A Jurassic Visit

Colonel Pollock was not Alexandra’s idea of a perfect grandfather. He was far from it. Based on her considerable research (the careful study of her friends’ grandfathers) and her experience of Colonel Pollock himself, she believed that he hated children. 

Taking this into account, she believed that it was a very fortunate occurrence that he was not her actual grandfather. 

“He is an old friend of Daddy’s from work and he needs somewhere to stay for a short while,” her mother explained the day he arrived. 

Alexandra watched him walk into the house in his fitted green uniform with all its medals and stars. She liked the gold buttons that went straight up the centre. They glistened in the light from the window, like a pirate’s treasure. She grinned up at him, wondering what adventures had allowed him to win the gold and silver that decorated his jacket. But he did not smile at her or her mother. He merely acknowledged Alexandra’s presence with a grunt before turning back to her father. 

As he turned, she saw it. Mommy warned her not to stare, but she forgot herself. She looked at the empty shoulder and arm of his jacket and tried not to think of the horrors they hid below. He followed the line of her stare and scowled down at her. With a gasp, she bolted and barred herself in her room, pulling her small armchair in front of the door. Pulse racing, she tried not to think about the fact that the guest room was across the passage from her own. 

Alexandra wondered what sort of job her father had worked at if these were the friends he made. Not a very nice one, she decided. She was glad he did not work there anymore. 

Mommy came to fetch her at dinnertime. In the brief hours since their jarring introduction, she almost forgot that Colonel Pollock was in the house. Having spent the afternoon turning her “Collect a farm” set from Aunty Lou into a much more exciting Jurassic World exhibit for her T-Rex and Velociraptors, she was oblivious to their guest below. 

Mommy quickly reminded her. “You will need to be a little more polite than you were this afternoon Alexandra, no more gasping and running, do you hear?” She said as she pushed the armchair back into its corner. 

Alexandra nodded and hung her head. It did not take much chastisement to remind her she had been rude. She hopped down the stairs on one leg, using the banister to steady her acrobatics, and reminded herself of her mother’s words. “You must not stare.” 

At the dinner table, her father and Colonel Pollock were already sitting with food piled onto their plates. Alexandra ran the last few steps. It was her father’s famous lasagne. Her favourite. 

The men had been talking about something which seemed to make them both happy, and although he did not smile or laugh like her dad, Alexandra was almost certain she saw a flash of a smile in the Colonel’s ice-blue eyes. 

“What did you do this afternoon Alex?” Her father asked. He was the only one who called her Alex, and she loved it. It was his opening question at dinner evening. 

“I opened up Jurassic World. But the dinosaurs haven’t escaped yet. They are only eating the cows and sheep for now,” She said as she impaled the lasagne with her fork. It was the only fork she would eat with because it was special. The fork had three prongs. Her cousin told her that meant it was a trident, not a fork. Alexandra knew what a trident was. The gladiators in Ancient Rome used them. So it was the only acceptable way for her to stab her dinner. 

Sometimes Mommy tried to remind her of the proper way to eat. Tonight was one of those times. “Alexandra, please use your knife to cut your food, and sit properly, legs down.”

She obeyed, letting her legs swing over the edge of the chair and holding the knife the way her mother and father did. She ventured a sideways glance at the Colonel. He glared into his own plate. 

“Well, your dinosaur park sounds perfect, can I come see it later?” Her father asked, keeping the peace between mother and daughter. 

“Oh, don’t encourage her Simon, the animals are supposed to be on a farm, not food for a bunch of vicious dinosaurs.” 

“It’s okay Mommy, the diplodocus is a vegetarian. He only eats vegetables and leaves. He enjoyed your bonsai tree.” Alexandra said to ease her mother’s fears. 

While her father snorted into his lasagne and Mommy scanned the room for her missing bonsai, Colonel Pollock interrupted. “Herbivore.” 

Alexandra ignored her mother’s chides about the house plant and stared at Colonel Pollock. “Huh?” 

“A dinosaur that eats only plants is a Herbivore. Not a vegetarian.” 

She tried the unfamiliar word on her tongue. “Her-bi-vore”. Carefully forming each syllable with her lips, committing the nugget of dinosaur wisdom to memory. 

Colonel Pollock said nothing else to Alexandra for the next three days. 

When he spoke again, it was not to share any additional dinosaur facts with her. “You should really keep your room tidier,” He told her standing in her doorway, his missing arm more pronounced because he stood with the other on his hip. 

Alexandra sat categorising her books according to subject and size and was trying to decide if her copy Alice in Wonderland should go into the “make-believe” or the “real” pile. Later she would learn that you can also call them “fiction” or “nonfiction”. She knew that Alice really belonged in the make-believe pile, but she wasn’t ready to admit that the adventures in the book couldn’t happen to her. 

