When Charlie got home from work, he took a beer from the refrigerator, grabbed the paper and headed for the patio and the lounge chair.

Myrtle was in the kitchen getting dinner started.  He could hear her through the open window rattling pans and making busy noises.

Charlie took a long cold swallow of beer and shook out the paper.  Then, before he started to read, he dropped it on his lap and looked out across the lawn to his hedge and the barbed wire fence beyond that kept Ed Bank's cows out of his yard, sometimes.  The rocky cow pasture on the other side of the fence was bordered by a stand of aspens and evergreens and beyond that was his view of vast and distant purple mountains.

He picked up the paper again to catch up on what was happening to the Yankees. They were losing.  Over the corner of the paper, he thought he caught the slightest of movements in the aspens.

It was not unusual to see deer this time of day, but the movement he saw seemed higher than  a deer - or even a man.

He peered out over the tops of his glasses but there was no action over there.  Even the birds were silent.  The shadows under the trees were already beginning to turn to a cool blue violet.

"Myrtle," called Charlie, "Will you pass the binoculars through the window, please?  They're hanging onthe coat rack by the back door."

"Oh, Charlie!" Myrtle's voice had that edge to it, "I can't right now.  I'm getting dinner and my hands are wet. You're able bodied. Get them yourself."

Charlie shrugged and went back to his paper.  Perhaps it was a bird - a hawk or an owl - but somehow it didn't look just right...

With an exhasperated growl, he levered himself out of the patio chair, opened the the sliding doors and went through to the back door where he found the binoculars hanging on a hook under some hats.

He swept the glasses over the whole stretch of aspens. It was so quiet even the sensitive aspen leaves were

motionless.  Then he went back, hunting for the same spot where he thought he had seen movement a few minutes before. The leaves were trembling.  Charlie held his breath as he

"Honestly, Charlie, you are the limit." Myrtle laughed her unamused laugh, "I suppose next you'll be seeing U.F.O.'s on the lawn.  And have you seen Mimi?"

"No, I haven't seen her, but she's a dog of some intelligence.  She'll be home when she gets hungry. And Myrtle, there is a dinosaur out there.  I just saw it!"

Myrtle laughed again.  "Come in to dinner, Charlie," she said.

Mimi hadn't come home by bedtime.  Myrtle was restless and went out to the patio several times to whistle for her.

Charlie hid behind his paper but he wasn't reading.  It could have been some kind of optical illusion, he supposed.

"She's been out all night before," said Myrtle, "And the moon is full.  What do think she does?"

"Don't ask," grinned Charlie, "After all, she's of age."

About midnight, something woke Charlie. He lay frowning into the dark.  It sounded like an asthmatic hot air balloon, whooshing at regular intervals. Just as he was ready to get out of bed and go investigate, something slowly blocked out the glowing square of moonlit sky showing through the window.

His vision, adjusting to the dark, picked out the shine of one huge malevolent eye peering  in at him.  Then it winked slowly at him as though sharing some unspeakably obscene secret. Charlie couldn't move.  Presently after more heavy breathing the great eye slowly sunk to the sill and the massive head disappeared.  There was an acrid stench in the air.

Charlie elbowed Myrtle.  "Myrtle, there IS a dinosaur out there.  It just looked in our window..."

Myrtle groaned and buried her head in the pillow,

"Shut up about that dinosaur and go to sleep, Charlie." she mumbled.

At breakfast, Myrtle said, "I'm going over to the aspens and look for Mimi.  She's not home yet and I'm afraid she might be in trouble.  And Charlie, call Ed Banks.  His cows broke through the fence last night and our yard is a disaster."

"Myrtle, that was not the cows.  It was the dinosaur.  I told you last night."

"Oh, for heaven's sake.  Do I have to do everything around here?  Just call him, Charlie!  Where's Mimi's leash?   There's more coffee.  See you tonight."

Charlie stood on the patio sipping his second cup of coffee and watched Myrtle open the gate and make her way across the pasture towards the aspens.  When she got to the little rise midway to the woods, she turned and gave him a hurried little wave.

He waved and shouted "Myrtle!  Myrtle! Don't go over there!  There's a dinosaur in the aspens.  Myrtle, come back!"   But he could see her throw her head back in a laugh.

Charlie turned and went into the kitchen where he took one frozen T-bone steak out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator to be ready for his dinner when he got home from work.