Dragon Little was three years old when she stepped in elephant dung.
Dragon Little and Dragon Father were hunting the evil Safari Master. They had saved all the safari animals, but the Safari Master slipped away and they did not apprehend him.
An elephant snuggled up to Dragon Little and she laughed.
Then she stepped in elephant dung. And her father’s mood changed.
“Oh, boy,” he said. “You’re going to take a shower now.”
Dragon Little made a face. “I will not take a shower.”
“You stepped in elephant poo. Your shoe has elephant poo all over it. You’re going to take it off, take all of your clothes off, and get into the shower.”
“Uh uhhhhh,” she sang back.
“Joy,” he spoke with greater strength. I have been witness to her behavior for only a year, and I knew how impossible it was to convince her to do something she did not want to do.”It smells! You smell!”
“I like the smell!”
“How can you like the--Listen! You’re dirty now.”
“I want to be dirty!”
“If you don’t wash,” he grew more and more exasperated, “all the dirt you have will start to itch.”
“I want to itch!” she raised her voice.
Dragon Father laughed then stifled the laugh. “Joy… You stepped in elephant poo. You touched the animals. You’re dirty. You have to wash yourself.”
“I am not dirty!” she shouted.
Dragon Father made a face. And then, no doubt because he subconsciously wished it, the elephant next to her sneezed.
She sneezed on Dragon Little, covering her entire body with vast amounts of snot.
Dragon Father laughed while Dragon Little did not change expressions.
“I think you’re dirty now,” he said.
“I am not dirty. I like being like this.”
“Really?”
“Uh huh.”
The elephant sneezed again, covering her with more mountains of snot. Snot covered her entire face, and she had to remove the snot from her eyes and nose and mouth.
“How about now?”
“No,” she insisted. Then, immediately, she said: “Hold on.”
Dragon Little reached down to the ground. With her finger, she touched the sand. She raised her finger. A few grains of sand had stuck to the snot. “Look,” she showed that finger to her father. “Now I’m dirty. Now I need a shower.”
He nodded. “You’re right. Now you’re dirty. Let’s go.”
—Told by The Red Dragon