Dada Dinosaur Loves His Daughter

A short story I wrote my daughter to try to explain to her I was going to jail for crashing my car when driving while intoxicated.

Dada Dinosaur Loves His Daughter

Once upon a time in a beautiful forest in the Northwest there lived a family of dinosaurs. They had a very cozy nest not too far from a lake where they could go and get their water. There were many kinds of ferns and trees for them to eat nearby, and they had long strong necks, even longer than a giraffe, to get up very high and eat the leaves off of tall trees. There was a mamasaurus, a dadasaurus, and a little daejasaurus.

Dadasaurus loved his little daejasaurus and they would often play together. They played chase around the nest. They played boulder toss. And they would run around in the forest and splash in big puddles together. At night, Dadasaurus would often tuck little daejasaurus into bed and read her books or tell her stories.

One day things began to change. Besides loving his Daejasaurus, Dadasaurus also loved eating a special treat called vinifera grapes. Dadasaurus thought vinifera grapes were very tasty and he enjoyed them very much. Mamasaurus and Dadasaurus used to enjoy going through the forest and finding vinifera grapes together, and Dadasaurus had many good memories of being with mamasaurus while they ate the grapes.

But now Dadasaurus was having trouble when he would eat the grapes. He would get tummy aches and headaches when he ate them. Sometimes they made him feel dizzy and sick. Dadasaurus tried to stop eating them, but every once in a while he would see some while he was out in the forest and try eating them again. He thought maybe a different color or a different size of vinifera grapes would not cause him any trouble and he could enjoy them again. But it didn’t work.

Finally one day he went to the lake to get some water and talk with some of his other friends there. On the way back he saw some big bunches of vinifera grapes that looked delicious to him. He munched and munched on them, and at first they tasted sweet. But then he began to feel yucky. He decided he needed to go home, but he couldn’t control where he was going very well. He ran through a bunch of trees and trampled them and the other plants around them.

The other dinosaurs from around the lake were very upset that dadasaurus damaged the trail that went down to the lake. They decided Dadasaurus needed to go to the other side of the lake where the caves were, and where no vinifera grapes grew. They told Dadasaurus that he would have to go there and be on a timeout for a while, so he could think about what happened and practice living without the grapes.

Dadasaurus had a lot of feelings about this. He was happy that no one else got hurt when he trampled the trees and plants. He felt sorry that he had caused trouble for other dinosaurs. And he felt sad that he would be away from his little Daejasaurus for a while.

The day before he had to go to the other side of the lake, he snuggled with Daejasaurus. “I want you to know that I love you very much,” he told her.

“I love you too Dada,” she replied.

“And I want you to know that I’ll keep loving you when I am on the other side of the lake, or no matter where I am on the whole earth, and no matter where you are on the whole earth.”

“I know, Dada,” she said.

“Look up in the sky,” he said. “The moon that we see up there is always the same moon, no matter where we see it from on Earth. So when you look up at the moon from the nest, you can know that I’ll be looking up at the same moon. And I’ll send kisses and hugs up to the moon, and when you look up there you can get them, and send some back to the moon for me to get. Every time there is a new full moon it means one month has gone by. And by the time the 6th full moon comes back, Dada will come back to this side of the lake and see you here near our nest.

Until then we can talk on the dinophone and I will send mail with the pteranadons to fly back over here to the nest. If you want to stamp some pictures with your big feet, the pteranadons can fly them back over to me. I’d love to get some from you if you want to. You can tell me all about starting your new dinoschool. I am really excited for you to start that adventure. By the time the next Halloween comes, I will be back and we can snuggle again, and you can show me your halloween outfit. Until then, remember to look up to the sky for the hugs and kisses coming your way.”

And with that, Dadasaurus and Daejasaurus gave each other a big, long, dinosaur hug with their long necks wrapped around each other. Daejasaurus went back to her nest with Mamasaurus, and Dadasaurus got ready for his trip to the other side of the lake.