by Anne E. Johnson –
“What should we do?” Kila asked as Anyi set her book bag down in the front hallway.
Anyi pretended to look for something in her bag. Kila was driving her crazy lately, but she didn’t want to snarl at her so-called best friend.
“Well?” Kila had her hands on her hips, waiting for an answer.
“Let’s have a snack,” said Anyi, although she really wasn’t hungry. She wondered why Kila could never think of what to do on her own.
Kila was already heading toward the kitchen. “What should we have?”
Why don’t you decide? Anyi thought, but she didn’t say anything. While she searched the cupboards for snacks, Anyi wondered what had happen to their friendship.
“What are you in the mood for?” Kila’s voice sounded chipper. She seemed to think they were still best friends.
Anyi sighed. “Let’s have ice cream. I think there’s some left from my cousin’s birthday party.” She was right. There was a big tub of ice cream in the freezer. It should have been mostly empty, so Anyi was surprised how heavy it was.
Kila was already sitting at the table, smiling eagerly. Instead of smiling back, Anyi snapped, “You could’ve gotten the bowls and spoons. You’ve been here like a thousand times, so you know where they are.”
Kila shrugged and grinned again, so Anyi went to the silverware drawer. Kneeling up on her chair, Kila peered closely at the writing on the lid. “Why’s this ice cream called butter brickle?”
Anyi hesitated only for a second. Truthfully, she didn’t know why it was called butter brickle. But Anyi couldn’t stand to leave a question unanswered. And she would never admit when she didn’t know something. “It’s got those little brown specks in it.” She invented an answer as she went. “They’re made out of butter, and they’re called brickles.”
“Why are they called brickles? That’s a weird word.”
If that girl asks one more question, Anyi thought, I’m going to scream. But she made up an answer to that one, too. “They look kind of like tiny bricks.” Before Kila could wonder about anything else, Anyi ripped the wide lid off the tub of ice cream.
As she turned to place it on the counter behind her, she could not believe what Kila said next.
“What’s in the tub?”
Anyi spun around, shouting, “It’s ice cream! What’s wrong with you? Don’t you know anything?”
Kila’s eyes were wide and her mouth hung open. However, she didn’t look like she’d even heard Anyi’s rude comments. She was still staring into the tub. “Is that a dragon?”
It was such a strange question that Anyi couldn’t help being curious. She peeked over the edge of the ice cream bucket.
No doubt about it, there was a little blue dragon in the ice cream. It had nestled waist-deep into the vanilla specked with crunchy candy. Its little blue snout pointed up at them and it paddled and slapped its front legs like it was playing in a mud puddle.
Gently, Anyi tipped the bucket just enough to look at its clear plastic bottom. She could see the pointed end of a blue tail.
“Is it a baby?” Kila asked as they watched the scaly creature lick toffee off its front claws.
Automatically Anyi pretended she knew the answer. “Yes.”
“Are you sure it’s not a lizard?” asked Kila.
Anyi wasn’t sure, but she didn’t want to admit that. She took a closer look. The dragon wiggled a little and Anyi got her answer. “He has to be a dragon,” she said confidently. “He’s got wings.” She was pretty proud of herself for noticing that.
“How do you know it’s a boy dragon?”
Anyi thought about saying it must be a boy because it was blue. But then, blue was also her favorite color, and she was a girl. Also, the dragon could be blue from the cold. He was, after all, sitting in a bucket of ice cream.
While Anyi consider her answer, the dragon stretched out his tiny claws. He scooped his fingers deep into the ice cream and popped a frosty vanilla ball into his mouth.
“His talons,” said Anyi. She’d learned that word from her older brother, who loved video games with dragons in them.
“His what?”
“His little clawed fingers,” she said, holding up her own hand.
Kila narrowed her eyes. “What do the talons have to do with whether it’s a boy? Wouldn’t girl dragons have talons, too?”
The dragon made a funny swooping sound, like a cow with its tail caught in a fence. He even seemed to look at Anyi cockeyed, as if even he didn’t think his talons made him a boy.
Anyi knew she’d better make up something good. ”Boy dragons have longer talons than girl dragons.”
Kila twisted up her mouth, clearly finding something fishy with this answer. ”Talons, huh?” She appeared to think very hard before asking yet another question. ”Why’s he in the ice cream?” Anyi heard a note of challenge in her voice.
