by Suzy Kline
Bloop!
Harry’s kick went up over his head and backward into foul territory.
“Two fouls!” Mary screamed, holding up two fingers. “One more and you’re out.”
Harry’s eyes looked like red-hot coals.
Song Lee pitched another wicked spinner.
Harry flapped his arms like they were huge bat wings and went charging after the ball.
Wham!
The ball went up, up, up, then down, down, down by the left side of the fence.
“Three fouls! You’re out!” Mary yelled.
Harry stomped to the end of the line and faced the oak tree on the other side of the fence. All you could see was his back. That’s what Harry does when he thinks he might cry. He doesn’t want anyone to know.
When the bell rang, we were behind six to seven. The Fire-Breathing Dragons with Green Poisonous Breath had run out of time. Harry kicked the fence three times. Boy, was he mad!
Sidney was, too. He walked up to Harry and pointed to his chest. “If it weren’t for you, and your stupid kicking, we could have won!”
That did it! Harry jumped on Sid’s back and rode him around like a wild bronco. His wet shoes made marks on Sid’s pants.
“Get off! Get off me!” Sidney shouted.
Mary rushed over to Harry. “So ...” she scolded. “How do you like it when someone calls you stupid?”
Harry didn’t answer.
He just slid off Sid’s back and looked over at Song Lee. She had her head down. Winning the game didn’t change anything. Song Lee’s mood was either mad or sad. She didn’t feel like slapping her team five.
“Gee,” Ida complained, “even kickball isn’t fun anymore.”
“I know,” Mary groaned. “Nothing is.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I hate war.”
Harry didn’t say a word to anyone. He just walked to the cafeteria alone.
The White Package
Everyone knows when you surrender, you hold up a white flag. That’s what happens in real wars. And that’s what finally happened in Room 3B.
Sort of.
The white part anyway.
It just wasn’t a flag.
Room 3B was sitting in the cafeteria. It was hot-dog day and most of us were eating hot dogs. Sidney sat at the end of the table, far away from Harry. I think both of them regretted using the “s” word.
“Rats! I didn’t get any mustard,” Harry said. “Come with me, Doug.”
I jumped out of my seat. I was happy Harry was talking again.
I got a little worried, though, as I followed him. We didn’t join the student line. We walked farther down, to the teachers’ side of the cafeteria.
“Hey, Harry,” I asked. “What are you doing?”
“Getting something white,” he whispered.
White? I took one quick look at the glass shelf. There was yogurt and cream cheese that was white, but Harry didn’t take anything from that shelf. He took something that was next to the coffee urn. As soon as he stuffed it into his pants pocket, we took off!
When we returned to our table, Harry reached in his pants pocket, pulled out a packet of mustard, and squeezed some on his hot dog.
Harry had it all along!
At 12:45, our class went back to the room. Miss Mackle always gives us fifteen minutes of activity time after lunch. Mary was helping Song Lee look up stuff about dragons on the computer. Each time they found something, they printed out a page.
Harry went over to the supply table and wrapped the surprise he had in his pocket. He used white paper and plenty of Scotch tape. The package looked like a wrinkled baseball. He wrote something on a piece of paper, folded it in half, and taped it on top of the package.
I watched Harry creep over to Song Lee’s table and set that white package right next to her striped dragon. He was giving Song Lee a gift!
At that very moment, shrieks came from the front of the room. “Wow!” Mary exclaimed. “Listen to this you guys!” she called out.
Dexter and I left our checker game and joined the crowd gathering around the computer.
“The Western dragons are terrifying!” Mary read. “Many of them are in stories from Africa and Europe.”
Harry clasped his fists together and waved them over his head like he was a champion. “I knew it!” he said. “I knew it all along!”
Mary continued. “Their bodies are filled with venom! Their favorite drink is milk, and ...” Mary shuddered, “aaaaauuugh ... they eat maidens, birds, oxen, and deer, and enjoy cakes and elephant’s blood.”
“Yeah!” Harry roared, racing back to our table to get his dragon.
