One Big Wacky Family

by Jackie French

  Gunk breathed in deeply. What was he worried about? This wasn’t just a dinosaur! This was Spot! Spot would never do anything to hurt him!

  ‘Um, sit Spot, sit!’ ordered Gunk.

  ‘Spt?’ asked Spot.

  ‘Have you ever taught Spot to sit?’ inquired Pete helpfully.

  ‘No,’ admitted Gunk.

  ‘Then you’d either better learn what “sit” is in dinosaur or show her,’ suggested Pete.

  ‘Look, you do it like this,’ said Gunk, sitting on the grimy concrete footpath.

  ‘Spt?’ Spot slowly sank down beside him.

  ‘Good girl!’ cried Gunk. He scrambled to his feet then carefully placed his legs on either side of Spot’s great gorilla-haired body and sat down gently.

  For a horrible moment he thought he might be too heavy—maybe dinosaurs’ backs just weren’t as strong as horses’ backs! But Spot just curved her long neck around to look at him curiously, as though to say, ‘Hey, what game are we playing now?’

  Then slowly, very slowly, she got to her feet.

  ‘Erp,’ said Gunk, grasping the gorilla hair. A hunk of it came off in his hand. He clasped Spot’s great neck instead.

  Spot took two steps forward then bent down to Pete. ‘Spt?’ she asked.

  ‘I think she’s asking if I want to climb on too,’ said Pete shakily.

  Spot sank down beside her. Pete gingerly sat astride Spot’s back and held onto Gunk. Slowly, very slowly, Spot got to her feet.

  ‘Home, Spot!’ said Gunk shakily.

  ‘Spt,’ said Spot cheerfully and she began to trot along the footpath towards home.

  CHAPTER 22

  Danger

  ‘This is incredible!’ whispered Pete.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Gunk, as Spot bounced up and down beneath him. ‘I mean…wow!’

  ‘I’m riding a dinosaur!’ breathed Pete. ‘I’m the first person in the world to ride a dinosaur!’

  ‘Second person in the world,’ corrected Gunk.

  ‘The first girl then! This has to be the coolest thing in the universe!’

  ‘Spt,’ agreed Spot. She stopped for a second to grab a mouthful of pansies from a window box.

  They were back in town now, a dark silent town with pools of light under the street lamps. Far away an occasional car roared along the freeway, but here it was quiet.

  Not far now, thought Gunk tiredly. Wonderful as riding Spot was, his whole body was screaming with weariness. And, after all, they could ride Spot tomorrow night and the one after that. His eyes slowly closed as the rocking of Spot’s body lulled him to sleep.

  Gunk forced himself awake. This wouldn’t do! He’d fall off if he fell asleep! But maybe he could just shut his eyes for five seconds…just a little time…

  Spot trotted round a corner. Suddenly she stopped. ‘Spt?’ she inquired.

  Gunk opened his eyes. ‘What’s wrong?’ he cried softly. Then he saw it. A car, parked right by the bank, with its boot open. It must have broken down, he thought sleepily, then he jerked fully awake. What if the people in the car saw him and Pete riding Spot? No dog would be strong enough to carry two people! They should have tried to disguise Spot as a horse! He squinted in the lamplight to see who was in the car—and then he realised.

  Bank! Car! Two-thirty in the morning. The open boot! The car hadn’t broken down—these were bank robbers!

  ‘Gunk!’ hissed Pete behind him. She must have worked it out too, thought Gunk.

  ‘I know, I know,’ breathed Gunk. ‘Let’s get out of here. Back Spot! Back!’ he cried softly.

  ‘Spt?’ said Spot. She stepped up to the car and sniffed it curiously.

  Gunk tried to tug her neck around. ‘No! That way, Spot! That way!’ he pleaded.

  ‘Spt?’ Spot bent down to the open boot and grabbed a mouthful of something. She chewed it thoughtfully.

  ‘SSSSsssPppTTttt!’ Spot spat out a wad of soggy fifty-dollar notes.

  ‘Spot!’ cried Gunk. ‘Move!’

  ‘Spt?’ Spot turned round to look at him when…

  ‘Hey! What’s going on?’ Three men darted out of the bank, just as the alarms began to howl.

  ‘Run Spot!’ shrieked Pete, digging her knees into Spot’s hairy sides.

  ‘Hey, you kids, what do you think you’re doing?’ One of the men grabbed Gunk’s arm.

  ‘Spt?’ All at once Spot seemed to sense something was wrong. She leapt away from the car.

