More from the Carter family
If you’re the grown-up — this part’s for you. If you’re the reader — the story bits are all yours.
Scott gets his turn next. Here’s the morning it starts.
Not a Dinosaur Bone — Chapter One
A first chapter, by B. A. Lumin
Scott is splashing up Willow Creek with a red bucket and a faded Triceratops sticker, absolutely certain there are dinosaur bones in Indiana. He rounds a bend and goes right past a patch of rock that’s darker than the rest and stacked far too neatly to be an accident — because a bullfrog goes off and he looks the other way.
No problem — ask a grown-up to sign up for you and they can pass it along. Here’s a bit of the story while you’re here:
On May 20th, 2025—a few weeks after Candi’s tenth birthday celebration—Scott Carter splashed through Willow Creek, knees pumping high through the shallows, water spraying silver in the morning light. His red dinosaur bucket swung from his free hand, the faded Triceratops sticker catching the light. The late-spring sun heated his shoulders, and the creek water had finally warmed enough to wade in without shivering. Every rock, every stick, every weird-shaped lump of clay looked like it could be the discovery that would make him famous.
As he rounded the creek’s bend, something caught his eye—a section where the rocks looked different from the rest of the creek bed. Darker, more layered, stacked with an almost geometric precision. But a bullfrog’s explosive splash distracted him, and he turned his attention back to hunting for dinosaur bones. The strange rocks could wait for another day.
His sisters thought he was crazy. Renee had rolled her eyes at breakfast when he’d announced his expedition plans, her juice glass paused halfway to her lips. “Scott, dinosaurs didn’t live in creeks in Indiana.” That know-it-all voice she used when she thought she was being helpful.
Scott finds out what he walked past. Whatever the Carters turn up next, this list hears it first.