Timmy spent every Saturday at the Museum of Natural History. His apartment was a five minute walk from the museum, but that wasn’t the reason Timmy was such a frequent visitor. Timmy loved the natural world; everything about it fascinated him. He was the type of city kid who spent his free time collecting rocks in Central Park, caring for his pet turtles, and bird watching. Although he loved living in Manhattan, he also took every chance he could to visit his grandmother’s farm in New Jersey. Timmy found nature to be terrifyingly mysterious, but he wasn’t scared of it. In fact, what Timmy found most intriguing was how small he felt in relation to the natural world.
On a winter day just a week after Timmy’s twelfth birthday, Timmy made his weekly trip to the museum. There was a new film playing about meteorites, and Timmy was itching to see it. He had left his apartment later than usual because he had been working on a math project, so he only had an hour before the museum closed. As he speed-walked to the theater, Timmy passed the gargantuan T-Rex skeleton in the main ticketing lobby. “Hi, Rexxie,” muttered Timmy.
Once the meteorite movie had ended, Timmy got up from his seat and took a stretch. “The museum will be closing in five minutes. At this time, we ask that all visitors please make their way to the exits,” said a deep voice over the intercom. Timmy patted his pockets to make sure that he had all his belongings, and he realized that he was missing his cellphone. He checked his seat and the floors to make sure that it hadn’t fallen out of his pocket, but he still couldn’t find it.
The rest of the movie-viewers emptied out of the theater, and Timmy began to worry. Maybe it dropped on the floor and people accidentally kicked it around, thought Timmy, as he began to search in the other rows. He got down on all fours and started looking under every seat in the vicinity. At that moment, Timmy heard a loud thump towards the exit doors. He turned around and realized that museum staff had closed the theater without noticing that he was still there. Well, all the doors open from the inside. Not a biggie, thought Timmy. He had picked up on this fact after various incidents in which museum staff had closed exhibits while he was still inside. Timmy was just a little over five feet tall, but he always felt the tiniest when he was at the museum.
“Ah-hah!” yelped Timmy, as he retrieved his phone beneath an empty potato chip bag. It was six o’clock, half an hour after the museum’s closing time. Timmy’s parents weren’t expecting him to be back until seven, so he planned on stopping by the bookstore before dinner.
Timmy made his way out of the theater and was surprised to see that the rest of the museum was so dimly lit. “People must have been really excited to go home,” said Timmy. He walked down the long vacant hallways; his footsteps resonated loudly, and he smiled at the sight of his large shadows against the museum walls. After trudging up a couple of inactive escalators, he finally arrived at the ticketing room, where he could go out using the main exit.
“Oh, shoot!” yelled Timmy, as tumbled to the floor. The custodian had finished mopping the floors an hour ago and Timmy hadn’t noticed the “Caution: Wet Floor” signs in the dark. Timmy cursed his luck and began blindly feeling around for his glasses. I’m the biggest dork in the history of dorks, thought Timmy, once he finally got a hold of his spectacles.
He slid his glasses back on and looked up; T-Rex’s head was staring right at him. Timmy let out a high-pitched scream, then scrambled to move farther away from the monstrosity in front of him. Once he was a safe distance away from the T-Rex, he realized how fascinating it was to examine the famous skeleton when no one else was around. The last glimmers of daylight were shining through the windows, illuminating the T-Rex’s complex curvatures. The skeleton was so delicately pieced together, yet the structure of the form and the expression on the T-Rex’s face were strong and brawny. Timmy just stared; he had no words. He had never felt smaller in his entire life.
Timmy’s phone beeped, interrupting the awesome moment. His father texted him about being careful while walking home because the city was expected to have strong winds that evening. After reading the message, Timmy heard loud gusts outside. He glanced at one of the windows and saw a maple tree bent back like a piece of rubber, helpless to the violent winds. Timmy also felt the scarf on his neck flutter. Oh no, thought Timmy, as he imagined the winds blowing over the T-Rex, so that it fell right on him.
To Timmy’s dismay, the hanging lamps began to swerve and the large flags on display began to whiffle. “I’m definitely scared of you now!” said Timmy. “If you fall on me, there are going to be two skeletons in this room!”

The T-Rex was motionless, even as the winds began to pick up in speed. Timmy laughed. “I’m so dumb,” he said with a smile. “You probably weigh a billion pounds anyway. No winds could knock you over.”
Finally, Timmy stood up. Although he wanted to stay a little longer, it was almost seven. Timmy also knew that his mom was going to confiscate his rock collection if he showed up at dinner late again.
“Bye, Rexxie,” said Timmy. “I’ll see you again next Saturday.” He reached out and gave the skeleton a gentle pat on the leg before leaving.