Boo and her mommy stood on the platform waiting for the train.
‘Mommy, what time is this train supposed to arrive’.
Boo’s mommy looked again at the tickets, ‘two minutes after nine, sweetie. That is about five minutes time’.
Boo pouted, she was not the most patient young lady and being at the mercy of the train system really, truly tested every single ounce of patience she had.
‘Daddy called me this morning and mentioned that his shed had exploded, the tyres on his car had melted and that and meteorite had knocked the satellite dish off the wall while you were there yesterday.’
‘Oh yes, he was not very happy, but we got ice-cream and his hew girlfriend came over and kissed him a lot, that seemed to cheer him up.‘
‘I’m just glad that you are OK, and that you did not get hit by any stray meteorites. He also mentioned something about sheep, but I’m not sure what he was saying.’
Boo grinned, her eyes lit up and she tugged he pigtails to stop herself from laughing, ‘Yes, some sheep mowed the lawn after the shed exploded, but they were all gone by the time we got back from ice cream’.
‘I see’. she said, half amused, half bemused.
At that moment, the train arrived and Boo and her mother hopped aboard.
‘So, Daddy’s car is still stuck to the driveway too, how did he get to work this morning ?’
‘Oh his girlfriend stayed over last night and she brought me back home and dropped him off at work I think….’
Boo’s mom smiled, eager to change the subject, ‘
So today we are going to London, to watch some tennis, hopefully if his schedule works out we will meet up with my boyfriend…’
‘YAY, icecream ! ‘
Boo laughed, every ‘date’ that she tagged along with her mother had included ice-cream, they now knew all of the ice-cream parlors along the coast and most of them in the Eastern part of London, Mommy’s boyfriend was rather fond of ice-cream.‘
Yes, no doubt he will find ice-cream, he seems to have a knack for it.’
The journey into the city was long, but uneventful, the train stopped at many stations along the way and they watched many people getting on and off the train as it chugged and clanged its way into London.
Eventually the train stopped at the tube station and they consulted the map, once or twice Boo had a suspicion that they were being watched, but every time she looked around there was nobody there.
A few minutes later, they emerged from the tube station, blinking in the sunlight a couple of minutes walk from Wimbledon. As they walked they discussed the journey, the weather, the potential for ice-cream and of course the tennis.
The two of them found the entrance to the tennis, presented their tickets and headed for the cafe, where they had arranged to meet Mommy’s boyfriend. Once they found him, they were delighted, but not at all surprised to find an ice-cream sundae each to go with the one that he was already eating.
Boo was concerned that she had not seen her dragon all day, she presumed that having feasted on sheep yesterday he was probably sleeping it off somewhere. However, she had a suspicion that maybe he was getting up to some mischief somewhere.
For the rest of the day and through two more ice-creams, there was not sign of him, the tennis was fairly dull, but it was nice to go to London for the day.
Eventually the games wore down, the light started to fade, the ice-cream lost its appeal and all three of them jumped aboard the train to head home.
‘This is an announcement, this train will be delayed for three hours due to leaves on the track, we apologize for the delay’.
Boo was not happy, she had spent a lovely day in London but she was getting hungry and tired and she really wanted to find out what her dragon was up to.
She really should have realized that the answer was ‘no good’.
While Mommy was talking with her boyfriend, Boo spotted her dragon, he was hiding behind a sign on the platform. As usual Boo spotted his legs and tail, but other passerby’s simply walked straight by. ‘Perhaps’ thought Boo, ‘you can only see him if you want to see him’.
She beckoned him over and he hopped up to her, wrapping her up in his wings and sniffing at her ever-present back-pack. ‘Got any dragon snacks ?’ he asked, as usual.
Boo, being a resourceful sort, fished in her backpack and produced a small bar of chocolate, a granola bar and a chocolate protein shake. ‘Obviously’.
Once more the dragon inhaled the snacks, including the wrapping !‘I wonder if you can help, the train tracks have leaves on them and we cannot get home for hours and I’m hungry and tired and….’ Boo pouted….
‘Leave it to me’
The dragon grabbed Boo, tossed her lightly onto his back and swept into the air punching a hole straight through the roof of the train station, several people had to dodge the falling masonry, but luckily nobody was hurt.
They positively hurtled upwards, with Boo squealing in delight, before suddenly dropping down and following the tracks eastwards. A couple of minutes later they spotted a crew of workers clearing the leaves from the track with shovels. The dirty track stretched for miles though and Boo worked out that they were cleaning no more than about 3 miles per hour, the 30 miles of dirty track would take…….Uhm……thirty divided by three….
‘TEN hours dragon, we will never get home.’
The dragon continued to head east until all of the track looked clean, then flying just a few meters above the track he breathed fire onto the track, incinerating leaves as they went. Boo squealed again, this was fun.
Within a few minutes, they were approaching the clean-up crew. The men spotted the incoming firestorm from the dragon and abandoning their tools, they all dived and ran for cover.
If you have ever seen a dragon spitting fire and flying directly towards you, you will understand exactly how fast these men ran away. If you haven’t, well they all moved very quickly indeed.
Moments later they approached the station, rather than use a conventional entrance, or even the hole punched on exit, the dragon simply flew through a wall, once more scattering people in every direction as they dodged the flying bricks.
He set her down gently a short distance from her Mommy and then once more flew directly upwards and created a third hole….Boo ran to her mommy, ‘Come on I think that the track is clear now’.‘
Ladies and gentleman, we are sorry to announce that all east bound trains are cancelled for the next couple of weeks as the tracks are all melted and buckled……”
‘Oops’, Boo blushed.
‘Boo, what do you know about this and why are the ends of your pigtails a little singed young lady ?’
Boo tried to explain all about her dragon, how he hides behind things that are way too short, how he can spit balls of fire that are passed off as meteorites, how he needs constant dragon snacks and how he can be a little clumsy at times.
When she had finished, her mommy gave her a bug hug and said ‘Boo, my sweetie, dragons are the thing of myth and legend, they do not exist. Do you really think that they could hide in plain site without everyone noticing ? ‘
‘Well, there are holes in the ceiling and the tracks are melted, and daddies car and the shed and the sheep and…..’
At that moment, Mommies boyfriend came back clutching a set of car keys, ‘come on I rented a car, we will be home in time for dinner’.
‘And ice-cream’ exclaimed both Boo and her mommy.
‘Yes and ice-cream’ he said resignedly.‘
Yay, I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice-cream’ they chanted as they headed for the exit.
Later that night as Boo lay in her bed snoozing, she wondered why the dragon was so clumsy, why he did not use the same trick that he used when flying out of her bedroom window and why the workers could see him but most others could not.Just as she was falling to sleep, her dragon flew back in and curled up in the floor by her bed.
She reached down to him and patted his head, he giggled again and the two of them fell to sleep within minutes. Boo dreamed dragon shaped dreams and the dragon, well he dreamed about his adventures with Boo.