Karen's Dinosaur Read online

  I wanted to look for ornitholestes right away, but Mrs. Hoffman said. “Let’s take a peek in the Hall of the Ornithischian Dinosaurs first. Then you can split up to work on your projects. I will stay with those of you working in this hall. Miss Mandel will stay with those of you working in the other hall.”

  So I followed Mrs. Hoffman into the other room. The first thing I saw there was the skeleton of a stegosaurus. It was only 20 feet long. But still, “Maxie!” I whispered loudly. “A stegosaurus.” I counted the plates down the dinosaur’s back. I looked at the spikes at the end of its tail. “The stegosaurus lived one hundred and forty million years ago,” I said.

  I could not believe my eyes. I decided the museum was one of the best places I had ever visited. I thought about David Michael. I knew he would think it was one of the best places he had ever visited, too. (I felt a little bad about that.)

  “Time to begin your projects now,” said Mrs. Hoffman.

  Maxie and I went with Mrs. Hoffman to the other hall.

  “I hope ornitholestes is here,” I said to Maxie.

  “Me, too,” she agreed.

  We began to look.

  We checked every single display. And soon we found it.

  “Look!” exclaimed Maxie. “A skeleton, a whole skeleton.”

  There was ornitholestes. Ornitholestes was just seven feet long, but that was okay. I loved its tail and its three-fingered front legs. Ornitholestes had also lived about 140 million years ago.

  “Okay, let’s start the poster of our dinosaur,” I said.

  Maxie laid out the piece of posterboard Mrs. Hoffman had given us. First we tried to draw a picture of ornitholestes. Then I carefully wrote WANTED.

  “Wanted for what?” said Maxie thoughtfully.

  “For bird stealing, of course,” I replied.

  So Maxie wrote “bird stealing.” Then we wrote down ornitholestes’s description: 7 feet long, small skull, long tail, pointed teeth, birdlike, can run very fast, meat-eating, may hunt birds or even baby dinosaurs, 140 million years old.

  Very soon, Mrs. Hoffman collected our posters. “Miss Mandel will put up the posters in her room for awhile,” she said. “Then she will send them to me, and I will put them up in our room.”

  I looked at the skeleton of ornitholestes one last time. I loved my dinosaur. I wished I could have lived in the time of the dinosaurs.

  Lost

  “Which dinosaur do you like best?” Maxie asked me as we left the dinosaur halls.

  “Definitely ornitholestes,” I replied. “It did not used to be my favorite, but now it is.”

  “Yeah. Our dinosaur,” agreed Maxie.

  “Our dinosaur,” I repeated.

  Mrs. Hoffman and Miss Mandel and the room parents and our pen pals and my classmates and I met outside the dinosaur halls.

  “Time to go,” said Mrs. Hoffman. She looked as if she were in a rush.

  “I cannot believe we have to leave our dinosaur,” I said to Maxie.

  But we did. We walked along a hallway. We walked down a flight of stairs. “Let’s take the elevators,” suggested Miss Mandel.

  So we turned a corner and I saw … another gift shop. More dinosaur things were inside. I thought of David Michael again. I thought about how mad he was that he could not come to the wonderful museum. If I could just buy a dinosaur for him in the shop, he would probably feel a lot better.

  I looked at my classmates waiting for the elevator. I looked at Maxie. Suddenly I whispered, “I will be right back.” Then I ducked into the gift shop. I peeked back outside. Good. No one had seen me leave (except Maxie). Everyone was still waiting for the elevators.

  Maxie was looking at me, though. Her face was a big question mark. I waved to her to say that everything was all right. Then I turned around.

  What a wonderful gift shop. I just love gift shops. Once when I was on a trip with my little-house family we stopped at a place called the Trading Post. Inside were a snack bar and a gift shop. I bought beaded moccasins. And once at a gift shop at the beach I bought a stick of rock candy.

  This gift shop did not have moccasins or rock candy. But it had books, some toys, and lots of dinosaur things. This was perfect. Maybe I could even find an ornitholestes for David Michael.

  First I checked a shelf of model dinosaurs. I saw an apatosaurus, a stegosaurus, a diplodocus, a triceratops, and a styracosaurus. But no ornitholestes. I checked one of the price tags. “Twenty-six dollars!” I exclaimed. Even if ornitholestes had been there, I could not have bought one. I had four dollars and eighteen cents in my pocket. That was all.

