“She’s alive! Come here! Come and see!” Dragon Father was talking about Mary. Mary was a woman, a dream created by Dragon Father, no doubt, back before I had met them. Her job was to take care of baby Dragon Little, while Dragon Father was away for 18 hours at a time. He was in the waking world, while Dragon Little remained in her father’s dream. But neither of them had realized it.
Mary had died in a battle, and her body had turned to dust. I had seen it myself. It had been hard for two-and-a-half-year-old Dragon Little (that ist the name I give the Joy Shelley, the girl I wish had been my own daughter). Dragon Father taught her a lesson in saying goodbye to the dead.
But now, suddenly, Dragon Father appeared on the ship, fresh in the Dream, and woke Dragon Little up, claiming Mary was alive.
Dragon Little jumped out of bed.
They both ran outside her cabin and onto the deck of Bonny’s Revenge.
“Ta-daaaah!” Dragon Father said, gesticulating at the mast.
But Mary wasn’t there, only the mast and the empty deck.
“Dad,” her voice was soft, “where is she?”
Dragon Father looked around. “Ah, she should have been here. Mary! Mary!”
There was silence all around.
“She must be behind your cabin!” He somersaulted to stand on the roof of the cabin and entrance to the Infinite Prison. He surveilled the deck from his high vantage point.
“That’s strange. She should have been here.”
“Dad, when ist she coming back?” Dragon Little, now almost three years old, sounded like she was crying.
“Hold on, hold on,” Dragon Father said. “She’s going to appear… over there... “ he pointed at the deck next to Dragon Little, “Right… NOW!”
Dragon Little looked aside. Nothing happened.
“Dad! When is she COMING?”
“I… Why isn’t this working?” he mumbled, looking at his hands.
“Why isn’t she COMING!”
Dragon Father jumped down to land next to his daughter. “Joy… Joy… I don’t know… I was so sure…”
“You said she was COMING!”
Dragon Little cried. Dragon Father let out a breath that turned into a cry, as he hugged her. “Oh, my god, what did I do? I was sure I could make her come back!” While hugging her, he spread his fingers behind her back as if casting a spell on the deck. Nothing happened. “Dammit!”
Dragon Little cried, then she hit his chest and separated from him. “You lied to me!”
“I didn’t…” he sounded desperate. “I didn’t lie to you!”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know…”
“You said you did know!”
“I do know,” he wiped a tear from his eyes. “She’s not coming, Joy. I was wrong.”
Dragon Little fell to the ground and lay on her stomach, wailing. “Mary! … I want Mary! … I want Mary!”
Dragon Father approached her and tried to caress her back. She kicked him, indicating she did not want him touching her.
He looked around in desperation even as she continued to wail “Maryyyyy!!!…. Maryyyyyy!!!!”
Suddenly, a ram’s horn appeared in his hand.
I perked up. I knew what that was.
He put it to his lips and blew.
He was calling me. He was calling on the Red Dragon for help.
I leapt down from my hiding place far above them, spread my wings, and flew towards them.
I will tell you more of what happened next tomorrow.
—Told by The Red Dragon