The Dream Dragon

Virginia Huws sat at the breakfast table staring down at her knee socks. They were two of her favourites and they were both a very pretty colour. One was a very pretty green and the other was a very pretty blue. It had been that kind of morning. In the bathroom she had already waged the Battle of the Hair and she had definitely lost. The Hair had launched a surprise tactic, all sticking straight out to one side so that she looked like she was in a permanent hurricane and she had been too tired to do anything more than wrestle it under a hat, which was always a sure sign that the Battle would have to be fought again another day. The trouble with the hat solution was that it seemed to accentuate the Nose, which certainly didn't need it. The Nose was already, in her opinion, just this side of enormous. Virginia truly hated the Nose. Every night she prayed that the rest of her face would grow faster than it did. Praying for the Nose to shrink, she knew from long experience, was useless. At that point, she had given up. Some days she thought she looked all right; this just wasn't going to be one of them. She was buttering her toast, the only thing she'd had strength enough to make, when her father walked into the kitchen, looking even sleepier than she did. So puffy-eyed that she wasn’t even sure his eyes were open, he opened the fridge and stared into it for so long that she thought he must have gone back to sleep. But he finally closed it without taking anything out and then he did the same thing with the kitchen cupboards. Virginia’s Dad didn’t seem to be having a great day for making up his mind. “Morning, Ginny.” “Morning, Dad.” “And what did you dream about last night?” Virginia smiled a little at this. It was something they did every morning. “Nothing.” “Nothing! Nothing!” Mr. Huws waved his arms in the air as if he were angry. It was part of the game. “What do you mean, nothing? How many times have I told you to dream about something! Now, what did you dream about last night?” “Sorry, Dad, nothing.” Mr. Huws snorted air out his nose in mock exasperation and Virginia started to eat her toast. But just as she was going to take a bite she stopped and her toast hovered in front of her gaping mouth. It wasn’t true! She had dreamed about something last night and even just the sudden memory of it made her feel sick with fear. It had been a nightmare, the worst one she could ever remember, even worse than the ones she’d had when her Mom died. It had been so horrible she didn’t even want to think about it again. She put her toast down, bolted from the table and rushed to the front door. Her father looked at her with concern. “Are you all right?” “Yeah, Dad, just late for school.” Mr. Huws muttered something about “the youth of today” as Virginia raced out the door. He often muttered things about “the youth of today.” Then he sat down and started to eat his daughter’s toast. It saved him having to decide what to have for breakfast. For once Virginia found herself grateful to be at school because Mrs. Cowl would keep her so busy she wouldn’t have time to think about that nightmare. Mrs. Cowl was a great believer in keeping kids busy. For her an unbusy kid was something that should be stamped out like a cockroach. At the present moment, Virginia was busy trying to take off her knee socks without anyone noticing, while across from her Kevin Connor was busy trying to make rude noises by flapping his arm over his hand in his armpit. This was not the sort of busy that Mrs. Cowl wanted a kid to be. Questions in long division were more what she had in mind and what Kevin was doing was definitely not mathematical. Her nose wrinkled as if she had detected a horrible smell, as if Kevin’s imitations had worked far better than he ever imagined. The young boy, however, was unaware that the teacher had noticed and was still happily flapping his arm up and down, trying to make Virginia laugh, but even though she was grateful for the distraction, she was afraid to laugh because she had noticed the look on Mrs. Cowl’s face. The teacher’s mouth opened and a horrifying sound came out. It started as a deep rumble and ended as a piercing shriek. The word she said was “Kevin” and she said it so loud that the kindergarten kids next door all suddenly wanted to go to the bathroom. It was truly unfortunate for Kevin that he could not stop himself in time. His arm made one last flap and a sort of pathetic “Pffft” filled the silence after Mrs. Cowl’s shriek. Virginia wanted very much to giggle, but she bit down hard on her tongue to stop herself. The class waited in horror. They already knew that their teacher was in a very bad mood today. Mrs. Cowl only had two moods and good wasn’t one of them. Bad and very bad was more like it. “Kevin. Would you stand up, please?” Her voice was extremely calm and controlled, which was a very bad sign. “Would you mind explaining to the rest of the class just exactly what it was that you were doing?” Kevin just stood there. He was paralysed with fear. “Well, I’m waiting.” Mrs. Cowl didn’t like waiting. It wasn’t busy enough. Kevin closed his eyes. He might have been praying. The suspense was too much for Melissa Pryce who shot her hand up into the air and blurted out the answer. “He was making fart noises, Mrs. Cowl!” Melissa sat there looking very pleased with herself. It never occurred to her that Mrs. Cowl might object to the word more than she did the noise. “Thank you.” Melissa looked more pleased than ever. “Perhaps staying in after school will teach you not to use that sort of language.” Unbelievable! Melissa Pryce never had to stay in. Kevin was doomed! Virginia looked over at him. His knees were now so weak with fear that he was leaning on his desk to hold himself up. “But that’s not fair!” Melissa whined. “He was the one---“ “And if you stay in tomorrow as well, it might teach you not to talk back.” Melissa’s mouth hung open in shock. Then she crossed her arms across her chest and pouted. Her lower lip almost reached her chin. “And as for you, Kevin Connor, you will stay in as well.” That was it? He had to stay in? Mrs. Cowl was going soft! “For the rest of the year.” Kevin slumped into his seat and held his head in his hands. Virginia already knew how many school days were left. “Forty-seven. You got forty-seven detentions!” she whispered. Kevin lifted his head a little. At least he’d set a new record. There was a flurry of activity. Pencil cases zipped, books opened and pens scribbled as all the students tried to give the impression that they could hardly wait to figure out the mountain of math questions that they had been assigned. Mrs. Cowl looked out over this whirlwind of scholarship and came as close to smiling as she ever did. These students were truly busy! But even though Virginia did open her math book and try to start working, she just couldn’t concentrate. She just stared at the questions on the page while in her head another image was forming. Then, without really noticing what she was doing, she found herself starting to draw, which was not something she ever did. She wasn’t very good at art; she even had trouble with stick men. This time, though, she drew as if she was being forced to draw something that she had never drawn before and the strange thing was that she was drawing very well. Usually, you’d have to guess what she was drawing, but not this time. What she had drawn looked just the way it had the night before. She had drawn a dragon, the one she had seen in her nightmare.