They were all clumsier, stumbling and dropping things. Even the bird stared with dull eyes and wobbled on her perch, nearly falling off.
On the fifth day of this sleepiness Willa felt a need for some fresh air to clear her head and ventured out into the backyard jungle. She had waited until she saw the Hacketts leave in their car. She wanted to be alone and not have to chit-chat with those two. Keeping in mind the overgrown pool Tengu said was back there, she proceeded very cautiously, probing the tangled weeds ahead of her with a long stick. The air was thick and muggy, and her hair started to stick to her forehead and the back of her neck.
She soon reached the clearing. It was low-lying and rather soggy underfoot, so she was glad to spot a large, sloping grey stone emerging from the damp moss. She clambered up on it and sat down to think. She was worried. Why were they all so tired? It didn’t seem normal. Was a magic spell causing it? Was this being done by the enemies Horace had spoken about? Willa wished Miss Trang would get back soon. She’d know what to do.
Willa yawned. She lay back on the rock and yawned again, the kind of yawn that makes you wonder if it’s ever going to end. And when it finally did end she heard someone yawn back. Or rather she felt it. The yawn surrounded her and vibrated through her body, a yawn so big and deep that she sat up in alarm. The rock beneath her was shifting.
An earthquake! she thought, and scrambled off, but the ground was still. She poked the rock with her stick and it shuddered.
Her heart beat wildly. The yard was silent, still. She wanted to run into the house and call the others, but ... she couldn’t help herself. She inched forward through the thick brush, uncovering more of the rock — or whatever it was — and repeatedly poking it with the stick. Each time she did it twitched and rippled a little, like a muscle flexing. When she found the edge of the thing, she proceeded around its perimeter, which turned out to be a perfect, straight-edged rectangle. It was the pool. But a pool should be a hole in the ground, and this was a mound, a perfectly rectangular mound. It took Willa’s weary brain a moment or two to come up with the answer. The pool was filled with something large, grey, and leathery. Something that yawned and moved. It was time to get the others.
They gathered around the thing, wrinkling their noses against the stench of the brackish water. Flies buzzed around them and the air was strangely still. To her surprise, nobody else knew anything about it, or had any guess as to what it could be. They gathered around while Tengu and Horace cut back the foliage. Even so, it was hard to make out any details. The thing had creases that contained slimy green water, and folds craggy with moss, but most of its bulk was smooth and grey. Horace pointed out what looked to be a long neck folded alongside the body, and to where the head probably was, tucked out of sight. They tentatively ran their hands over the “skin.” It was smoother than stone, almost leathery. Was it a kind of huge snake? A lizard? A smooth-skinned crocodile? Whatever it was, it had taken refuge in the water of the pool, and it had been there a long, long time.
“So it came here before any of you did. How long have you all been here?” asked Willa. They pondered this question, brows furrowed.
Horace waved vaguely. “It’s rather hard to say. I’m never sure about how fast time is passing here....”
Willa was confused. “Well who’s been here the longest?”
Belle shook her head. “Not me. I arrived last. I’m ...” and here she started to cackle, “... the baby of the group.”
Horace spoke again, looking pained. “I can’t remember for sure, but I might have been the first, although I remember Miss Trang from those days.”
Willa was getting impatient. “What days? How long ago?”
Horace shrugged. “It could be decades. Or centuries. Or millennia. I’m sorry, but they all feel the same to me.” He gestured to the house. “Places like this ... Where we come from time moves differently. When we retired the only way we could live in your ... time ... was to come to a safehouse with a special time-regulating dispensation....”
Willa gave up trying to understand. Horace was being strangely unhelpful, going on and not making sense when they had this ... this thing in front of them. This monstrous thing.
“So what is it? Is it dangerous? Should we get it out of there?” Willa asked. No one had an answer.
A sudden loud screech echoed around the yard, making them jump. It was Fadiyah, up above them in her cage. Willa had put the bird out on a third floor balcony so she could get some air. She’d never heard Fadi make a sound like this before. Everyone stared up as Fadi screamed, each squawk increasing in pitch, volume, and intensity until they had to turn away and hold their ears. Willa thanked her lucky stars that the Hacketts weren’t home. They would not like this racket one bit.
It felt like the sound was drilling right into Willa’s brain. She pressed her palms hard into her ears and dropped to her knees. When she thought she couldn’t take another moment, the earth rumbled and the bird went quiet. The shape in the pool writhed. Willa stumbled back, grabbing at Belle’s wheelchair and yanking her back too.
The grey beast shifted from side to side, the concrete of the pool popping and cracking, then it slowly lifted its long neck, raising its head from the muck. It had a lizard-like face, a wide mouth and huge, moist eyes with long lashes. Its grey skin lay in folds like an elephant’s, but it certainly wasn’t an elephant. Willa felt a wild, insane excitement, and actually laughed out loud. Just when she thought this place couldn’t get any weirder, there turned out to be a dinosaur in the swimming pool.
Chapter Nine
Wearier and wearier, Willa solves a mystery
As they stared at it in shock, the dinosaur swung its drooping head back and forth, taking in the entire scene with sleepy eyes. It didn’t seem dangerous. Willa devoutly hoped it was a herbivore. Then the beast spotted the bird up on the balcony and slowly lifted its head, coughing wheezily. When it finally reached the third floor, the dinosaur squinted briefly at the bird. Then its eyes rolled back in its head and it flopped to the ground with a terrific crash.
Willa stared in shock. Had the only dinosaur alive in the whole world just died in front of her? They approached cautiously. Horace gingerly put a hand on its neck and announced it still had a pulse. He guessed it had simply fainted.
Willa’s next big problem was how to keep a full-sized dinosaur out of sight of the neighbours. The bushes provided only partial cover, so Willa dashed to the hardware store for enormous blue tarps and several long poles. Tengu helped her fashion a large tent over the pool, and they worked quickly in the heat and humidity while Horace sat and watched.
The dinosaur came to as they worked and watched them calmly. Its long lashes convinced Willa it was a she, and she began calling her Dinah. Willa was concerned about Dinah’s health, since she didn’t seem to be able to climb out of the pool. Horace speculated she’d been immobile in the pool for a good long while and this had probably caused her legs to weaken. Willa asked how she could have got there, and where was she before, and how old was she anyway? At this Horace got all vague again, talking about different kinds of time and something called a time talisman, and “rips in the fabric of time,” until Willa simply gave up asking questions.
However Dinah had gotten in the pool, she’d been there a while, and Horace maintained that her legs may have become “vestigial,” or permanently useless. Willa hoped not. She hoped beyond hope that she could see Dinah walking around like she would have done millions of years ago. But they’d have to work up to that and allow her to regain her strength. She did not look at all well at the moment, sniffling and wheezing, but hopefully time and rest would put her right.
Luckily they got the tent up before the Hacketts returned home late that afternoon. It blocked the entire pool area from their view, though it wasn’t tall enough to cover Dinah if she was ever able to stand up. Predictably, Mr. Hackett appeared on his back step, squinting over at the tent and shaking his head in irritation. And Mrs. Hackett squawked out the kitchen window that the thing was a “terrible eyesore,” but Willa knew there was nothing much they could do about it.