Amid trying to explain the necessity of her mess, when her mother interrupted. “Alexandra! What are you doing?” 

“I’m just trying to explain that, Mommy.” 

Mommy was not willing to listen to the explanation, and instead traitorously sided with the Colonel. “Put them all away now, please. All I asked you to do was choose three books to donate to the shelter’s book drive! Don’t you want to help?” 

Alexandra desperately wanted to help. But she also wanted to keep all of her books, and so rather than choose some to get rid of, she was cataloging them so she would know if her mother took them without her permission. 

“Listen to your mother and choose three books.” The Colonel said, still holding his position in the doorway. Alexandra knew a “do not argue” command when she received one. Her father reserved them only for the specific occasions when she was unforgivably naughty, like the time with the candle and the curtains. 

Flashing them both a look she hoped conveyed her displeasure and the depths of her despondence, she chose three books to pass over to her mother along with a piece of her soul. 

She could not imagine any flashes of a smile in the Colonel’s eyes after the book incident, and Alexandra took to avoiding him where possible. If it was not possible to avoid the man, she gave him scant opportunity to comment on her behaviour. 

But he still found it. Her mother, pleased to have an ally in the house, especially if her father was away for work, spoke about Colonel Pollock with only praise and thanks. She explained to the neighbour how wonderful and helpful he was at the precise moment that Alexandra told the neighbour's son, and her best friend, Ralph, of the evils that the Colonel visited upon her. 

“He made me shine my school shoes with Daddy’s polish! He threw away the instant polish bottle! And he always makes me clean up the table after dinner. It’s a nightmare. He also doesn’t like it when I bounce the ball against the wall or when I bounce myself around the house.” She sighed, pointing to the basketball on which Ralph perched himself. 

Ralph, the youngest philosopher in the neighbourhood, thought about his friend's Colonel problem. “But, if he is not your family, why is he still staying with you? Doesn’t he have his own family to go to?” 

Alexandra, so caught up in her own misery, had never thought to ask these questions. Met with them now. She channelled her rage and frustration into a simple answer. “I don’t know. Maybe if he has a family, they don’t want him anymore?”

She did not have any grandfathers, and the thought now occurred to her that maybe Mommy and Daddy had passed them along to live with someone else. 

The two friends settled the matter and set about creating their expanded Jurassic World. Ralph was the proud owner and a remote control Jeep and a full range of dinosaurs to add. They sat oblivious to the sound of their voices travelling down the passage and into each of the rooms along the way. 

That night at the dinner table, Alexandra and her mother raised an important point of discussion. 

Her ninth birthday was mere weeks away, and they had yet to settle on a theme for the party, but Alexandra, with the help of Ralph, had finally chosen. Upon announcing the theme, she was ready to present the six ideas for food and games which were already racing around her head. She did not expect that she would have to defend her choice to her exasperated mother. 

“But that’s what I want, Mommy!” She even forgot to be wary of Colonel Pollock’s response, which would no doubt follow her arguments. 

“Can’t you think of something a little more, relaxed? Maybe even girly? I don’t think the twins will enjoy all the chaos and dinosaurs very much.” 

Alexandra desperately tried to hide the fact that she was rolling her eyes. Not even Daddy would stand for that. “But it’s not the twins' birthday. It’s mine.” She did not hate her twin cousins, but she couldn’t bear being compared to them, so she secretly enjoyed the idea that they would be uncomfortable with the theme and games she had planned out. 

Her father, sensing a battle he thought neither would survive, chimed in. “I think Jurassic World is a perfect theme, and we can make it so that everyone who comes has fun. Isn’t that the most important thing?” 

Mother and daughter could not see the fault in this logic and they agreed that the theme would be Jurassic, but not enough to terrify anyone. Alexandra breathed a sigh of relief. The Colonel had not sided with Mommy for a single moment. He had not even opened his mouth. 

A single incident in the lead up to the event interrupted their unity in the quest for a perfect Jurassic Party. It was so terrible it threatened to break the fragile peace between them. 

“But why can’t I just come with you?” Alexandra whined, aware that her voice would irritate even Daddy. But he was at work. 

“Because I said so for one, and second, the meeting will just bore you! There will be no-one for you to talk to and nothing to do. So you can just stay here with the Colonel and play with your own things.” 

“I don’t want to stay with him. He HATES me!”

“Oh, you are full of rubbish. You’re staying and that’s final. There’s lunch in the fridge and you know the rules. It’s just like having a sitter.” Her mother grabbed her handbag and rushed down the stairs, her word as final as the slamming of the car door. 

