Ivy and Bean Break the Fossil Record (7 page)

“I think we better stop now. We’ve got to start putting them together,” Ivy said.

“Okay.” Bean’s arms were tired anyway. “We can always dig up more later.” There seemed to be no end to the bones in the ground. They had found four more since they had begun. The bone pile was getting high.

Both girls stared at it.

“Hmm,” said Ivy.

“Hmm,” said Bean.

“They never talk about this part in books,” said Ivy. “Should we lay them out and see what fits? That’s how you do puzzles.”

“Sure, okay,” said Bean. “There’s some clean grass over there.”

Lying out on the grass, the 21 bones didn’t look much like a dinosaur. It didn’t look much like anything.

“Maybe it’s just one part of a dinosaur,” said Bean.

“Or maybe it’s a small dinosaur,” said Ivy. “Remember, the small ones were more common.”

“Right.”

Ivy picked up the rounded piece that Bean had found the day before. “Let’s start with this. It’s a piece of skull.” She put it down on the ground, apart from the other bones. “So now we have to find a neck.”

Bean picked up the long, thick bone. “I bet this is a neck.”

Ivy tilted her head to one side as she looked at it. “I think you’re right.”

This was fun. “Oh, the neck bone’s connected to the shoulder bone,” sang Bean. Ivy put down a small bone that was almost the shape of a shoulder. “And the shoulder bone’s connected to the arm bone! There it is!” Ivy put down a narrow bone. “And the arm bone’s connected to the hand bone!”

“They didn’t have hands!” Ivy giggled. “How about the backbone?”

“Okay, the backbone.”

Ivy put down the first bone they had found. It flared out at one end. “That’s the hip,” said Ivy.

“Right,” said Bean. Then she sang, “The hip bone’s connected to the leg bone.”

Piece by piece, they made a dinosaur. It was a small dinosaur, and some parts of it were missing, but they would probably find those the next time they dug. When they had it all arranged, they stood back to look at it.

“Pretty good,” said Ivy.

“Don’t you think we should stick it together?”

“Yeah. I think they do it with wire in museums. Do you have any wire?”

“Wire? I don’t think so,” said Bean.

Ivy thought for a minute. “Just for now, we could use tape. We can take it off when we get some wire.”

“Tape. You got it.” Bean ran inside. “I think
it’s almost three-thirty,” she said when she came out. In-betweens were hard. She was only positive when it was exactly an o’clock.

“This won’t take long,” Ivy said, pulling out a long piece of tape. She wrapped it around the skull and connected the other end to the neck bone. She had to wrap it four times before it stuck. Bean began to work on the foot. It only had one foot.

They were working so hard that they didn’t see Nancy until she was standing right next to them. “That’s disgusting,” she said, staring at their dinosaur.

Bean jumped. For some reason, she didn’t want Nancy to know about the
dinosaur. “Go away!” she said.

“What
is
that?” Nancy asked.

Bean would never have answered in a million years, but Ivy didn’t know about sisters.

“It’s a dinosaur,” she said. “A
compsognathus
, I think.”

“A dinosaur?” Nancy began to laugh a high, mean laugh. “You think that’s a dinosaur?”

“Bug off, potato face!” yelled Bean. She was getting a bad feeling.

“It’s a dorkosaurus!” squealed Nancy. She held her stomach like it hurt from laughing. Bean glared at her. “You guys are total losers. A dog buried those. The people who lived here before us had a dog! Look—” she pointed at the neck bone—“That’s a steak bone!”

“Get out of here!” shouted Bean. She looked around wildly for something to throw at her.

“Don’t worry. I’m leaving,” said Nancy, smiling. “Wait till I tell Dad. He’s going to be mad that you dug up the yard.” She stood on the back porch and made an L-for-loser sign with her finger and thumb.

“Shut up!” screamed Bean. She looked over at Ivy. Ivy was just sitting in the dirt. Bean stared at the dinosaur. Dog bones? Is that why they were so easy to find? Bean felt heavy all of a sudden. She wasn’t the youngest paleontologist in the world any more. Mary Anning still had the record. And
Bean had nothing.

“Maybe she’s wrong,” said Ivy, finally.

“Maybe,” said Bean. Somehow, she didn’t feel very hopeful.

The back door opened, and Bean looked up, ready to shout at Nancy. But it wasn’t Nancy. It was her dad.

He came down the stairs slowly, looking at the hole and the dirt pile and the bones. Then he looked at Bean and Ivy, sitting quietly on the ground.

“Are you mad about the hole?” Bean asked.

“No. The hole’s fine,” he said. He squatted down next to her and looked at the dinosaur they had taped together.

“Nancy says they’re dog bones,” said Bean. He nodded.

“Are they?” asked Bean.

“I don’t know,” he said. “They might be.”

“Could they be dinosaur bones?” asked Ivy.

“I don’t think so,” he said slowly. “I’m pretty sure that if there were dinosaur bones here, they’d be buried deeper in the ground. I see that you worked really hard, though.”

“Yeah,” said Bean. She felt like crying.

There was a knock on the backyard gate.

“Who’s that?” asked Bean’s dad.

“Everybody,” said Ivy glumly.

“BEEE-EEEN! IIIII-VEEE!” squalled a voice. “Open the gate!”

I’m going to have to run away, thought Bean. She stood up, preparing for takeoff.

“Open up, you guys!” That was Leo. “I’m going to be late for practice!”

“I’m running away,” said Bean. “It was nice knowing you,” she said to her dad.

“Wait a second,” said Ivy. She looked at Bean’s dad. “You don’t know what these are the bones of, do you?”

“Nope. Can’t say I do,” he said.

“So you’re saying these bones are pretty mysterious, aren’t you?” asked Ivy.

“Sure. They’re pretty mysterious.”

“The most mysterious bones you’ve ever seen?”

He smiled. “You bet.”

Ivy nodded. “Good.”

“BEEEE-EEN!”

Ivy turned to Bean. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be okay.” She walked calmly toward the back gate and opened it.