‘Mommy, Mommy, is she here yet ?’
Boo rushed out of school and threw herself into her mommies arms. She had raced through her school day as she knew that her aunt was arriving today.
‘Yes Boo, she is home right now, snoozing on the sofa’.
‘Yay, lets go, I drew her a picture today’ Boo waved a picture so her mommy could see it, it was a very nice drawing of her aunty riding a dragon.
‘Sweetie, you seem to be becoming a little obsessed by dragons, maybe you could draw a picture of yourself on a horse or something.
Boo pulled a face, ‘But mommy, horses can’t fly and they are way too slow, and no fire either !’
Boo’s mommy rolled her eyes. ‘Anyway, she arrived a few hours ago and I left her sleeping on the sofa, she had a long flight and was very tired’.
As they walked home, hand in hand, they chatted about school, the weather, boys and the plans for the next few days. ‘Just remember that she is a little jet lagged, so be gentle with her’.
‘Mommy, what is jet lagged?’
‘Well Sweetie, you know how when we call your auntie, it is late in the evening here, but it is first thing in the morning for her’.
‘Yes, she is in a difference time zone’
‘Well when you travel to a different place that has different time zones, it takes you some time to recover and adjust your body clock. You will see later, she will not be tired when we go to bed, but will be awful to wake up in the morning.’
‘Like daddy is on a Sunday’
‘Worse’.
Boo smiled to herself, nobody could be worse than daddy on a Sunday.
Once home, Boo and her mommy tried really hard to be quiet, but the giggles got to them, for some reason everything that they saw and did was way too funny, so Boo’s poor auntie was woken up after only a couple of hours sleep. Boo was delighted.
‘So’, said her auntie, ‘Where do you keep the candy ?’
Boo had a secret little stash of very precious candy that her mommy had bought for her. She gleefully grabbed the box and offered it to her aunt, who took a candy.
‘How was school ?’
‘It is good, I’m top of the class in maths, spelling, art, cooking and science too’
Boo’s auntie smiled and helped herself to another candy, Boo looked there were only three left.
‘Do you have a boyfriend ?’
‘Well, I used to really like James, but he held Emma’s hand at the ice rink and then when the ice melted, he squealed and started crying, so nobody will hold his hand now’.
Boo watched mortified as two more candies disappeared.
‘Yes’. she laughed, ‘your Mommy shared the video, that silly dragon burping flames, what did he do, drink cola or something ?’, popping yet another candy into her mouth and smiling.
Boo blinked, then blinked again.
‘You, can see him?’ Boo was amazed, she had never met anyone that could see her dragon before, everyone seemed to simply fail to see him.
‘Oh yes dear’. Taking yet another candy from the rapidly emptying box. She smiled a very chocolatey smile, ‘Of course I can, but I am not sure than many people can, else they would be really scared. What is your dragons name ?’
Boo looked at her auntie and watched her take the very last candy from the box. She had never actually asked her dragon what his name is and she realized that he must think her awfully rude.
‘Erm, I’ve never actually asked him’, she looked rather bashful, ‘let me go and find out’.
Boo positively raced to her room, flung open the door and tripped over her dragon, bashing her head on her bed side table.
‘Ouch’.
‘Hi Boo, got any snacks ?’ Her dragon was awake and as usual he was hungry. Boo pulled her backpack from underneath her bed and took the last two granola bars and the final bar of chocolate from it and handed them to her dragon, who, as usual, inhaled them, then licked his lips ‘Delicious, thank you’.
‘Erm, Dragon, I realise that I should have asked you a long time ago, but what is your name ?’
The dragon smiled, ‘Well, my name is almost entirely impossible for humans to pronounce’, he emitted a soft low rumble, ‘Rrrreeeeddnnggaaallaaahahann’, then smiled. ‘You can call me “Dragon” I am happy with that.
Boo frowned, ‘How about I call you “Reed” because that is what you name sounds like.
The dragon frowned, ‘I prefer “Dragon”.
‘Deal’ said Boo and skipped out of her room.
Back in the kitchen her aunt was busy eating everything that she could find, Boo was annoyed to see that she had eaten her entire stash of special candy and also nearly all of the snacks that she had persuaded her mommy to buy for her dragon.
‘He likes to be called “Dragon”, his real name is a really soft low rumble, which I am not sure I can pronounce. ‘Erm, Auntie, those snacks are his and you are eating them all, why don’t you have something a little healthier’.
Her Auntie blinked, ‘Oh sorry, I guess we should go and buy more, hungry dragons are always a problem. Where can we buy dragon snacks around here ?’
Boo thought about it, ‘well Mommy always shops at Waitrose, but Daddy prefers Asda’
‘Waitrose it is then !”, then as an afterthought ‘Can I meet your dragon first though?’
Boo led her auntie to her room.
‘Hi Dragon, this is my auntie..’
The dragon was curled up on the floor, he lifted his head, sniffed, ‘You smell really nice, do you have any chocolate?’
‘We are just on our way to get some more, is there anything that you like especially?’
‘I really like the strawberry granola bars and the galaxy chocolate and….”
‘You can come with us’, Boo smiled.
‘That really may not be a good idea’ her auntie explained, ‘hungry dragons can be a complete liability.’
‘Let’s go, Dragon, we will meet you there’
Boo and her auntie explained to her mommy that they were going to go to the shops as someone had eaten all of the snacks and they set out, arm-in-arm.
