The Little Red Dragon continued....
Miss Grey is
getting used to quick thinking from having a red dragon in her class. “Oops! “
She has dropped her sandwich into her lap. Mrs Hall immediately stops looking
at Matthew and gets a tissue out of her bag. “Let me help you wipe up that
mayonnaise and beetroot. What a mess!”
“The stain is
spreading,” wails Miss Grey. ”My skirt will be ruined. I think I need to return
to school so I can rinse the stain out.” And before Mrs Hall can protest she
claps her hands and calls out,” Everyone into line, time to leave.”
When Miss Grey
is back in her classroom she carefully shuts the door and all the windows
before she says in a loud, cross voice. “Jack you were very naughty today.
First the ladybirds, then there was the drama about the lizard. And what made
you eat the two green caterpillars and the worm?”
The class sat
very still and stared hard at Miss Grey. They knew the answer, why didn’t Miss
Grey?
“Oh, I am so
sorry Miss.” It wasn’t Jack who was answering, it was Theo. “It was me that ate
the caterpillars and the worms. The ladybirds looked like spotted jewels. I
didn’t know they would fly away when I touched them. And why did that nasty
teacher want to shut a baby dragon up in a jar for? Was she going to eat it? I
asked Jack to stop her because he has the biggest voice. We all thought she was
mean.” And Theo hung his head and added, “I suppose you won’t want me in your
class anymore?”
And for the very first time Miss Grey sees all of Theo clearly. Every single red shiny scale. His
hung head, his long nailed hands twisting together. Did this mean she also
totally believed in red dragons?
“Theo of course
you can stay,” she answered in a kind voice. “I am sorry Jack. I am sorry
class, I did not understand. Your behaviour was actually excellent today. Thank
you for looking after our friend Theo so well. I think it was because I was
nervous of our red dragon being discovered that made me so cross. “Matthew,”
she asks, “would you open the door and windows again for me? Everyone can do
quiet reading until home-time. I am going to the cloak room to rinse the stain
out of my skirt.”
Miss Grey has a
slight headache behind her eyes. It is not easy for a teacher to have a red dragon
in her class.
Theo is reading
his book with a big smile on his face and he whispers to himself. “Our friend,
she called me. Miss Grey called me, our friend Theo. What a perfect day I’ve
had!”
Miss Grey’s
Birthday and the Adventure
For five days
now Miss Grey has learnt to make a loud noise as she comes into Room Nine.
Everyone who was whispering excitedly around Amy’s desk, stops and goes back to
a desk. When Theo had started humming Happy Birthday, everyone hissed at him to
hush and put their books up to cover their smiling faces.
Yes, it was going
to be Miss Grey’s birthday on Thursday. The class had made a big birthday card
with all their names on it and Amy’s mother was making a huge chocolate
birthday cake. They had saved up enough money to buy Miss Grey a new cellphone,
one that took photographs, for her birthday present. The problem was they had
to go to a department store in the city to get it.
“I know how to
get to the store,” says Matthew, “I’m used to going with my grandmother on the
train.”
I thought of
the idea of a cellphone as a present, so I should come too,” said Amy.
“Well if
Matthew and Amy are going, then we should come too” said Michael and Marie
together. And then Jack and Janice said they must come too.
“What about me?
I haven’t been to a city yet.” begs Theo.
“But Theo, how
can you travel on a train with your tail? Trains get crowded and people will
trip over it.”
Everyone stood
around and looked at Theo’s tail.
It was Jack who
thought of how he could use a dog’s collar and lead to lift Theo’s tail so it
became more like squirrel’s tail. Then Theo would be able to sit in a train
seat as well.
The next day in
the cloakroom after school, Jack buckled up a dog’s collar around Theo’s tail.
He clipped the lead on the collar, brought the lead up around Theo’s chest and
back down again to clip it back onto the collar. There! Theo’s tail stood up
like a squirrel’s.
“Perfect,
though it feels very strange,” said Theo. He walked around, then did a little
dance and then a wriggle and the collar and lead stayed in place.
So off went
Matthew, Jack, Amy, Marie, Michael, Janice, and of course Theo, their red
dragon friend, went too, down to the railway station where they caught the 3.30
train to the city.
For a few
minutes they had fun getting their invisible friend to open and shut the store’s
big glass automatic doors and watching the shopper’s surprise, before they were
off up the escalators to the third floor where the cellphones were sold.
“What colour do
you think Miss Grey would like?” they asked each other. “There are so many
colours to choose from.” But Theo just kept nudging them and pointing to the
shiny red one. Finally they all agreed red was the very best choice. Amy gave
the salesman the money and he put the phone in a box, then wrapped it in silver
paper and finally tied a big red ribbon around it.
Matthew looks
at his watch. “We still have some spare time. Let’s go and have a look at the
toys!” And he leads the way in a rush to the escalator to go back down to the
first floor where the toys were.
But they were
so eager to go that they did not notice that Theo had stopped to look with
surprise at an ‘in-store security television screen’ on the wall, showing his
friends and the customers moving on it. When he turned around his friends were
already half-way down the escalator! Theo rushed to the escalator, then had to
stand back to let some people get on ahead of him. Then it was his turn, but
now he was so anxious he was not watching properly and one of his claws on his
right foot caught in the mat and down the escalator he tumbled. Bump. Ouch.
Bump. Ouch. Bump. Ouch. And he landed all in a tangle out onto the second
floor. That hurt. Theo wanted to howl out loud. Where were his friends?
The fall also made
one of the clips on the lead come undone and his tail fell down. Theo could not
do small things like do up lead-clips with his long nails. So, with one hand
he held up his tail by the lead and his other hand he stretched backwards to
hold the other side of his tail. In this way he rushed around the second floor
looking everywhere for Matthew, Michael Amy, Jack, Marie and Janice. But of
course he couldn’t find them anywhere there because they were all on the first
floor looking at toys.
.To be continued:
Copyright: Lois E Hunter
lois.e.hunter2@gmail.com
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