“You know, I didn’t have to call you Joy,” Dragon Father said once.
The two were on a snow planet, full of snowy mountains as cold as it’s ever been for them. Dragon Father and Dragon Little waited behind a snow-covered rock for the Snow Pirates to return to their lair.
The cold was probably what caused Dragon Father to think of what he had just said.
Four-and-a-half-year-old Dragon Little looked at him. “No?”
“No, I didn’t,” Dragon Father said in a serious tone. “I could have called you ‘Ah-choo!’”
“Ah-choo?”
“Gesundheit. Exactly. And then if we were, like, on a mission and we got separated, I could go to people and ask, ‘Hey, did you see my daughter?’ And they’d say, ‘What’s her name?’ I’d say, ‘Ah-choo!’ They’d say ‘Gesundheit. But what’s her name?’”
Dragon Little laughed. Dragon Father continued. “I’d say, ‘That is her name.’ ‘What is?’ ‘Ah-choo!’ ‘Gesundheit. But what’s her name?’”
Dragon Little laughed harder. “Ah-choo!” she said and laughed.
“That’s right. I’d say ‘Ah-choo!’ And they’d say, ‘You really should take care of your cold. But what’s her name?’ And then it would go like that forever and I’d never find you. See, that’s why I didn’t call you ‘Ah-choo!’”
“Because you’d never find me!”
“That’s right.”
“Now tell me the story again!”
Dragon Father did. And this time Dragon Little found it even funnier.
He told it six more times until the Snow Pirates arrived and the adventure continued.
—Told by The Red Dragon