#FlashFictionMagic: Good gracious, Cretaceous!

“Are you the new children’s librarian?”

Hannah looked up from her stack of picture books to face a short man with thick glasses wearing a gray uniform and a nametag that read: JOE, Library Security. She nodded. “That’s me. Just about to head in for dinosaur story time.”

Joe’s eyes widened. “Dinosaurs. Wow. The last librarian couldn’t even handle lions and tigers.”

Hannah laughed. “Well, dinosaurs are pretty easy.” She tapped her book stack. “Lots of good books, and I have a few songs to play on my ukulele.”

“They like ukulele music?”

“The kids at my last library did. I guess we’ll see.”

“Well,” Joe said. “If you need first aid, the kit is under the reference desk.” He eyed Hannah gravely. “I hope to see you on the other side.”

“Thanks,” Hannah said. “But don’t worry. It’s just story time.” Her predecessor may have been incompetent, but Hannah decidedly was not.

Confidently, she strode into the community room, strummed a chord on the ukulele, and sang out, “Good morning, everyone!”

The reaction from the audience was instantaneous.

Trundling forward, a baby triceratops hooked its front horn beneath her skirt and flipped Hannah head over heels to the floor.

Down from the ceiling swooped twin pterodactyls who nipped at her face and squawked.

As she got to her feet, the tail of an ankylosaurus swept against her shoes and knocked her down again.

Finally, with a crunch and a twang, Hannah’s ukulele disappeared between the jaws of a tiny T-rex.

Scrambling to stand up, Hannah hurled her books into the crowd of menacing dinosaur tots, flung open the door and fled from the room.

Adrenalin carried her through the library exit, and she screamed as she recalled the rundown of story times for the rest of the week, seeing them in a very new light: werewolves, sharks, vampires, zombies, bats, monsters, and ghosts.