LUCKY DAY by Nelma Ward

I’m small and furry, quite elegant really, but that’s not going to allow me to inherit the earth. Those big galumphing reptiles have the upper hand there. Awful things they are, taking over, eating us out of house and home, and eating us too if they have the chance. You need to be very careful when you go out or you’ll find yourself stood upon with one of those great big squashing feet, or picked up by a head on a long neck and thrown around enough to make you dizzy before they chomp you down.

Of course there are some smaller reptiles as well, and they’re a bit easier to live with. Crocodiles and so on, I don’t mind them, and then there’s the insects. Cockroaches I don’t particularly like, but they’re so small that the dinosaurs will probably be able to vacuum them up somehow and get rid of them for once and for all one day.

Its quite a nice earth too. I wouldn’t mind inheriting it really. Green forests, and bright sunlight. We little creatures don’t have a chance really. We generally don’t eat each other – well, the sabre toothed tigers do, but with teeth like that, you might as well bite into something a bit solid. I like my little shoots and the tiny berries. But then, as I said, I am very small, and very elegant.

I’ve been noticing, though, a funny glow in the sky. To me it appears to be getting bigger every day. Like a second sun. Funny thing, but I guess we’ll find out soon enough what it is. Not that the dinosaurs seem worried. They just keep stomping around, making awful noises and eating everything in their path. I think they have a brain about the size of a pea if the truth be told. We couldn’t get rid of them if we tried, although occasionally I do see one – stupid thing – that’s fallen over a cliff, lying there at the bottom, legs stuck up in the air, and I think, thank goodness for that.

……

Well, we’ve finally emerged again. That second sun thing certainly made one hell of a thump when it hit. We little things had time to run and hide of course. I had to live in a hole for quite some time, and my fur got a bit singed, but its growing out nicely now. Anyway, when we came out all the dinosaurs were gone. Just us little things – mammals, we’re called – left. I think perhaps we are going to inherit the earth! Oh, happy day when that thing hit – what a stroke of luck.

© Nelma Ward