Miss Mackle was smiling as she joined us at the computer. She loved it when her students discovered facts on their own.
“Wait a minute,” Mary said, holding up a finger. “There is another kind of dragon ... the Eastern dragon—and they are beautiful, friendly, and wise!”
Song Lee made prayer hands while Harry took a step back, hugged his dragon, and frowned. Mary kept reading. “Some Asian cities have New Year’s parades with dragons leading them. These dragons are loved and worshipped! They breathe clouds, eat bamboo and cream, and get fat on arsenic. Arsenic will poison humans, but not dragons.”
“Oooooooh,” we said.
“Cool!” I said.
At one o’clock, activity time was over and we had to go back to our seats and gather facts about our other animals.
Mary hogged the computer to do spider research. I grabbed the D encyclopedia. Sid grabbed volume R.
As soon as she returned to her table, Song Lee spotted the white package. She untaped the note and started reading it. Harry whispered the words to me:
We watched Song Lee unwrap the white, wrinkly paper. A small plastic creamer rolled out onto her desk. It was the kind teachers use for their coffee. When Song Lee pretended to pour it into her dragon’s mouth, Harry flashed a toothy smile.
Yes! The old Harry was back!
Song Lee rushed over to Mary and showed her Harry’s note. Mary hugged her. “I don’t believe it!” she said. “Harry apologized. And made a peace offering, too. We should celebrate the end of our war.”
“I know just what to do,” Song Lee said.
The Dragon Parade
A minute later, Song Lee came over to Harry. He greeted her with a smile as U-shaped as a slice of cantaloupe.
Song Lee made her dragon hop three times on the table. Then she turned his head to face Harry’s dragon.
“Thank you for my cream. But where’s my bamboo?” she giggled.
Harry made his dragon reply in a deep, ferocious voice. “I’ll get you a Popsicle stick tomorrow.”
The silent war was over! Song Lee and Harry were talking to each other. At least their dragons were. It was better than any fireworks on the Fourth of July!
“I know how we can celebrate,” Mary said. “We could have a parade. The two kinds of dragons can lead it, just like a New Year’s parade.”
“What a great idea!” Miss Mackle called out. She was standing at the sink, scrubbing the bucket of paste. “We can celebrate our works in progress. Why don’t we snake our line right down the hall to the library. Mrs. Michaelsen, our librarian, would love it.”
“Ruff! Ruff!” I said making Searchlight bark. I loved how I was painting her. Just like the story! All black with one white spot on her forehead the size of a silver dollar.
“Grrrrr ... grrrr!” Ida growled for her yellow mongoose from Rikki Tikki Tavi. I loved the snake she put in its mouth.
Song Lee and Harry went to the front of the line. Dexter hung out with me.
“Hey, Dex,” I asked, “how come you picked the goose in Charlotte’s Web?”
“Why do you think?” he answered. “Because of Elvis. You know how I read everything about him. I love rock and roll.”
“Everybody knows that,” I replied. “But why geese?”
“Elvis had them in his yard. He knew goose poop helped his garden grow.”
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“Cool,” I said.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” Sidney complained. “I can’t wait for Mrs. Michaelsen to see my Templeton. I even put Charlotte’s egg sack in his mouth. ‘Thith thtuff thticks in my mouth. It’th worth than caramel candy.’”
“That’s pretty good, Sid,” I said.
That afternoon we were so happy, holding our animals high, marching down the hall. When we got halfway, Harry said his dragon was thirsty, so he borrowed Song Lee’s creamer. After he peeled back the white top, he gave his dragon a sip, then passed it back to Song Lee. “Both of our dragons love this stuff,” Harry said.
Song Lee smiled.
By the time we got to the library, the dragons had milk mustaches.
Harry and Song Lee did, too.
I don’t think the teacher ever knew what the real celebration was about. She and Mrs. Michaelsen were ooohing and ahhhing about the papiermache animals.
But we knew.
Harry and Song Lee’s friendship survived the Dragon War. And so did the rest of us in Room 3B!