Quirky and the Elephant’s Brigade!

Quirky and the Elephant’s 

Brigade!

In the time when dinosaurs roamed the land, there lived a bright, shiny puppy named Gregory. He frolicked all day and night without a care in the world. Some days when a mean dinosaur approached him looking for trouble, Gregory growled his mightiest growl, and the dinosaur would quickly gallop away. Gregory slept in a small cave near a big rock, called Enchanted Rock. When Gregory awoke with the sunrise each morning, he would race out of his cave and climb Enchanted Rock all the way to the top. He stood there proudly for a moment and stared at the Valley of Boulders, which was the area from the Mystic Mountains to the Sparkling Lake. When he came down from the rock he pounced in the bushes looking for a big, tasty bug for breakfast. When the sun was high in the sky, Gregory lay on the warm ground of the valley and slept. He jumped into the Sparkling Lake often and swam in circles near the shore. It was a very large lake and Gregory had never seen the other side. Gregory returned to the top of Enchanted Rock and watched the sun set behind the Mystic Mountains. Gregory dreamed of traveling over the mountains and finding the place where the sun went at night. Gregory didn’t know why the sun had to leave every night, but he forgave it since it returned every morning.

One cold morning Gregory woke before dawn. It was just light enough to see in his cave. He stared across the land at the grey sky. He kicked around a rock with his front paw. It was quiet. He could hear the wind whistle through his cave. He lay still and slept more. He woke up again to his growling stomach. He walked out and saw two big tyrannosauri walking towards each other. When they met, they began to fight. It was very violent, and the dinosaurs looked angry, like they wanted to kill each other. Their fight came towards Gregory, and he leaped into a bush for protection. One of the dinosaurs smashed the other into Gregory’s cave and destroyed it. Gregory jumped from his bush and barked at the remaining dinosaur. It stood still for a moment then headed to the Valley of Boulders. Gregory followed still barking angrily. Once in the valley, the dinosaur ran faster than Gregory could follow, and Gregory quit barking. All over the valley the dinosaurs were fighting each other. Gregory was scared. He ran into the Sparkling Lake and swam for miles. When he could not swim anymore, he drowned to death.

A second later, a meteor struck the earth, and all of the dinosaurs died. Ten million years later, I sat at a table with John, Jacob, Mary, and Susan. They spit in my face, and I peed my pants and cried. I had my backpack on as I walked on the brown, crunchy leaves going home. My name was Jeremy. I was 72 years old. That was sixty years after now anyway. I was also twelve. Now was 9:37 p.m. February 17, 2004. I wished I hadn’t said that. I wished I had said something. I swept the road at night. Then after making me wait a while, Jerry moved and said something. I thought he was incompetent, but I admired him. We walked along the empty street at night, in that nice, quiet, small town in Northern Virginia. There were lights on each side of the street, and peaceful, welcoming houses. Jerry mentioned something about Gregory and a puppy, but I wasn’t listening. I was thinking about a girl... I didn’t know what to say to make it special. I wondered what I should have said. I wanted to tell her about Harble and his office building at sunrise. Why would she care though? Only I think it means something. It doesn’t mean anything. I wanted to meet Harble. I wanted to be Harble.