  ‘Ow!’ shouted Gunk, as he hit the ground and rolled against the car. He blinked up at the bank robbers.

  ‘The kid’s seen us!’ yelled one of them. ‘Grab him!’

  ‘Spt?’ Spot suddenly realised Gunk was no longer on her back. She halted at the corner and turned and lumbered back, just as the robber grabbed Gunk by the shirt and bundled him into the car.

  ‘Step on it!’ he yelled over the noise of the bank alarms, sliding into the back seat next to Gunk. ‘The kid’s a hostage!’

  ‘Meeaww, meeaww!’ Police sirens sounded in the distance. The car’s doors slammed. The engine roared. The tyres shrieked as the car sped away from the kerb.

  ‘They’ve got Gunk!’ screamed Pete.

  Spot didn’t hesitate. With one great bound she dashed after the car, her giant legs eating up the road like she was a racehorse, with Pete clinging desperately to her back.

  CHAPTER 23

  The Chase

  In the car Gunk gasped, as hard hands grasped his wrists and tied them together then tied his ankles too.

  The car swerved round a corner. Gunk craned his head around. Behind them, Spot galloped down the road towards the car, with Pete clinging frantically to the gorilla fur.

  ‘Go Spot, go!’ Pete shrieked. The wind grabbed her words and blew them faintly towards Gunk. Spot’s giant legs pounded even harder against the bitumen.

  ‘Help!’ yelled Gunk.

  ‘Shut up, kid,’ growled the bank robber. ‘Or we’ll shut you up!’

  Gunk gazed desperately through the back window. Were Pete and Spot getting closer? Surely even Spot couldn’t run as fast as that! The bank robber turned to look behind too. ‘Your little friend is trying to catch us.’ He snickered. ‘Some hopes.’

  He was right! thought Gunk dismally. Not even a dinosaur like Spot could catch a speeding car! If only another car would come to their rescue.

  Vroom!

  Gunk blinked. A car? No it wasn’t! A lone motorbike was heading towards them, an impressive figure in black on its back.

  ‘Help!’ screamed Gunk, hope rising within him. He tried to reach the window to scream again, but strong hands held him back. The motorbike passed the getaway car in a roar of exhaust fumes, then slowed down as it approached Spot and Pete, as though the rider couldn’t quite believe their eyes. Suddenly the bike made a U-turn and rode alongside the galloping dinosaur. The rider pushed up the visor on the helmet.

  It was Fliss! Gunk thrust himself over to the window again. This time he made it, as the robber, too, was craning round to see what was happening. Gunk stuck his head out of the window and strained to hear.

  The sound of Fliss’s yell came faintly over the noise of the engine. ‘Pete? What are you doing on Spot?’

  ‘It’s Gunk!’ screamed Pete, pointing frantically towards the getaway car. ‘Bank robbers have kidnapped him. He’s in that car!’

  ‘What? No shodding bank robbers are going to kidnap my baby brother!’ Fliss yelled so loud that the words came clearly to Gunk in the car. ‘I’ll go after them.’

  ‘No!’ shrieked Pete, her words almost lost in the wind. ‘Go back to the bank! The police will be there! Tell the police which way we’ve gone!’

  ‘But…’ began Fliss.

  ‘Please!’ hollered Pete frantically. ‘Someone has to get the police and Spot and I can’t!’

  Fliss seemed to consider as her bike rumbled next to Spot. Then she yelled, ‘Okay!’

  ‘Hurry Fliss!’ yelled Gunk, as Fliss’s bike made another U-turn and roared off back the way
they’d come.

  The bank robber pulled him back into the car. ‘I told you to shut your face!’ he snarled. He glanced back at Spot, then blinked. ‘What is that thing, anyway?’

  ‘That’s my dinosaur!’ said Gunk, ‘with my best friend riding her!’

  The bank robber shook Gunk roughly. ‘Don’t you joke with me kid,’ he ordered. ‘Dinosaurs!’ He glanced back again and frowned. ‘Whatever it is, it’s gaining on us! Better get a move on,’ he urged the driver.

  ‘We’re going as fast as we can!’

  ‘Well, go faster!’

  The car zoomed through the darkness, its headlights showing houses, gardens, then paddocks and long wire fences. Gunk glanced behind again. Spot was a dark blob in the deeper darkness, with Pete’s face a white blur above.

  ‘Hurry Spot! Hurry!’ breathed Gunk.

