This ist unusual for me. I am not usually this forgetful. 

I have already told you about how Dragon Father became worried that Dragon Little, when she was 5, began to find it hard to make decisions. And I have told you how that led to some dangerous conclusions from her. 

But I neglected to tell you how hard it was for her to decide. For that I will have to take you to events that occurred a few days before Dragon Father sat Dragon Little down and tried teaching her about making a decision. 

They had taken Bonny’s Revenge, their pirate ship that could fly the skies and space itself, to the Planet of Nanotechnology. They had heard that the evil Nanotech King was living in the highest tower on the planet. 

Now that they had searched the planet, they found that there were two highest towers, one next to the other, each identical, except that one was blue and one was red. 

“Okay,” Dragon Father said, his hand on the wheel as the ship hovered in the air. “We’re going to have to search them one at a time. Joy, you decide, which one do you want to check first? The blue or the red?”

“The red!” Then, immediately, “The blue! Wait!” Dragon Little made a face. “Uh….” 

Dragon Father also made a face. “Joy, what’s the problem? You always make quick decisions.” 

“I don’t know which one. You decide!” 

Dragon Father’s tone changed and became calmer. “I don’t think I will. I left it up to you. You decide.” 

Dragon Little looked from one to the other. “I know. I’ll count to ten, whatever comes out, that’s what we’ll do.” 

“What?”

“One…” she pointed at the blue, “Two…” she pointed at the red, “Three,” and so on. 

“Why can’t you choose yourself?” 

“Four, five, six…”

“Joy, why can’t you choose for yourself?” 

“Seven, eight, nine, ten,” and with the last one she pointed at the red. “Damn!” 

“ ‘Damn’ means you don’t like the red, so let’s go for the blue.” 

“No. I said it’s what I get, so this is what I got. Blue!” 

“Huh,” Dragon Father said to himself. Now I realize, with what happened later, that he was deciding to turn this into a teaching moment later on. “Okay. Let’s go with blue.” 

And now you know what caused the two latest stories I have told you: How a few days later Dragon Father tried to teach Dragon Little how to make decisions, and how that led to something worse.

—Told by the Red Dragon

See how I came up with the idea for this post: