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A Day in '93 (Part 1)
By Vader
Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Jurassic Park
“Stare off, and your mind presses the nostalgia button, and the past is here again . . . and you remember a young boy’s heart. That’s what this is about: taking you to magical places and holding hands with the past.”
-Dave Holland
Author of From Out of the Past: A History of the Lone Ranger
~
PART 1
Friday
June 11th
1993
The subdued, light blue glow of the sun, just about to rise into sky, lit the room. Every object – toys, games, posters, pictures - that had been invisible through the night were now shaded in an early morning tint. All of them were still, the lifeless expressions on their faces staring at each other, as if waiting expectantly for something.
Across the room, a small figure, curled up under his covers that rose and fell with each breath, began to stir. His eyes fluttered open, catching a glimpse of the new day arising outside through the nearby window pane. Little Paul was immediately wide awake, as he was every morning when emerging from sleep – much unlike his mom and dad, who always seemed to futz around the house forever with their eyes barely hanging open until they could get a cup of coffee. What was in that coffee that made them so alert anyway? Fairy dust?
The child allowed for a quick yawn before rolling over and leaping out of his bed, landing on the wooden floor on his feet. Scratching his pajamas in the chest area, he skipped over to the corner to look at the clock. His father had instructed him about how to tell time yesterday, but after a full night of dreaming, he could hardly remember it. The small hand stood for one thing, the large hand stood for another . . . that’s all he could recall. Oh well, who cared what the time was anyway? All he knew was that his parents weren’t up yet, which only meant he had some extra time to play before getting ready for school.
He jumped back over to his bed, leaning down and lifting the hanging covers off of the floor and back onto the top of the mattress. His chubby little hand reached into the huge black vortex that filled the underneath side of his bed, looking to grasp a plastic bin. His older brother always warned him about not reaching in too far, or else you’d sucked into a black hole and abducted by deep space aliens. Then Dad would always slap him in the back of the head afterwards. “Maybe Dad was just didn’t want me to be afraid,” Paul thought. “But that’s okay. I’m not scared of being sucked in. I never reach in that far anyway.”
Finally, the boy’s stout fingers located what he was searching for, and drew it out. In front of him was a treasure trove, a mountain of dinosaurs of all kinds and colors. With an excited grin on his face, Paul dug into the bin and drew out his favorite ones – a dark green T-Rex and a red Triceratops. Those blank and empty eyes had life breathed into them by the imagination and heart of the little boy – for even though he knew they weren’t real dinosaurs, when he picked them up and began to play with them, they were alive. In a split second, he was transported from the center of his room into the middle of the prehistoric ages, deep in a misty jungle, as an audience to an awesome battle between giant creatures!
The T-Rex roared with all his might, and lumbered towards the Triceratops, who protected herself with her huge, sharp horns. Both of them circled each other, anxious to continue the fight. The T-Rex growled again, his mouth watering for a piece of Triceratops meat. Then, just as they were about to run towards each other to decide the winner . . .
“Honey, you’re awake!” came a quiet voice from high above. His attention to the show-down was suddenly jolted away, as he swung his head straight up to see the towering body of his mother looking down on him with a smile. “I came in to wake you up, but I see you’re ready to start your day.” She bent down, drawing closer and closer to his level, and stopped once she could look at her son without staring downward. “Sleep good?” Paul shook his head up and down, smiling and kissing her on the cheek. Mom grinned wide, showing her big, teeth, returning the gesture. “I love you,” she tenderly whispered, afterwards rubbing his back. “We’ve got to go to the store before school, honey. Better get dressed.”
“Aw! Can’t I just finish playing?” the six-year old moaned, tilting his head to side, his pupils following her as she rose back to her full height.
“You can finish later. We’ve got to hurry, come on,” Mom replied, turning and leaving to get dressed in her normal clothes. Although disappointed, Paul did what he was told anyway, knowing what it would mean if he didn’t. With a small grunt, he turned and put his dinosaurs away, then shuffling his feet as he went across the room to his closet. Holding the massive doorknob and turning it, he opened up to his collection of play clothes, reaching in for a pair of overalls.
By the time he got them on, his mother had come back to check on him already, slightly peeved he wasn’t done yet. She leaned over to help put on and tie his R2-D2 shoes, then escorting him out of the house and into the frosty nip of foggy air. After the van door was opened for him, Paul climbed into his booster seat, managing to strap himself in all by himself.
In no time, they were on the road to the grocery store. Like every morning, Mr. Lacy was out watering his garden, Smokey the Cat was prowling through the bushes in between Lucy and Rodger’s houses, and Adam (who always wore sunglasses when the sun wasn’t even out) was out putting his surf board into his big, big truck. As Mom turned the van around the corner, the Food Basket store came into view. Once they were parked, Paul unbuckled and hopped out of his seat to join his mother in the parking lot. Her gentle hands reached down to pick him up by the waist and lift him into the front seat of a grocery cart. “Ooh,” she heaved, as Paul’s legs went through the slots in the cart, positioning him in the proper place, “You’re getting heavy. Pretty soon you’ll be too big for this seat.”
“Really?” he inquired with big eyes. “But, I always have sit here.”
“I know, but you’re growing up,” Mom replied while searching for her list of things to pick up inside the store.
“Already?!”
“Well, everyone does, sweetie,” she smiled, patting him on the shoulder. Even thought she couldn’t see it, for some reason, whenever Paul heard the word “grow-up”, it made him feel . . . weird, like it was something to be afraid of. His mind didn’t fixate on it for too long however, for he was soon distracted by the blow of the fan from above as they walked through the automatic doors and into the fruit and vegetable section of the store.
“What’s that for?” he pointed to it.
“I don’t know,” Mom replied. “Well, If she doesn’t know, I guess nobody does,” he thought. With a sigh, he turned his head to look over everything in the store, beginning with the cookies and ending with the books. And then . . .
“Wow!” Paul gasped, leaning sideways, his eyes glued to an object across the way.
“What is it?” Mom asked, turning her head around.
“Look at that!” the boy’s jaw dropped, reaching out as far as he possibly could to get to it. His fingers twisted back and forth, trying with all their might to even touch an edge of the object, but to no avail. The super-long arm of his parent grabbed it for him and handed it to him – a giant coloring book with a real, live T-Rex on the cover! It stared at Paul, its gleaming yellow eyes fierce, its massive teeth showing with its maw open wide.
“A real T-Rex!” the child shouted. This was by far the most incredible thing he’d every seen. “Look at it, Mommy!”
“Shh, shh,” she tried to make him be a little more quiet. “I see it, sweetie, but you know it isn’t real,” she told him.
“It has to be! Just . . . just . . . just look at it!” came another exclamation.
“No, this is from a movie, baby.”
“A movie?! They have a movie with this in it?!” he said louder than ever before. The young dinosaur fan was so ecstatic, his mother could barely calm him. He looked back at the book, almost hearing the roar of the animal in the back of his head as he did so. Now that he’d gotten a good look at the picture, he noticed something else at the top of the cover – a yellow circle with dinosaur bones on it, and then a bunch of letters in the middle.
“What does this say?” he asked Mom, underlining the words with his index finger.
“It says ‘Jurassic Park.””
Paul continued, “Is that the movie?”
“Yup. But I don’t think you can see it – it might be scary.” He always got annoyed whenever grown-ups told him that about movies, but he wasn’t going to complain then.
“Can I at least get this book, please?” he pleaded, shoving it forward. When seeing her hesitation, he repeated, “Please, please, please?” Mom examined the insides for seconds that seemed like hours to Paul, and then finally gave it back.
“Well, I don’t think you have another coloring book at home so . . . okay.” The response was such a burst of happiness that Paul had to be reminded to be more quiet. Even though he would do his best, he could barely contain himself. As he flipped through the many pages, filled with pictures of dinosaurs, he was instantly put under a spell. Wonderful images of cars driving by long-necked dinosaurs, kids running past Triceratops, and helicopters escaping T-Rexes bewildered him. There had to be a way for him to see “Jurassic Park”, there just had to . . .
To Be Continued in PART 2
6/11/2003 8:17:56 PM
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