Vagabond: Dinosaur Edition: Vagabond, #3

By Charles Eugene Anderson, Denise E Dora, Jamie Ferguson and 4 more

Dinosaurs? Back and badder than ever in Vagabond's Jurassic rampage. Seven scorching stories, one extinct-proof promise: they're here to stay.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mad Cow Press
• Release date: Jan 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224230297

Charles Eugene Anderson

Charles Eugene Anderson lives in Colorado. Chuck is a former teacher. He now spends his time writing, hanging out with his pup, Champ, and learning how to bake. More about Chuck at http://charleseugeneanderson.com

Book preview

Vagabond 003

Vagabond 003

Dinosaur Edition

Charles Eugene Anderson Wayne Faust Rebecca Hodgkins Jamie Ferguson Mario Acevedo Denise E Dora Lucy Taylor

Edited by

Jim LeMay

Mad Cow Press

Copyright © 2019 by Charles Anderson Books LLC. All rights reserved by the authors and publisher.

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Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. 

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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Ford T-Rex vs Dodge Triceratops By Charles Eugene Anderson, 2018

Outside the Box by Wayne Faust, 2018.

13 Ways of Looking at a Dinosaur by Rebecca Hodgkins, 2018.

Damn Dinosaurs by Denise E Dora, 2018.

The Other Side of the Portal by Jamie Ferguson, 2018.

Flawless by Mario Acevedo, 2018.

The Other Side of the Portal by Jamie Ferguson, 2018.

The Place Where Camels Fear to Go by Lucy Taylor, 2018.

Contents

Foreword

Ford T-Rex vs Dodge Triceratops

Outside the Box

13 Ways of Looking at a Dinosaur

Damn Dinosaurs

The Other Side of the Portal

Flawless

The Place Where Camels Fear to Go

Our Vagabonds

Charles Anderson Books LLC

Don’t Miss Our Next Issue

Foreword

Setting: A Small Secret Brew Pub local high up in the Colorado Rockies

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Jim: (Looking at Chuck) That’s going to hurt. What are you doing to your laptop and your head?

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Chuck: I‘m done. I just can’t write another introduction. I am blocked. I have nothing new to say.

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Jim: Maybe you could talk about our trip to Boston this summer, and how we saw three houses John Adams lived in before and after he became President?

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Chuck: Nobody will care about that. (He takes another whack.)

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Waitress: Sir, you have reached your limit. I’m cutting you off and if you keep hitting your head I’m going to have to ask you to leave.

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Chuck: (Ignoring her.) I just want to make them laugh, but writing humor is so difficult.

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Jim: Maybe you could tell them about all the great seafood we ate at the Legal Seafood Company?

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Chuck: There’s no way to describe it. I’ll fail. Vagabond 3 will never have an introduction.

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Jim: (to the waitress) He’ll be okay. You just don’t understand the pain of his art.

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Waitress: And you don’t understand the pain in my feet after I have serving beer all day.

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Jim: Touché…while you’re here, could you bring me another? Maybe a stout this time?

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Waitress: (Sighs and leaves)

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Chuck: Vagabond 3 has such great stories in it. A dinosaurs issue. How can I ever do it justice?

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Jim: She’s not going to come back is she? It’s probably for the best.

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Chuck: No, I think we’re finished here.

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Jim: At least we would’ve had another great edition, but it still needs an introduction

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Chuck: I’m sorry. I have writers block. I don’t know what to write.

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Jim: And I’m out of beer and it’s your fault.

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Chuck: See, the world is a truly cruel place. Just as cruel as the extinction of the dinosaurs all those millions of years ago.

Ford T-Rex vs Dodge Triceratops

Charles Eugene Anderson

The T-Rex could have easily bit the head off the lady wearing the Jackie Kennedy sunglasses at the drag strip in Florida. The same woman taking her and Constance’s picture with her Kodak camera. The bulb flashed and the woman pulled out the hot element. She quickly put in another flash-bulb for her next keepsake memory. She didn’t know how close to death she stood, but Constance knew. Constance knew how dangerous the tyrannosaurus were because she rode one every night.

Eliza, the T-Rex, clawed toes dug into the blacktop. She waited for the green light to start the race, it looked like and was called a Christmas tree. Constance’s girl would wait. Eliza never jumped early, and she'd wait for Constance to signal her. She saw the crowd behind a six-foot fence. Two years ago she would've considered them buffet items. A light snack. The first course.

She was twelve feet tall. Constance couldn’t hold back the ocean nor could she hold back a forty-foot long tyrannosaurus rex. No one can. Not even Jack LaLanne was strong enough to keep Eliza under his control. She had a mind of her own. Hopefully, tonight she had the mind of a runner. She was a natural racer even though her kind has been gone for sixty-million years minus twelve.

Constance heard the race announcer, Tonight, at the Kissimmee Drag Strip, we welcome Ford Racing's T-Rex, Eliza. The tyrannosaurus is ridden by Miss Constance King.

They were a novelty act. The sideshow. The freaks before the main event, the drag races.

She could hear the engines of the dragsters and funny cars warming up in the pits. They'd have to wait their turn. The dinos needed to run first along a clean track. There was no oil for them to slip on. No racing fuel to burn their feet.

Constance looked down one more time. She could see Ford Racing painted on Eliza’s side. There must be trouble. Where was the triceratops? She saw Eliza’s handler Morris shrug. She pulled at Eliza's reins. She wanted her to back away from the starting line. Eliza didn’t want to at first, but eventually Eliza gave in.

Folks, I have just gotten word that our other dino is a little shy tonight. What are a few more minutes compared to a million years? That made the crowd chuckle. Maybe he's visiting the little caveman's room. Another chuckle. Us here, in the great state of Florida, we can put John Glenn into space, but we can't seem to get two dinosaurs to race for us tonight. We might just have better luck launching a man to the moon instead.

Morris said as she dismounted, This reminds me of the Bay of Pigs. We must have waited two days on that beach before the dinos showed up. Wasn't old Fidel surprised when we landed a beach full of dinosaurs in his backyard? Where did we finally catch him hiding?

He was born in Oriente Province, Constance said,...and that's where we finally caught him. He ran all the way home. she took off one of her leather gloves. All I remember was the heat and the mosquitoes. Also, I couldn't get enough to drink. Always thirsty. It was like I was in the desert, but I was in the damp jungle. I hated Cuba, and I hate Florida too. I can’t tell the difference.

Morris had already taken the reins from her. Connie, it wasn't all bad there. We had some good times.

Rum was the only thing that satisfied my thirst, and it's the only thing that makes Florida bearable. Give me the desert any day. That's my home. Back to New Mexico. To my ranch near White Sands. That's Eliza's home too. Constance had both of her gloves off now. Next, she would remove her helmet.

Eliza put her snout on Morris’ shoulder. The woman with the camera still stood close by and she took another picture. The flashbulb illuminated the surroundings for a few seconds. Constance wished she had that photograph. Maybe she could ask the stylish woman to make another one for her when she went to the drugstore to get her prints made. Connie wished she could be standing over there in the other woman’s place. She wished she could go home tonight, put a TV dinner in the oven and watch the Dick Van Dyke Show on her new Admiral television. An ordinary life. To live the American dream. But that wasn't her life, especially since the dinosaurs had returned.

I guess the Dodge Team is finally ready, said Morris. "They have second generation dinos. Those new inbred dinosaurs are supposed to be bigger, meaner, and faster. I also hear the same about