  I crossed to another part of the gift shop. I looked at a shelf of books about dinosaurs. Most of them were big and beautiful. They cost way more than four dollars. Finally I saw a teeny little paperback book. Inside was a whole page about ornitholestes. I checked the price. Four dollars and fifty cents.

  Boo and bullfrogs.

  I was about to give up when I saw a basketful of small rubber dinosaurs. A sign on the basket read $1.25 EACH.

  Goody. A dollar and a quarter. I could buy three dinosaurs.

  Before I looked through the basket, I peered out the door. My class was still waiting by the elevator. Maxie waved to me madly. And she mouthed something to me. I think she was saying, “Hurry!”

  I held up my finger to say, “Just a minute.”

  Then I raced back to the basket. I pawed through it. I found a dinosaur that looked very much like ornitholestes. I pulled it out. Then I pulled out a stegosaurus and an apatosaurus. I hurried to the cash register. Two people were ahead of me on line. I tried to look out the door and into the hallway to see what my classmates were doing. But I was too far away.

  I waited on that line. I did not wait patiently. I tapped my feet.

  Finally it was my turn. I reached up and put the dinosaurs on the counter. The man behind the register rang them up.

  “Four dollars and six cents, please,” he said.

  Oops. I had forgotten about sales tax. Oh, well. At least I had enough money. And I had twelve cents left over.

  I took the bag the man handed me. I ran into the hall.

  My class was gone.

  Ornitholestes to the Rescue

  Maybe I was in the wrong hallway. I hurried into the gift shop again. I looked for another way out. Nope. I had come out of the door I had gone in. There was the elevator.

  I thought about getting on the elevator and riding down myself. But I was not sure which floor to go to. I knew our bus was waiting somewhere outside. But there are museum entrances on the first floor and the floor below. Besides, Mrs. Hoffman had said, “If you get separated from the group, stay where you are.” She had said that many times.

  She had also said to look for a police officer or an adult you can trust. I did not really think I was going to find a police officer in the American Museum of Natural History, but you never know.

  So I stood in the hallway and looked for a police officer. I waited for five minutes. No luck.

  I began to feel nervous. What if Mrs. Hoffman and my classmates climbed on our bus and left for Stoneybrook without me? I would be stuck here in New York City. I did not even have a quarter to phone Maxie with. I had only twelve cents. Maybe I could sell one of the dinosaurs back to the man in the gift shop. Then I would have $1.47.

  I waited for a few more minutes. I looked for someone who worked in the museum. I did not see anyone. I looked in the gift shop. Maybe I could tell the man at the cash register what had happened. But I did not see him, either.

  I started to cry.

  Then I stopped. I had thought of something important. Maxie would not let my bus leave without me. She would tell Mrs. Hoffman what had happened. She would know where to find me.

  Wouldn’t she? I wondered why no one had come back for me yet.

  I waited for five more minutes.

  Then I thought of something else. I had seen lots of gift shops in the museum. Maybe Maxie could not remember which one I had gone into. They
all look sort of the same. And the museum is a very big place.

  I began to cry again. I peered into the gift shop. Still I could not see the man who had helped me.

  Now what? Where else would Maxie look for me?

  Suddenly, I had the answer. I knew — I just knew — that Maxie would think to look at our dinosaur. At ornitholestes. She might not know which shop I had gone to. But she could tell Mrs. Hoffman to go to ornitholestes. Mrs. Hoffman could find our dinosaur.

  But could I? I remembered we had walked down a flight of stairs near the gift shop. I looked around. I saw the stairs. I climbed them to the next floor. I walked along until I saw the Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs. That was where ornitholestes would be. I peeped in the room. It was almost empty. I ran to our dinosaur.

  I stood by ornitholestes and waited.

  And waited and waited.

  And after a little while I heard voices. I looked toward the doorway. I saw Maxie and Mrs. Hoffman. They were running to me.

  “There she is!” cried Maxie.

  “You were right!” exclaimed Mrs. Hoffman. “Karen did go back to your dinosaur. Oh, Karen, we were so worried about you!” Mrs. Hoffman put her arms around me and gave me a hug.

  “I told Mrs. Hoffman how you got lost,” said Maxie. “You know, lost.”