The door swung closed behind her mother, shutting out the natural light of the day. The entrance grew even darker as a shadow fell over her. Shivering, Alexandra turned slowly to meet her fate. 

He towered over her, eyebrows knight together so tightly the furrows in his forehead were trenches for battle. His mouth twitched, the straight line curving downwards at the corners. The shadows of the hallway blackened his eyes as he took a step forward. Alexandra shrunk into the door behind her, begging the coats waiting for winter to wrap her up and whisk her away to her own Narnia. 

“Get your shoes on, we’re going to catch the bus,” he growled at her, barely opening his mouth. 

Alexandra knew better than to refuse a command from a Colonel. He was not a man to ignore. She also knew he meant her school shoes, perfectly shined and ready for duty. Her fingers shook as she tried to do up the velcro straps. She pulled one side too tight, but ignored the discomfort. You do not make a Colonel wait. 

He was ready in his uniform, his missing arm less obvious in the sturdy jacket, and he held the door open for her as they left the house. She sat quietly in the seat on the bus and wondered where he was taking her. Probably to learn more about polishing shoes, or to get her a uniform to match them. 

“We get off here,” he said, nodding to a building outside the window. It was huge. It looked like one of the fancy buildings the president stood in front of when he gave his speeches. Daddy and the Colonel watched them sometimes. 

Alexandra flattened her hair. Maybe the Colonel was taking her to meet him. She would need to be on her best behaviour. No bouncing. 

The Colonel stood proudly in his uniform and looked up at the building. Alexandra watched his expression change the longer he stood there, but she did not recognise it on his face. It was the first time she saw it there. 

“Come on then girl, up the stairs with you.” He pointed to the door and waved her along. Alexandra forgot herself and took off up the stairs, her curiosity outweighing the lessons from the Colonel. Remembering herself, she slowed down and looked back, taking in the Colonel and the massive statue of the man on a horse she had rushed by. 

“Wait for me at the door,” was all he said. 

Without an order to slow down, she tore up the last three stairs and tried to see what was inside. Unable to work out where they were, she turned to the Colonel and waited. 

He led her through the doors, into a crowded room. Alexandra felt a buzz in the air and longed to see over the giants in front of her. She craned her neck and tried to push forward, but the Colonel grasped her by the shoulder. “Stay close to me, Alexandra. Here, take my hand.” He offered her his arm to hold. 

Surrounded as she was by strangers who towered over her, she grabbed his hand with her tiny palm and clung on. They moved forward together, and it surprised her how gently he guided her through the crowd. 

When at last they pushed through, Alexandra choked on the shriek that threatened to escape. She wanted to shout with joy, but she froze in place. Instead, it washed over her face as the Colonel looked down. The initial surprise gave way to pure, unbridled excitement. She forgot to be wary of the crowds and rushed forward, desperate to get as close as possible to the exhibit in front of her. 

Circling it slowly, she took in the aged bones each set in place to create the fearsome pose. Its mouth was open and pointing skywards - the creature frozen in a scream fearsome enough to make death itself cower. But it had not worked. The giant died, rotted and petrified. It was forgotten for millions of years until someone had found his pieces and put him back together for the sole purpose of Alexandra’s wonder. 

She returned to Colonel Pollock, who watched her with the same foreign expression on his face. “It’s a dinosaur!” she said, weaving her small fingers between his again. 

“Yes, your favourite type, isn’t it?” 

The tiny girl could not speak. She nodded and looked up at the Colonel, hoping her eyes said thank you enough. 

“Do you want to see more?” 

Finding her voice at last she begged for more, and as they walked towards the Hall of Dinosaurs she bubbled on about all the lizards, she hoped would be there. 

When both were exhausted from their exploration of not only the Great Lizards, but as much of the museum as they could cover, they sat on the bus, sharing a bag of gummy worms found in the museum souvenir store. 

Alexandra, no longer scared of the Colonel, asked a question that burned at her since Ralph first suggested it. “Do you have any children, Colonel Pollock?” 

“I have a son,” he replied, turning to face her as he spoke. “He was a very good friend of your father’s, you know?” 

Alexandra didn’t know. “Have I met him?” She had met many of Daddy’s friends, but she forgot many of them too. 

“He died before you were born.” 

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Alexandra knew that is what you are supposed to say when people had lost a family member. 

“What was his name?” She was curious about the son who was no longer alive, and she didn’t yet know that sometimes people did not like to talk about their missing loved ones. 

“His name was Alexander,” the Colonel said. He did not seem to mind answering her questions.

She giggled. “That’s almost like my name!” She liked the idea that they were the same. 

“So it is. So much like you!” 

The Colonel smiled down at her as he bit the head off his gummy worm.