  Spot galloped into the night. There were no street lights now. Gunk wondered frantically how Spot could see where to go. But maybe dinosaurs had better night vision than humans, he thought, as Spot’s tread was fast and sure.

  Was Spot getting closer? Gunk was sure of it. But what would happen when they caught up? Suddenly Gunk was filled with terror for Spot—and Pete too. What if the robbers had a gun? Or if they tried to run Spot down? He should tell them to go back! It was too dangerous! They should wait and hope that the police could find them!

  Gunk wriggled over to the window again to yell out a warning, but the robber hauled him back. ‘One more peep out of you and you’ve had it,’ the robber warned. ‘Understand?’

  Gunk nodded. He glanced behind again, just as the robber turned too. ‘I don’t know what that thing is,’ muttered the robber, ‘but it’s fast! And if you tell me it’s a dinosaur again, I’ll lose my temper.’ He paused. ‘And you really don’t want me to lose my temper!’ he added.

  Closer…closer…If only Fliss would hurry with the police! thought Gunk despairingly. He strained his ears for the sirens, but all he could hear was the thud of Spot’s feet behind and the harsh beating of his own heart, as he waited helplessly for them to catch up.

  Nearer…nearer…Gunk could make out Spot’s face in the darkness now, her eyes wide and determined as she strained after the car. He could see Pete now too, pale and frightened as she held onto Spot’s neck.

  What if Pete fell off? thought Gunk. What if Spot tripped?

  ‘It’s nearly on us!’ yelled the robber in the back seat.

  Slowly, slowly Spot drew level with the car. Gunk bit his lip. What could a dinosaur and a girl do against a car load of bank robbers? They’d be hurt for sure! Maybe even killed!

  Suddenly Gunk didn’t care what the robber did to him! He thrust himself over to the window and leant out again. ‘Go back Spot! Go back!’ he yelled. ‘It’s not safe! They might hurt you!’

  ‘Spt,’ bellowed Spot.

  Gunk blinked. He had never heard Spot roar like that!

  Whump! Spot’s massive tail lashed against the back window. Glass shattered everywhere.

  ‘Help!’ shrieked the bank robber in the back seat, as the glass crumbled over him.

  Zap! Spot’s long neck snaked through the window, just missing Gunk by a few centimetres.

  Whump! In one swift move, Spot’s head yanked the back door open, then snaked back out of the window again.

  ‘Don’t let it get me!’ screamed the robber, but Spot wasn’t interested in the robber yet. She gave another giant surge and came level with the car again. This time her head zapped through the open door. Spot’s giant mouth opened and she plucked Gunk from the back seat.

  ‘Spot!’ cried Gunk, as Spot’s big teeth gripped him by his shirt collar and he swung back and forth above the road.

  One final surge and Spot was in front of the car now. Her tail heaved again. Whump! The car swung wildly as Spot’s tail hit it. The tyres screeched on the bitumen. Suddenly the car swerved off the road and down into the ditch on the other side, its front stuck in the long dry grass, its back tyres still spinning madly above.

  Mee-awww, meee-awwwwww.

  All at once Gunk realised he’d been hearing the siren behind them for the last two minutes.

  ‘Stop Spot! Stop!’ he yelled.

  Spot stopped.

  Pete nearly catapulted over Spot’s head, then recovered and slid off Spot’s back, just as Spot put Gunk down gently on the road.

  ‘Gunk!’ shouted Pete. ‘Are you okay?’ She reached for the rope around Gunk’s wrists. Her hands were trembling so much they could hardly undo the knot.

  Behind them yellow and blue lights flared in the darkness. Cars screeched to a stop, and they could hear the rumble of Fliss’s motorbike in the distance.

  Gunk blinked in the confusion of lights. ‘Spot!’ he gasped. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘S..huh..huh..pt,’ panted Spot. She held up one foot and then another, as though they hurt. Pete fumbled the final knot around Gunk’s ankles free and staggered round to check Spot’s tail. It was scratched and bleeding. Pete touched it gently and Spot winced.

  Gunk grabbed Spot’s neck and hugged her hard. ‘You…you hero Spot!’ he choked.

  ‘Heroine,’ said Pete. Tears were rolling down her face.

  ‘Heroine then,’ said Gunk. ‘Oh, Spot!’

  CHAPTER 24

  Discovery

  Suddenly Gunk realised there were cars all around them—not just the robbers’ upturned getaway car, but the police’s and other cars too.

  Reporters! Gunk realised. They’d followed the police siren!

  ‘Quick!’ he hissed to Pete. ‘Turn on the woof machine! We have to keep Spot disguised!’

