As often happened, Dragon Father appeared in the very last minute and saved Dragon Little’s life from the villain. He crashed the glass ceiling and landed on the head of the Smiling Clown just as he was about to strangle four-and-a-half-year-old Dragon Little. 

The Smiling Clown was crushed and, his body apparently made out of whipped cream, exploded whipped cream through his clothes in all directions. 

“Woo hoo!” Dragon Little jumped up and down, excited. She had loved this adventure. “You’re so great, Dad!” 

Dragon Father picked up some whipped cream from her forehead with his finger and tried it. “I’m great, huh?” he asked calmly. He was not used to getting compliments from his daughter. 

“Uh-huh. The greatest dad ever!” she licked more whipped cream off her clothes. 

“Hmmmm... What makes up a great dad, Joy?”

She stopped licking the clown remnants and started thinking. “Hmmm… You’re fun.” 

“I’m fun?” 

“Yes.”

“Okay. What else?”

“You’re a lot of fun!” 

“A lot of fun?”

“Yes.” 

“And also maybe… what?” 

“I like you.” 

“You like me? Oh, so nice! Well, I love you!” he hugged her, getting some whipped cream on his clothes. “Maybe that makes me a good dad, too?” 

She shrugged. “Could be.”

He smiled. “Could be? Huh.” 

“I love it when you tell me stories before I go to bed,” she said as she reached with her hand into the clown’s shirt.

“Aw, that’s nice. So I’m a good Dad. What makes me a great dad?” 

She produced a fistful of whipped cream from inside the evil clown’s shirt. “Whipped cream!” she smiled with a mouthful of the clown’s innards. 

Dragon Father laughed. “Whipped cream, huh? Not sure that’s my doing, but I’ll take it.” 

But as for me, watching from afar, I knew that it was Dragon Father’s doing. It was his dream, even if he didn’t know it. This conversation started me thinking about the last thing Dragon Little said. I thought about it for days and days. 

She thought he was a good father because there was whipped cream. Did she know? Somewhere in the back of her mind, without realizing it, without understanding it, without knowing she knew - did she know he was creating everything within her world? Did she know that he was creating their adventures? 

I could not stop thinking about that.

—Told by The Red Dragon