Dr.Sparkle's Prehistoric Adventure

• Isaak Kahukiwa, Grade 5, MacKillop Catholic School
• Short Story
• 2013

Excellence Award in the 'Dream Big 2013' competition

Dr. Sparkle is an Inventor. At the age of 3, he fell into a tub full of sparkle juice (patent pending) and swallowed 5 litres of the stuff. 85% of it was extracted from his body, but the 15% that escaped the extraction process was enough to change him forever. The effects within his body produce sparkles that are constantly radiating out of his back, not to mention the ones which orbit his brain. So that means he’s kind of bonkers. He built a secret underground lab and designs all kinds of different crazy things in there. From robotic elephants to nuclear milkshake makers, you can be sure it will always be something extraordinary!
Today Dr. Sparkle was working on an inter-dimensional time portal/teleporter. The time was set to the Mesozoic Era (245 million years ago) when dinosaurs dominated Earth. He had just attached the fusion atomiser to the anti-incinerator when his untied shoelace caused him to topple through the portal’s purple light and into Prehistoric time. Dr. Sparkle was travelling through a time-rift into the past. He was falling through the purple tornado for what felt like eternity, endlessly...
Dr. Sparkle woke up on the ground. He stood up and looked around. Lush, green forest was all around him. In the distance, an enormous volcano was set against the orange sky towering over the vast land, like a king’s castle looking down at the smaller, less fortunate. Dr. Sparkle heard a bloodcurdling, ravenous roar. Here, he was the less fortunate, and he knew it. The return portal was behind him, but it needed 20 minutes to recharge. So he bolted. Running for his life through thick green trees, his heart was pumping furiously. The dinosaur roared again. Dr. Sparkle turned around to see a big, brown Tyrannosaurus-Rex chasing him. He was getting tired, but the dinosaur wasn’t. Dr. Sparkle tripped over a thick tree root face first. The dinosaur stopped in front of the crawling body and roared. “Hey! Can you please not brutally kill me?” Dr. Sparkle asked. The dinosaur roared again, louder this time, if that’s possible. Dr. Sparkle was sure it had said “Survival of the fittest. And I’m the fittest” (in dinosaur language). The T- Rex opened its mouth and bent down. Dr. Sparkle closed his eyes, ready for the end. But it didn’t come. The T-Rex was gone. Dr. Sparkle looked around, confused. The volcano! Pterodactyls flew away, screeching. Smoke was billowing out of the volcano, like it was coming out of an exhaust pipe. Dr. Sparkle ran for the portal. And when he finally reached it, he dived into the purple haze like an Olympic swimmer. Once again he felt the queasy feeling of time travel, and then he was back home. He got up, brushed off the dinosaur excrement and closed the portal. What an adventure! As he made himself a cup of coffee, he felt as though he should build a robotic dinosaur. And so he did.