Dinosaur Boy Saves Mars Read Online Free PDF Page B

to Saturn?” he inquired. He looked excited. And because I know him so well, I could practically see every Twilight Zone episode running through his brain at once. “Will we have to go into cryogenetic freeze? Will time go by faster on Earth so we can meet our great-great-grandkids when we get home? How do we go to the bathroom? Will we have to do exercises to counteract the effect that prolonged zero gravity has on muscles?”
    â€œWe should arrive in about eight minutes,” my grandfather told him gently. “So we probably don’t have to worry about, well, most of those things.”
    â€œOh,” said Elliot, looking deflated.
    â€œBut the bathroom’s just over there if you need it,” my grandfather added, pointing to the wall directly behind us. It looked like all of the other wood-paneled curves, except that it had a male-female sign on it, just like the ones on our bathrooms at school.
    â€œOh,” said Elliot.
    Looking massively disappointed by the normalcy of it all, he set off toward the bathroom door.
    â€¢ • •
    I was still not willing to try to cram my dinosaur butt into one of the chairs. So I sat back down at my spot on the floor by the window. Harriet was there too. And when she noticed me shifting around on the floor, trying to find a more comfortable position for my tail, she moved over a little bit, giving me room to spread out my four tennis-balled spikes.
    â€œThanks,” I said.
    She grunted. Earth was no longer visible in the window, but her eyes remained locked on the dark portal all the same. They looked sad again.
    â€œSo polar bears are going extinct?” I asked. Then I swallowed, worried that this wasn’t exactly light conversation.
    â€œApparently so,” she said with a sigh. “Our numbers have been dwindling for some time, along with the ice, so I can’t say that I’m shocked.”
    â€œHmmm,” I said thoughtfully, recalling the Amalgam Labs video I had been forced to watch in homeroom at the beginning of this year. How many dinosaur-human hybrids had Dr. Dana said there were? Several dozen? That wasn’t very many. I wondered if that meant I was endangered. Or possibly headed for extinction myself.
    â€œI’m sorry,” I told her, meaning it. “That totally stinks.”
    â€œYes, it does.”
    After a moment’s pause, the polar bear spoke again.
    â€œThank you for saying that. Most people… Well, let’s just say that most people don’t care about anything unless it’s personal to them. That’s the whole problem with being endangered, you see. No one takes it personally until it’s too late, and by then, there aren’t enough of us left to do anything about it.”
    â€œI can see the problem,” I muttered. “Um, can all polar bears talk?”
    I couldn’t resist asking, even though I suspected it might make Harriet mad. So I was relieved when she cocked her head to one side and gave me the nearest possible thing to a polar bear smile.
    â€œOf course we can, love. It’s just that we have so little to say to humans.”
    â€¢ • •
    A few minutes later, we landed on the roof of Noah Station 2 on Saturn.
    A shuttle was waiting to take Harriet and Roland to the northern part of the planet. Where, my grandfather said, the simulated Arctic Circle environment would be perfect for the bears.
    My grandfather went down the gangplank to talk to the shuttle pilot, while Harriet and Roland climbed lumberously to their feet and stretched.
    â€œGood-bye, dear,” Harriet said to me, and I thought she sounded a bit more cheerful than she had a few minutes ago.
    â€œGood-bye, Harriet,” I said, fighting a very strong urge to give her a hug.
    She and Roland were halfway down the ramp when Sylvie ran after them.
    â€œWait!” she called. As she ran, she dug one hand around in the front pocket of her sweatshirt. When her hand