Page 4 of Lethal Alpha
“Pterosaurs are the flying dinosaurs, right?”
I do remember some of what I learned as a kid, and with lots of siblings, you tend to learn about some things over and over again.But it’s been a long time since I last thought about dinosaurs.
“No.That’s what a lot of people think.But pterosaurs aren’t actually dinosaurs.”She grins as she slides into the chair on the other side of the table.
“They split off from the group of animals that would become dinosaurs before they became dinosaurs.But they did live at the same time.”She puts the tablet on the table, flashing me a toothy grin, showing off that one of her top front adult teeth is coming in.“I’m Lily.”
“I’m Vera.”
“I know.You’re Uncle Mathew’s Omega, it’s why he’s been so busy lately.”She doesn’t say it with anger or negativity, but like she’s stating a fact.“You’re very pretty.It makes sense that Uncle Mathew would like you.”
She taps on the tablet and then climbs on the table, sitting next to it so we can both see the screen.
I quickly close my laptop and put it aside, giving Lily all my attention.I already like this girl, she’s expressive and not afraid to say what she’s thinking.
“At school, this will be up on the big screen, not my tablet.But we don’t have a big screen here.”Her small fingers move over the tablet at a high speed and a presentation pops up, showing the image of a small flying creature and the word ‘Anurognathus’ under it.
“These are the a-nu-ro-gna-thus.”She keeps breaking the word up, like it’s the only way she can remember the name.“It’s a small pterosaur that lived during the late Jurassic.They’re really cute.”
She shows me another picture, one where it’s flying with its mouth open to catch what looks like a butterfly.
“Their bodies are really small, but if you measure from the end of one wing to the end of the other, that will be more than five times as long as their body.”
Her eyes go wide.“And they’re fluffy.They have a sort of early type of feathers all over them.I think they would be really fun to cuddle, if they lived now.”
She flips to another picture.“Oh, and do you know what their name means?”She beams at me, clearly very excited to have found an adult to share her interests with.
“I don’t know.What does it mean?”
“You have to guess!”She grins wide.
“Does it have to do with that they fly?”I have no frame of reference for what anurognathus could mean.
“Nope.”She moves to another picture.“It means frog mouth.Because they have such big mouths.”She pulls her cheek to the side with her empty hand, like she’s showing off how big their mouths are.
“That’s very cool.”I can definitely see why someone would name it for it’s very large mouth.It does indeed remind me of a frog, just a lot more hairy.
“I know, right?!”She slides closer to me, so I can see her tablet even better.“They did research and found that they eat insects by flying around with their mouth open.”She opens her mouth wide, moving her head like she’s trying to catch imaginary insects.
“It must be hard to see where they’re going when they do that, though.”She frowns slightly, thinking.
“Are there other prehistoric animals that you love?”
“So many!But I had to choose one for the presentation, I couldn’t do more than one.I wanted to do hal-lu-ci-ge-nia, which is from even longer ago, but Daddy Eli thought that could be too confusing…”
The laughter bubbling up inside me feels good.Lily is fun and bright and she seems very excited about her upcoming presentation.
“There you are!”Eli is standing in the doorway, drying his hands on a towel.“I was wondering where you were sneaking off to.”
Lily’s face falls and she takes her tablet, climbing off the table.“I wanted Dad Derrick or Dad Tim to look at my presentation.I didn’t mean to bother Aunty Vera.”
I quickly glance at Eli.“She was no bother.I liked learning about anu?—”
“A-nu-ro-gna-thus.”Lily helps out.
“Those small pterosaurs, yes.”I grin, and Lily beams that I remembered they’re pterosaurs and not dinosaurs.Then I look back at Eli.“I don’t mind keeping an eye on her for a while longer, if you’re busy.”
Eli smiles softly.“While I appreciate it, and I might take you up on it in the future, I’m actually here to tell you that lunch is ready.It’s waiting for you in Mathew’s office.”
