thinking out loud

When I was a child, from the time I was about four and could understand things, my mom told me and my brother that we should have a secret word. That way, if we were ever in trouble or felt unsafe and we didn’t want the people around us to know we needed her to come get us, we could let her know. So she let us pick the word and my brother and I chose the phrase “peanut butter cups.” (I’m happy to share the phrase now since both my brother and I are adults now). 

I used the phrase twice in my life. Once, I was at a friends house when I eight years old. Her dad got really drunk and was throwing things against the wall. I was really scared and I didn’t want to draw attention to myself on the phone when I called my mom to come get me because I didn’t know if he would get more violent if I asked her to come get me. So I called her and was calm and after a couple minutes I asked “Hey mommy, did you get me those peanut butter cups from the store?” And she said “I’ll be right there.” And she came and got me within minutes. 

Second, I was a teenager spending the night at a friends house. Her brother and dad were drinking and they started talking about things that made me uncomfortable - ie: what they liked to do to women. My friend didn’t seem perturbed and said that was normal for them and that I shouldn’t worry. But I was worried because they were really drunk and I was 15 and the only ‘woman’ around that wasn’t related to them. I went in my friends room, told her I needed to call my mom and say goodnight. Before I hung up with her I asked “Next time we go to the store, can we get some peanut butters cups? I’ve been craving them.” And she came and got me, just like that. 

fic title: vulnerable

Jurassic World was supposed to be the greatest advancement to modern science, but instead Simon Masrani decided to turn it into a zoo for the world.  Rather than keep these magnificent, wondrous, and terrifying creatures to himself, he shows the world just what these creatures are capable of, to an extent. But there must be something that they’re hiding. At least, that’s what Ally Jones believes.  While National Geographic assigned her to cover the latest developments of the park, Ally’s looking for Mr. Masrani’s secret to success.  The moment Ally arrives at Jurassic World on the morning of December 18th, Mr. Masrani has planned her entire visit.  However, not even Simon Masrani could have controlled what happened that day.

Kara worked her way up from lowly intern to the head of mechanical engineering at Jurassic world. Everything was going fine that fateful day in December, with the exception of Owen Grady calling on her to fix something at the raptor paddock.  Sure Kara and Owen didn’t always get along, but they’re able to set their differences aside when it came to work. When the Indominous Rex escapes, Kara is willing to do whatever it takes to stop it, even if she has to do it herself.

Ever since dinosaurs have roamed the earth, for a second time, Michael Raine has been fascinated. Michael originally worked with the tallest land animal on the planet at the San Diego Zoo: giraffes.  But with the new addition of dinosaurs to the planet, Michael’s expertise in caring for these large animals was something that Jurassic World was desperate for someone just like Michael.  A quick meeting later and Michael was onboard.  Michael’s worked at the park for three years and thought he had his whole future planned out, but it seemed that a certain large reptile had other plans.

When Liv applied for the security position at Jurassic World, her friends joked, “you should be updating your will, not your resume.” Liv shrugged it off: it was a job, plus the location wasn’t so bad, and all that Jurassic Park stuff happened decades ago! She was positive that it was all figured out.  In the two years that she’s been working at Jurassic World, the most “security” that she’s had to deal with is escorting one nosey journalist out of the building.  But when the Indominous Rex escapes, Liv starts to regret wishing for some more excitement at work.