  “Oh, lost,” I repeated. Whew. Maxie had not told Mrs. Hoffman about the gift shop. That would be our secret. “I know I was supposed to stay in one place,” I said. “But I waited and waited. And then I thought of my dinosaur. So I came here.”

  “You did the right thing, Karen,” replied Mrs. Hoffman. “Now let’s hurry. Everyone is waiting.”

  A Present for David Michael

  Mrs. Hoffman and Maxie and I rode the elevator down, down, down. When the doors opened, I saw my classmates and our pen pals and Miss Mandel and the room parents.

  It was time to say good-bye.

  “Good-bye, Maxie,” I said. “I will write you a letter soon. And thank you for not telling Mrs. Hoffman about the gift shop.” I whispered. “I had to buy a present for my brother. It was really important. I will tell you why in the letter.”

  Maxie nodded. “Okay. I am glad we got to see each other again. Today was really fun. And don’t worry. I will keep our secret.”

  “Class, come on!” called Mrs. Hoffman then.

  “Good-bye! Good-bye!” said my classmates.

  “Good-bye! Good-bye!” said our pen pals.

  A few minutes later I was sitting on the wonderful bus with Hannie again.

  “What shall we do first?” asked Hannie.

  “Let’s just look out the window,” I answered. I was tired. (I could tell Hannie was, too.) So we looked at the lights in the apartment buildings and skyscrapers. Everything seemed to be lit up. As we left the city, I turned around. I looked at the lights behind me. Then I fell asleep.

  I did not wake up until I heard Mrs. Hoffman say, “Rise and shine, everybody. We are home again.”

  I blinked. I yawned. I looked out the window. I saw more lights, but these were the lights of Stoneybrook. A few minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot of our school. My sleepy classmates stepped off the wonderful bus and found their parents.

  Mrs. Papadakis drove Hannie and me home. By the time I reached the big house, I was wide awake. I felt quite peppy after my nap.

  “Hello, everyone!” I yelled when I opened the front door.

  “Karen, hello,” said Daddy. “How was your trip?”

  My big-house family was gathering in the kitchen.

  “It was great!” I exclaimed. “We ate lunch in Central Park.”

  “Did you see Maxie?” asked Andrew.

  “Oh, yes. I went to her school, and I saw her room and her desk. And Miss Mandel and all the other kids were there, of course.”

  “How did you get to the park?” asked Kristy.

  “We walked. We walked to the park and all around inside it. Then after our picnic, we walked to the museum, too.”

  “How was the museum?” asked Elizabeth.

  “It was so cool. It was huge. Can we go back there someday? Because there are tons of things we did not get to see. Like meteorites — ”

  “Meteorites?” said David Michael.

  “Yes, and animal displays and — ” I stopped. I did not want my brother to feel bad all over again about not going to the museum. “Anyway, Maxie and I found our dinosaur and we made the poster. We had lots of fun.” (I did not mention that I had sort of gotten lost.)

  I waited until dinner was over to give David Michael his present. I found him in his room. I think he was supposed to be doing his homework, but he was reading comic books.

  “David Michael?” I said. “I bought something for you at the museum today. Actually, I bought three things for you.” I put the dinosaurs on his bed. “See? This one is ornitholestes. Or it could be.”

  “Thanks,” said David Michael.

  “I am really sorry you did not get to go to the museum. You would have liked it. Maxie and I saw a skeleton of ornitholestes. Maybe Daddy and Elizabeth will take us back to the museum someday. Anyway, I am also sorry we had a fight. I hope you like the dinosaurs.”

  “Thanks,” said David Michael again. “And I am sorry, too. I just got mad. But I am tired of fighting.” David Michael looked at the dinosaurs. Then he handed one back to me. “Here. You can have apatosaurus. You should have a souvenir of your trip.”

  I took it from him. I grinned. “Thank you.”

  Our fight was over and the trip was over. It had been a long day. But I was very, very happy.

  About the Author

  ANN M. MARTIN is the acclaimed and bestselling author of a number of novels and series, including Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), A Dog’s Life, Here Today, P.S. Longer Letter Later (written with Paula Danziger), the Family Tree series, the Doll People series (written with Laura Godwin), the Main Street series, and the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club. She lives in New York.

  Copyright © 1996 by Ann M. Martin

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First edition, 1996

  e-ISBN 978-1-338-05905-2