John & Julia’s Impossible Days

The Case of the Missing Dinosaur

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A tiny mayor and waiting parade face Mabel’s conspicuously empty leading place while John and Julia volunteer as detectives.
The parade had flags, drums and a very small mayor. It did not have Mabel, the enormous green dinosaur who was supposed to lead it. “We need detectives.” “We have two.”
John dons a small brown detective hat while Julia crouches with her notebook beside a huge three-toed track containing three tiny webbed footprints.
John put on his detective hat. Julia opened her notebook. In the mud beside Mabel’s empty place, they found footprints bigger than dinner plates. “An enormous clue.” Julia crouched lower. Inside one print were three tiny webbed marks.
At the bakery the baker points toward the fountain, with an upstairs window and huge prints establishing how high Mabel’s head passed.
The prints led to the bakery. The baker pointed toward the fountain. “She went that way! Her head sailed right past my upstairs window.” “A flying dinosaur?” “Or a very tall one.”
The drummer points toward the bridge while Julia follows the muddy curve around the fountain and John compares both directions.
At the fountain, the drummer pointed the other way. “Mabel went toward the bridge. I saw her tail!” “Two directions. One dinosaur.” They walked around the fountain. The muddy prints curved all the way around it.
Beyond the fountain Julia spots one yellow feather on a thorn and a tiny webbed trail running beside Mabel’s giant tracks toward the bridge.
Beyond the fountain, the enormous prints continued toward the bridge. Beside them ran a trail of tiny ones. A downy yellow feather clung to a thorn. “Our dinosaur has company.”
Behind the bridge the apparently leafy hill resolves into Mabel; she inclines her face and gives a gentle shhh while the children lower their detective tools in recognition.
Behind the bridge stood a green, leafy hill that had not been there yesterday. John raised his magnifying glass. The hill blinked. “Mabel!” “Shhh. I’m being an umbrella.”
At belly height all six ducklings shelter beneath Mabel while she tries unsuccessfully to tuck her one long tail beside the arch she cannot fit through.
Six ducklings huddled beneath Mabel’s belly. She had followed them away from the parade. Now they wanted to go under the low stone arch. “I don’t fit.” She tried to tuck in her tail. The tail stuck out farther.
John and Julia follow the webbed trail along the dry path under the arch and find one adult mother duck calling beside the pond.
John and Julia could fit. They followed the little prints through the arch to the pond. On the far side, a mother duck hurried along the bank, calling. “We’ve found your missing six.”
The children lead the mother back; exactly six yellow ducklings emerge from under Mabel and hurry to her while Mabel stretches up and tips John’s hat back with the scale of her rise.
They led the mother duck back through the arch. Six yellow heads popped out from under Mabel. Six little bodies hurried after her. “Umbrella closed.” She stretched up so high that John’s hat tipped backward.
Back at the square Mabel leads the parade past both waving witnesses; one duckling steps across Julia’s closing notebook and leaves a single muddy print.
Mabel led them back past the bridge, around the fountain and past the bakery. Both witnesses waved. The drums began. “Case closed!” Julia shut her notebook. A duckling stepped across the cover and left one tiny muddy print. “Almost.”

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