C'mon, you have to try again. If it doesn't work, we'll think of something else." Perhaps it was the desperation in my voice, or maybe it was the fact that we really had no other options, but he walked back over to the tree.

Graham resumed his barking and was now practically spitting in Marv's face, which was just a mere inch away from the Great Dane's snapping jaws. Had I not been looking at Marv's eyes, I wouldn't have noticed what happened next. They shifted from that of a reptile's to that of a dog's. It was like watching ink reform itself. Even though his eyes were still blue, dog eyes on a velociraptor seemed unnatural and gave him a demonic appearance.

His upper body contracted violently. Fur began sprouting out of his scales. His tail, nails, and muzzle retracted back into his body, and two pointy ears popped up out of nowhere. It took no more than a few seconds for Marv to reform himself from a velociraptor to a Great Dane. I couldn't figure out how his bones and organs had reorganized themselves without snapping or even killing him in the process.