As Boo and her auntie walked to the shops, she told Boo that she used to know a dragon, ‘He was a very feisty dragon’, she continues, ‘he used to get me into a lot of trouble when I was your age, he once singed grandpa’s hair and he had to wear a hat for weeks.’ She smiled at the memory, ‘And he once shredded your mommies homework and she only got a B.’
‘No way, mommy once got a B, that is not possible ?’
‘Yes, she was so mad, she never saw my dragon and she totally blamed me.’
They had arrived at Waitrose, the dragon was perched on top of a trolley return station watching the shoppers. He had that glint in his eye which Boo had come to recognise as hunger.
‘Oh no, he is hungry, do you have any snacks in your pocket Auntie ?’
‘No, I don’t we will have to rush around the store and hope that he does not get up to any mischief before we can buy some.’
Together they raced into the store, hand-in-hand, frantically searching for granola bars, galaxy chocolate, smoky bacon crisps and protein shakes.
It was all just a little too late though. The dragon had followed them and he was zooming around the inside of the store, picking up food and inhaling it at a rate that surpised even Boo. The level of devastation inside the store was only matched by the panic of hundreds of shoppers watching food fly from shelves and disappear.
It was chaos.
Shoppers ran around looking for exits, the store staff tried to keep order, but then decided, almost to a person, that panicking was a much better idea.
The dragon noticed the cheese counter, if there is one thing that a dragon loves more than cheese, it is melted cheese.
‘Oh no’ said Boo, ‘this is going to get really, really messy, duck !’
She pulled her Auntie with her as she took shelter behind a huge stack of toilet rolls.
She was right, the dragon sent a small fireball into the cheese counter. Rather than simply melting the cheese though, the entire counter simply exploded sending globules of melted cheese in every direction.
The shoppers that had not already left the shop where now treated to a light covering of melted cheese, which was probably the second most unpleasant thing that would ever happen to them. The very most unpleasant thing that would ever happen to them was just about to happen.
It would be wrong to blame the dragon at this point. He simply succumbed to temptation. Imagine if you were a cheese loving dragon and you were faced with a small group of very tasty humans that are covered, from head to toe in delicious, melted cheddar, what would you do ?
Yes, you guessed it.
The dragon flew up to the closest cheese-covered shopper, sniffed, opened his mouth wide and simply inhaled the cheese, before licking the befuddled shoppers clean with his rather rough tongue.
Some time later, Boo and her Aunty were back at home, the snack cupboard had been replenished, the candy stash replaced, the dragon was snoozing next to Boo’s bed. In other words everything was back to normal. Or as normal as it could be when you shared your home with a dragon.
That night the news was full of yet another mystery fireball, this time apparently hitting the cheese counter in Waitrose. Boo and her auntie shared a smile.
The rest of the week passed without any really significant incidents, Boo kept her dragon supplied with snacks, her Auntie spend a lot of time shopping, He mommy was her normal busy self, working and keeping the house humming along. He boyfriend cooked dinner twice and obviously served plenty of ice cream.
Finally it was Sunday. Boo and her mommy accompanied Boo’s auntie to the airport so that she could fly home. The trains were late, the weather was horrible, they left the house really late due to a pair of missing socks and beyond all that, the dragon, who is seemed rather liked Boo’s auntie, was escorting them too – he was doing a great job of staying out of trouble too.
For once.
They finally got to the airport a little late, the check-in staff were rather rude and unhelpful, but they issued her ticket. Lots of hugs and kisses and cuddles later she made the trip through security, who were also rude and even less helpful, only to find that she needed to run to the gate as her plane was about to leave.
She did not make it.
She missed the plane.
She was stranded in London.
Boo’s auntie sat on a chair and cried. She was never going to get home. She could not afford another ticket either.
Just then she noticed that she was not alone. Boo’s dragon was perched on the abounded security desk, right underneath a dragon shaped hole in the ceiling.
‘Need a ride ?’
‘Its a long way, are you sure about this ?’
‘Do you have any snacks ?’
She reached into her handbag and pulled out a huge box of candy, which the dragon sniffed, before inhaling.
‘Lets go’.
Boo’s auntie climbed onto the dragons back and held on tight as the dragon shot upwards, punching a second dragon shaped hole in the ceiling and headed westward at a rather impressive rate.
Just a few minutes into the journey they positively rocketed past the airplane that was taking the rest of the passengers home, ten minutes after than they caught and passed another, then another. Within half an hour they had crossed the Atlantic.
Anyone will tell you that this is very fast, most jet liners take five hours or so to do this trip.
Twenty minutes later the dragon streaked out of the sky and landed on Boo’s Aunties apartment balcony. He had completed the five thousand mile tip in just a little under ninety minutes. She looked at her watch. Wow, we just flew here at three thousand miles an hour – that is insane.
The dragon bowed, ‘glad to be of service, do you have any snacks ?’
Boo’s Auntie opened the door and they went inside, she found her stash of beef jerky, another large box of chocolates, six bags of crisps and a pickled herring.
‘Dragons are not keen on pickled herring’.
They sat on the floor eating the snacks for a few minutes. ‘Thank you dragon, you are a wonderful friend’.
Just an hour later (dragons fly considerably faster without a passenger), the dragon was curled up asleep on Boo’s bedroom floor, he had carefully carried a big box of candies back for Boo to add to her private stash and after delivering them and being rewarded with several strawberry granola bars he needed a serious nap.