Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend
Page 28
“Really?” Shiels said.
“Never seen anything like it! Completely forgot my phone had a camera! Not that I know how to use it. The grandkids are gonna laugh!”
He was tall, snowy-haired. He had a kind grin, some of his teeth. Something about his bearing reminded her of Linton.
“Sometimes strange things happen,” Shiels said.
“Need a lift somewhere? I’m just about to give this rig another try. Think I can make it back to Duggan.” He lowered the bashed hood, fastened it somewhat closed with a bungee cord.
Where the hell was Duggan? It didn’t matter. The guy climbed into his truck, and she stood with her hands on her hips breathing, looking at everything: morning dawning on the hills, a frozen river so white it almost hurt to take it in. He tried the engine. It shrieked, coughed, then turned over and started to purr. Then he threw it into reverse and she jumped out of the way as he wrangled the wreck back onto the road.
“Get in!” he cried, and the mangled passenger-side door swung open all on its own. She climbed up. The seat belt didn’t work. She had to hold the door closed. The cold wind blew in through a dozen cracks and gaps.
“I swear one of those crows,” the driver said, “had a beak this big!” He abandoned the steering wheel for a moment, stretched his arms as far as they could go. “No one’s going to believe me. And I don’t know how the bloody moose survived impact and walked into the bush. But I sure couldn’t find him in the morning. No tracks—gone without a trace! How’d you get here, anyway?”
He had an easy smile, as if used to a gobsmacking world, to telling stories wide and wider.
“I guess I just flew in,” she said. “How far to Duggan?”
The drafts were cold, but her body was warm still, her heart full to swelling.
“Not more’n twenty miles. You runnin’ the whole way? You some elite athlete or something? Should I know who you are?”
Bump, bump—the truck rattled like it might come apart any moment, but kept on rolling.
“Shiels Krane,” she said, and felt herself smiling from the roots of her hair to the arching soles of her yellow shoes.
Author’s Note
First of all, my deep thanks to Libba Bray, whose January 2012 lecture at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, in which she briefly mentioned the fascinating nature of the pterodactyl boyfriend experience, set me on the path of the current study. Her throwaway remark lit up a constellation of thoughts and considerations within me. When I told her of my burgeoning interest, she immediately gave me her blessing. Libba—I did go for it, as you can see. Many thanks!
Due to the sensitive nature of my research, few of my study subjects agreed to speak on the record, so I am presenting this work in its entirety as a “fiction.” The characters and events described are not true to life; locations have been obscured, and all names have been changed. The one notable exception, of course, is Professor Lorraine Miens, who declined to be interviewed, citing privacy issues concerning a current student. Her works are well-known and speak for themselves.
Heartfelt thanks to several funding bodies that made the investigation and completion of this work possible: the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Ottawa Arts Funding Program, and the Berton House writer’s residency program in Dawson City, Yukon, sponsored by the Writers’ Trust of Canada, with additional help from the Dawson City Community Library board and the Klondike Visitors Association. Truly, this financial backing and artistic encouragement have been invaluable over the years it has taken to complete the effort.
I also write with the love and support of an extraordinary family. Without my brother Richard’s example and enthusiasm, I would never have pursued writing as a lifelong vocation. My daughters, Gwen and Anna, brother Steve, niece Ashleigh Elson, and sister-in-law Wendy Evans all read early drafts and helped shape the work, as did dear friends Helena Spector, Kate Preston, and Kathy Bergquist. My mother, Suzanne Cumyn, has always read my initial efforts with loving interest and in this case was especially encouraging in her enthusiasm for my ongoing pterodactyl studies. My wife, Suzanne Evans, tenaciously helped me sort through a number of difficult sections with her usual unerring instinct and iron determination. Many thanks as well to my agent, Ellen Levine, for championing this work from the moment she saw it, and to my editor, Caitlyn Dlouhy, whose passion, patience, skills, and insight were invaluable throughout, especially considering the wildness of the undertaking.
Finally, a note of gratitude to paleontologist Mark P. Witton for his scholarly yet accessible work Pterosaurs, and to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City for their enlightening exhibit Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs, both of which were invaluable in helping me access my own inner pterodactyl.
Any inaccuracies in the physiology or psychology of teenage pterodactyl behavior, and all other deficiencies in the work, remain, of course, my responsibility.
Alan Cumyn
Ottawa, April 2015
ALAN CUMYN is the author of twelve wide-ranging and often wildly different novels. A two-time winner of the Ottawa Book Award, he has also had work shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Giller Prize, and the Trillium Book Award. He teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a past chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada. He lives in Ontario, Canada, where he went to high school in the age of the dinosaurs.
A Caitlyn Dlouhy Book
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ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS • An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division • 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 • www.SimonandSchuster.com • This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. • Text copyright © 2016 by Alan Cumyn • All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. • ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. • Atheneum logo is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. • For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com. • The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com. • The text for this book is set in Electra LT Std. • Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data • Names: Cumyn, Alan. • Title: Hot pterodactyl boyfriend / Alan Cumyn. • Description: New York : Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2016. • Summary: Everything changes for a teenaged girl with a perfectly controlled life when she falls for the hot new first-ever interspecies transfer student, a pterodactyl named Pyke. • Identifiers: LCCN 2015033460 • ISBN 978-1-4814-3980-0 (hc) • ISBN 978-1-4814-3982-4 (eBook) • Subjects: | CYAC: Pterodactyls—Fiction. | Dinosaurs—Fiction. | Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. | Self-perception—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Dating & Sex. | JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / New Experience. | JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / Dinosaurs & Prehistoric
Creatures. • Classification: LCC PZ7.C9157 Ho 2016Se 2002 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at lccn.loc.gov/2015033460