“Dragon’s love ice cream,” Anyi said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. ”Can you blame him? Wouldn’t you like to crawl around in a dessert?” The little blue dragon made a contented cooing sound and licked his talons again. ”See? He’s happy.”
“Isn’t it awfully cold in there, though?” Kila moved her index finger slowly toward the dragon’s back.
Anyi was ready with an answer for that one. ”Dragons have fire inside them, so he stays warm.” She was glad Kila didn’t ask why the ice cream didn’t melt.
“Can I touch him?”
Before Anyi could say “You’d better not,” Kila placed her finger right between the dragon’s wings. Anyi, who had seen some pretty scary dragons in her brother’s video games, closed her eyes for a second. When Kila didn’t scream, Anyi opened one eye. She couldn’t believe what she saw.
The little dragon had his talons around the end of Kila’s finger. Far from growling or biting, the dragon sounded like he was giggling. He squirmed around in the ice cream until his tummy was free from the chilly mound. Then he looked up at Kila with pleading eyes.
Anyi waited for Kila to ask what she should do. But Kila didn’t ask. She went right ahead and gave that dragon a belly rub.
Surprised and a little annoyed, Anyi tried to take control. “Actually, I don’t think it’s a dragon after all. It’s not magic or anything. If it were a dragon, it would be more magical. It’s probably just a gross lizard that somehow got into our ice cream. You shouldn’t touch it.”
But Kila kept right on rubbing the dragon’s belly, singing, “Pretty, pretty dragon, such a pretty dragon.” While Anyi watched, jealousy crept into her heart. It was bad enough that Kila was deciding on her own what to do, but she also got to pet the dragon!
Anyi was about to shout at Kila, to call her a greedy creep, maybe even throw her out of the house. But just then Anyi and the dragon locked gazes. Its tongue was still busy cleaning ice cream off its talons, but Anyi swore she could hear a little voice in the back of her head, saying, “Ask Kila a question.” There was an impish gleam in that dragon’s eye while it sighed and snuffled, wriggling happily under Kila’s finger.
A question? Anyi thought. What would I ever need to ask Kila? Finally she thought of something Kila knew and she didn’t. “What does dragon skin feel like?”
Instead of giving a know-it-all answer like Anyi was expecting, Kila smiled, pulled her hand out of the ice cream tub, and said, “You should find out for yourself.”
So Anyi petted the dragon and was surprised all over again. If Kila had asked her earlier what a dragon belly felt like, she would have said “dry and scaly,” pretending she already knew. But this dragon’s tummy was soft and supple.
After a few minutes Kila took another turn at dragon petting (by this point he had turned over and was enjoying a back and wing rub). “I made that stuff up about dragons having fire inside them,” Anyi admitted. “Do you think he’s cold?”
“I don’t know,” Kila answered.
“You don’t?” Anyi was disappointed for a second. But then she realized it was a very good answer because it gave them something to talk about. “He doesn’t look cold,” she said. “How do you think he stays warm in all that ice cream?”
“Well,” Kila mused, furrowing her brow, “we learned about warm blooded and cold blooded animals in school. Maybe dragons, since they’re magical, have a whole different kind of blood, so they don’t get too hot or too cold.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Anyi agreed. “Or maybe it’s just worth being cold to be surrounded by ice cream!” She and Kila laughed at that, more than they’d laughed together in a long time.
Anyi noticed that she was starting to like Kila again and all because the dragon made her ask a question. She thought of one more thing to ask. “Did the dragon talk to you in your mind and tell you to rub its tummy?”
Kila looked at her like she was slightly nuts. “Of course he didn’t talk to me. I just figured he would like getting his tummy rubbed.” She giggled, “Don’t all creatures love that?”
“Yes, I guess they do.” Anyi smiled at the dragon who’d saved their friendship. He’s magical after all. The moment Anyi had that thought, the little blue dragon spiraled up out of the ice cream and out through an open window.
“That was incredible!” cried Kila.
“It sure was,” Anyi agreed, thrilled to have her best friend back. “What should we do now?”
“Well, we probably shouldn’t eat that ice cream,” Kila said decisively. “Let’s have apples instead.”
the end.
Question Time:
1. Why was Anyi annoyed with her friend?
2. What did the dragon in the ice cream look like?
3. What did the dragon tell Anyi to do?
4. How did the dragon help Anyi and Kila?
