PT, Part One

Alex and Elizabeth were twins. They lived in a house on the edge of a forest and every weekend they went out to explore. All they brought was a few energy bars, water, a compass, a camera with a zoom lens, and a notebook for all the things they've seen.

One day, on a Saturday around lunchtime, they were trying to see some birds. They climbed a tree to get closer to the sky and Elizabeth ate an energy bar while Alex looked through the camera.

Alex took a picture whenever he saw movement on the camera. He got several good ones of things like eagles, sparrows, and robins. Then he got a really blurry picture. He had to ask his sister what she thought it was a picture of.

“Probably some kind of eagle,” Elizabeth said.

“Well, whatever it is,” said Alex, “I think it's coming back. I can get a better picture.”

So he aimed the camera and he saw the bird was flying directly toward him! He yelled at Elizabeth to duck.

The bird landed in a nest between the twins.

Elizabeth frowned at the nest and asked, “How did we miss that?”

Alex frowned at the bird and said, “Yes, that's a question too. But what kind of bird is that?”

It didn't look like any bird the twins had seen before. It had hair and strange-shaped wings.

“Do you think it's a pterodactyl?” Alex asked.

“Of course not!” his sister said. “They've been extinct for millions of years!”

“Then what is it?”

They stared at the creature, neither knowing what it was. Alex took several pictures, thinking he could get a lot of money for a dinosaur picture, and Elizabeth wrote notes in the notebook.

The creature looked at each twin and felt confused. What were they doing? And why were they in the tree? Why was he in the tree? This wasn't his nest!

The creature jumped up and flew away.

Hoping they could find out what the thing was, the twins went home and got on the internet. They had a program that could search by picture and put the images of the creature in it. The computer surprisingly showed only one result. Baby pterodactyl.

“Told you,” said Alex.

Elizabeth shook her head. “No, it must be a malfunction.”

There was a tap on the window behind them and they turned around to see the creature the computer said was a pterodactyl hovering there.

“Look,” said Alex, “it's the pterodactyl!”

“It's not a pterodactyl,” said Elizabeth, although she didn't know what else it was. She went to the window to get a better look at it.

It looked back at her for a second, but then flew off when the twins' parents came into the room and said, “Lunchtime!”

After lunch, their parents left for the supermarket and the twins saw the pterodactyl again. It was tapping on a different window on the other side of the house.

The twins looked at each other, then Alex went to open the window. Elizabeth tried to stop him, but waited too long.

The pterodactyl flew into the house and went into a model nest that was part of the twins' science project.

Elizabeth didn't seeing the pterodactyl fly in because she was distracted by yelling at Alex. “You shouldn't have done, you idiot! Close the window immediately!”

Then she turned around to go back to the computer and screamed.

The pterodactyl was scared by the screaming and flew off.

“That was not a pterodactyl,” Elizabeth said. It couldn't have been.

Alex laughed and said, “I told you it was a pterodactyl.”

“It wasn't.”

They were silent for a few minutes. First they looked at each other, then they looked at the pterodactyl as it flew back to the fake nest.

The pterodactyl, looking uncomfortable, flew off again.

“We should make it a nicer nest,” said Alex. “It's obviously looking for a new home.”

So Alex went outside and collected a pile of twigs and leaves that he quickly turned into a nest. Meanwhile, Elizabeth watched and smiled at his silliness.

“Oh, pterodactyl....” Alex called when he was done.

The pterodactyl came into the room, although this had nothing to do with the call. It went into the new nest and Alex said, “Let's call him PT.”

“One,” said Elizabeth, “it's not a pterodactyl. And two, why are we keeping it?”

Alex said, “You said we. That implies you're helping me.”

“Okay, fine, I'll help you keep that strange bird. But why are you calling it PT?”

“For Pet Terodactyl,” Alex responded with rolled eyes.

“Pterodactyl starts with a 'P', you moron.”

Alex shrugged. “Well, I don't want to call him PP.”

“Whatever,” said Elizabeth.

“Squawk,” said PT.

END OF PART ONE