Brontia

   A brontosaur egg had been brought to the Cosmozoo. The egg had been found by tourists from Chile in a trench on the riverbank of Enicea. The egg was almost round and had been preserved in the vaccum packed  soil. When the specialists examined it, they realized that the egg was still "alive", so it was immediately moved to the Cosmozoo incubator.
 Of course, not many people believed that the egg would hatch, but in a week, X-rays of the egg showed that the baby dinosaur was growing. As son as it had been announced on television, scientists and news reporters swarmed into Moscow from every city on Earth. We had to block off the whole eight story hotel "Venus" on Tverk road. But it still wasn't enough to fit everybody. Eight paleontoligists from Turkey slept in our dining room, I had to sleep in the kitchen with a news reporter is Ecuador, and three news reporters from the newspaper "Ladies Of Antarctica" got comfortable in Alisa's bedroom. When our mother videophoned from Nookus, where she is building a stadium, she thought that she had dialed the wrong number.
   Every T.V. channel in the world was showing the egg. Hte egg from the front, the egg from the side, brontosaur skeletons and the egg...
   The whole Congress of Kosmologists came to the Cosmozoo for a "field trip", but by that time we had already blocked off entrance into the incubator room, and the Kosmologists had to look at polar bears and martian praying mantises.
   On the fourty-sixth day, the egg wobbled. Proffesor Yakata and I were sitting near the glass cover that protecetd the egg, drinking tea. We had already stopped believing that the egg would hatch, and we had stopped X-raying it to not harm "our little baby". We couldn't guess when the egg would hatch because nobody before us had ever tried to hatch brontosaurs.
  So, the egg wobbled and... cracked, and through the leathery shell a small, black, and snakelike head began to emerge. The automoatic cameras started snapping pictures. I knew that the emergency light was glowing on the door of the incubator. ON the territority of the Cosmozoo, something reminding me of panic started.
   In five minutes, everyone who needed to be in the incubator room an deveryone who wanted to be in the incubator room were inside the room. the temperature in the room skyrocketed.
   Finally, a little brontosaur squeezed out of the egg.
  "Dad, what is his name?" a familiar voice said.
  "Alisa!" I surpisedly exclaimed. "How did you get in here?"
  "I got in with the news reporters."
  "But children aren't allowed here."
  "Im allowed. I told everyone that I was your daughter, and they let me in."
  "You know that using relationships for your own wants isn't what good children do."
  "But dad, little Brontia is probably lonely without children."
   I just let it go. I didn't even have one minute to get Alisa out of the incubatro room, and nobody here would do it for me.
  "Stay here and don't go anywhere.", I told her, and threw myself towards the baby dinosaur under the glass cover.
    Alisa and I didn't talk to each other for the whole evening: we had a fight. I said that she wasn't allowed to go into the incubator room, but she said that she wouldn't listen to me because she felt sad for Brontia. On the next day, she got into the incubator room again. She had been escorted by the astronauts form the spaceshib Jupiter-8. The astronauts were heroes, so noone could say no to them.
  "Good morning, Brontia." Alisa said, coming up to the glass cover over the baby brontosaur..
   The little brontosaur looked at her, ckrooking his head slightly.
  "Whose daughter is this?" inquired proffesor Yakata.
   I wished I could dissapear. But Alisa has her own "way with words".
  "You don't like me?" she asked.
  "No, I just thought you were lost..." stuttered proffesor Yakata. He didn't know how to talk to little girls.
"Okay, " said Alisa, "Brontia, I'll visit you tomorrow.
   And Alisa really did come tomorrow, and every day after that. Everyone got used to her and let her in without asking any questions. Our house is right next to the Cosmozoo, you don't need to cross the road, and people who wanted to go with Alisa were easy to find.
   The brontosaur grew quickly. In a month, he was two and a half meters long, so we moved him to a pavillion  built specially for him. The brontosaur walked around the fenced-in pavilllion and chewed young babmboo and bananna plants. The bamboo was brought to us from India by rocket, and the farmers of Mallahas supplied us with bannanas.
   Warm water filled up the cement pool in the middle of the pavillion- the brontosaur liked it that way.
  Suddenly, the brontosaur lost his appetite. For three days he didn't even touch his bannanas and his bamboo. On the fourth day, the brontosaur lied down in the pool and put his small black head on the diving board. We knew that he was going to die, but we couldn't let that happen- he was the only brontosaur on the planet. The best doctors of the world were helping us, but their efforts were fruitless. Brontia didn't want to eat grass, vitamins, oranges, milk, or any other type of food we gave him.
   Alisa didn't know about the tragedy- she was at her grandomther's house in a farming village. But on the fourth day, Alisa turned on the T.V. just as the announcer was talking about the starving brontosaur. I don't know how she convined her grandmother, but Alisa came to the Cosmozoo on the morning of the fourth day.
  "Dad!" she screamed. "How could you have kept this from me? How?"
  Not now, Alisa, were having a meeting."
   We really were having a meeting: it was going on for three days.
   Alisa didn't say anything and walked away. In a minute, I heard someone's surprised shriek. I turned around and saw that Alisa had gotten over the barrier, jumped into the pavillion and ran up to the brontosaur's mouth. She was holding a loaf of bread in her hand.
  "Eat, Brontia." she said,"Or they'll starve you here. In your place, I would also get tired of bannanas."
I hadn't even ran up to the barrier when something happened that gave Alisa fame and ruined the reputation of many biologists: Brontia picked up his head, and gently took the bread out of Alisa's hand.
  "No, dad." Alisa waved her finger at me. "Cant you see that Brontia is afraid of you?"
  "He won't cause her any harm." said proffesor Yakata.
I could see for myself that the brontosaur wouldn't hurt her. But what would happen  if Alisa's grandma saw this?
   After that, the scientists argued for a long time, even today they are still arguing. Some say that Brontia needed a change in his diet, and others say that he trusted Alisa mor than them. But for whatever reason, the crisis had passed.
   Now, Brontia is completely trained. Even though he is over thirty meters long, his favorite thing to do is give Alisa rides. One of my assistants built a special stepladder, and when Alisa comes to the pavillion, Brontia takes the stepladder in his teeth and positions it so that Alisa can climb on to his black back.
   Then, he gives Alisa rides around the pavillion or swims around the pool with her on his back.

A Girl From Earth: Chapt. One: I Dial A Number

     Alisa isn't sleeping. Its ten 'o clock at night, and she's still awake. I said to her:
  - Alisa, go to sleep immediately or Ill...
  - What will you do?
  - Ill videophone Grandma Yaga.
  - Who's Grandma Yaga?
  - Well, kids your age need to know that. Grandma Yaga is a scary, grumpy old lady who eats kids who
     don't listen to their parents.
  - Why?
  - Because shes grumpy and hungry.
  - Why is she hungry?
  - Because she doesn't have an automatic food dispenser.
  - Why doesn't she have one?
  - Because her house is very old and is deep in the woods.
   Alisa got so interested, she even sat up on the edge of the bed.
  - Does she work in The Reserve for Fairytales?
  - Alisa, go to sleep this instant!
  - But you promised to videophone Grandma Yaga. Please, dad, videophone Grandma Yaga!
  - Ill videophone her. But youll regret it.
     I went upm to the videophone and dialed a random number. I thought that a connection wouldn't be established and Grandma Yaga "wouldn't be home".
     But I was wrong. The videophone screen lit up, then it turned brighter and I hear a click: someone had pushed the answer button on the other end of the line. Befor an image even appeared on the screen, a sleepy voice said:
  - Martian embassy speaking.
  - So what, will Grandma Yaga come?", Alisa yelled out of the bedroom.
  - She's allready asleep.", I angrily said.
  - Martian embassy speaking.", the voice repeated.
     I turned to the videophone. A young martian was looking at me. He had green eyes without eyelashes.
 - Im sorry," I said, "I must have dialed the wrong number."
     The martian smiled. He wasn't looking at me, but at something behind me. Of cours, Alisa had gotten out of bed and was standing barefooted on the floor.
  - "Good evening," she said to the martian.
  - Good evening, little girl.
  - Does Grandma Yaga live with you?
     The puzzled martian looked at me.
  - It's just that can't get to sleep, and I wanted to videophone Grandma Yaga, so she would punish her. But I dialed the wrong number.
     The martian smiled again.
  - Good night, Alisa, he said. You need to go to sleep or your dad will call Grandma Yaga.
     The martian said goodbye to me and hang up.
  - So, now will you go to sleep? I asked Alisa. Did you hear what the martian said?
  - I'll go to sleep. Will you take me to Mars?
  - If you behave yoursef, I'll take you there in summertime.
     Soon, Alisa went to sleep, and I went back to work. I sat and worked untill one 'o clock in the morning. Then, the videophone started ringing. It was the martian from the embassy.
  - Im sorry that Im bothering you so late, he said, but your videophone isn't off, and I thought you werent sleeping.
  - Of course.
  - Could you help us?" he said. "The wholle embassy is awake. We have read all of the encyclopedias, re-read the videophone number book, but we still don't know who Grandma Yaga is, or where she lives..."

A Girl From Earth: Prolouge

     Tomorrow is Alisa's first day of school, and it will be a very interesting day. This morning, her friends are all videophoning her, and each one of them is congradulating her. Of course, Alisa is also trying to tell everyone the big news.
     Martian Boose sent her a very strange backpack which noone could open, Not even me and my collegues, which included a doctorates degree scientist and the main technician of the Cosmozoo. Shoosha said that he would go to school with Alisa and check if she gets an expirienced enough teacher. There is a tremendous ammount of exitement. When I first went to school, noone was this exited.
  Right now, when the exitement has stilled: Alisa has gone to say goodbye to Brountia. While it is quiet in the house, I have decided to record a few stories from the life of Alisa and her friends, which I will send to her teacher. She will need to know what kind of person she will have to teach. Maybe these notes will help her educate my daughter.
     Up to the age of three, Alisa was a normal child. But a year after meeting Brountia, she has started doing everything her own way, dissapearing in the most uncomfortable moments, and accidentally making discoveries. Alisa knows how to take advantage of people, but she has a mass of true friends. But My wife and I sometimes have problems: we can't sit at home all the time, because I work in the Cosmozoo, and Alisa's mom is building houses in most of her time, and usually on other planets.
     I want to warn Alisa's teacher: she will likely have to adjust to Alisa's character, and I greatly advise her to listen to these true stories about Alisa's adventures on Earth and in different parts of the galaxy.