  Pete reached into her pocket. ‘Arf, arf, arf, arf, arf!’

  ‘Spt?’ said Spot.

  ‘Shh,’ said Gunk urgently. ‘We have to make everyone think you’re a dog!’ He gazed at Spot in the light from the police car. Would anyone really believe a dog had saved a kidnapped kid and captured a carload of bank robbers? Spot didn’t even look like a dog any more! Her ears had been dislodged in the chase and hung drunkenly halfway down her neck. Most of the gorilla fur had come off too. And the woof machine sounded more like a case of hiccups than a proper bark.

  Maybe they could take Spot and run into the darkness while the police and reporters were still concentrating on the robbers…

  ‘I’ve got an idea!’ whispered Pete. ‘Why don’t we…’

  Too late! Suddenly a light flashed round them.

  ‘What a monster!’ cried someone. ‘Is that what overturned the car! Is it a dog? I’ve never seen a dog that big!’

  ‘No dog ever looked like that!’ said another voice.

  Gunk looked up at the TV camera just as Spot stretched her neck up curiously.

  ‘Oh, my goodness.’ The voice was quiet with shock. ‘That’s not a dog at all! It’s a…a dinosaur! A blinking dinosaur!’

  ‘It can’t be,’ said the other voice. ‘Dinosaurs are extinct!’

  ‘It is! I’ve seen dinosaurs just like it on TV! Look at that neck! That tail! Wait till we get this back to the TV station! We’ve got shots of a dinosaur!’

  ‘Spt?’ said Spot, ignoring the reporter and checking Gunk all over to make sure he was okay.

  ‘No!’ yelled Gunk. He tried to push Spot back into the darkness. ‘You can’t film Spot!’

  The camera came closer, with the cameraman behind it and the reporter too. ‘Look kid,’ she said, ‘this is the scoop of a lifetime! A dinosaur capturing bank robbers and rescuing a kidnapped kid! A dinosaur to the rescue! A…a Supersaurus! That’s what we’ll call it! Supersaurus to the rescue!’

  ‘No!’ cried Gunk again.

  CHAPTER 25

  The End

  ‘You can’t show that film on TV!’ pleaded Gunk. ‘They’ll take Spot away from me! Stop! You can’t come any closer!’

  The cameraman swung his camera towards Gunk, then back to Spot.

  ‘Spt!’ said Spot quietly. She lifted up her massive tail.

  ‘Oh.’ The camera stopped
swinging. The cameraman stepped back. The reporter stepped back too, just as Fliss’s motorbike roared to a halt.

  ‘Baby brother! Are you okay?’

  The reporter turned to Fliss. ‘Hey, are you this kid’s sister?’ she demanded. ‘Where did he get the dinosaur?’

  ‘Dinosaur!’ Fliss sounded stunned. She peered through the darkness at Spot. ‘What dinosaur? Have you got maggots for brains? That’s just Spot! She’s my baby brother’s do…’ Fliss stopped and gazed at Spot. ‘She is, isn’t she?’ she breathed. ‘Spot’s a blinking dinosaur!’

  ‘Now everyone knows!’ wailed Gunk. ‘And we tried so hard!’

  Suddenly Pete began to laugh.

  Gunk turned on her angrily. ‘What’s so funny!’ he raged. ‘You and your great ideas! If we’d never taken Spot for a walk, no one would have discovered her and…’

  ‘Don’t you see?’ choked Pete, leaning against a fence post and trying to catch her breath.

  ‘See what?’ demanded Gunk.

  ‘Fliss!’ called Pete. ‘Try to take Spot away from Gunk!’

  ‘Why?’ demanded Fliss.

  ‘Please! Just try it!’

  ‘Well, okay,’ said Fliss. Behind her the police bundled the last of the robbers into the police car. One of the policemen looked over at the kids and headed over. Fliss reached down for Spot’s lead, frayed and filthy now from trailing on the road.

  ‘Spt,’ said Spot quietly, but very, very firmly.

  Fliss tugged on the lead. ‘Come on, Spot,’ she said. ‘Move your bum.’

  Spot stared at Fliss. She lifted up her tail and…

  Fliss dropped the lead. ‘Ulp,’ she said.

  Gunk blinked. He’d never seen Fliss scared before. But then Fliss had never faced an angry dinosaur.

  ‘Don’t you see?’ yelled Pete triumphantly. ‘No one can take Spot away from you! Or you away from Spot! She won’t let them!’