A Dragon's Guide to Making Perfect Wishes

by Laurence Yep

  He looked at it doubtfully. “That’s not going to be enough to keep you from getting cold.”

  I wound it around my neck. “I’ll be warmer than you. This is made from the wool of ice sheep.”

  Miss Drake joined us in human form, and we walked over to the nearby hospital and rode the elevator up to the roof. Then she transformed herself and cast her invisibility spell to keep naturals from seeing us. “Can we go to Clipper’s?” I asked. “She’s got everything, so I bet she even has toys and clothes for a mongoose.”

  “No, we’re returning to the marina today,” Miss Drake said as she hunkered down on the roof and spread her wings.

  I climbed on first and Rowan got on after me. Then, with a great flap of her wings, we soared up into the air, curving over the hills. The sun was low on the horizon, painting the waters of the bay with flaming oranges and yellows and reds as it drifted down toward the Golden Gate.

  In the afternoon, winds swept across the Marina Green, so it was the best place to fly kites, and today there were lots of huge ones floating in the air. And they were all such funny shapes—yachts, castles, limousines, giant puffins, coaches, and even a gazebo, each of them hovering in one spot like they were glued to the sky.

  The only one whipping around in the breeze was a little paper diamond kite that a kid was flying from below. Then I saw that the others didn’t even have a string attaching them to the ground or anyone to handle the strings in the first place.

  Willamar leaned from a gazebo, which tilted dangerously as he began to wave. “Welcome, welcome. We’ve been waiting for our guests of honor.” He stared at me and then tried to be polite. “And…uh…may I say what a lovely shade of pink you are, Miss Winnie.”

  A purple-and-black pumpkin-shaped carriage glided next to us, and Silana looked through the window. “Très chic. I’m sure you’ll make pink all the rage at Spriggs tomorrow.”

  I groaned inside because she’d tell her niece, Nanette, tonight, which would give my foe plenty of time to come up with insults for the next morning.

  Then, from all the other floating objects, the Fellowship of the Jewel City began calling their greetings as well as compliments on my pinkness because they thought I’d done it intentionally. I was so embarrassed I would have stayed pink even if Sir Isaac ended his prank right this moment.

  With a sigh, I asked Miss Drake, “Won’t someone notice all this stuff in the sky?”

  Miss Drake arched her head over her back to grin at us. “I believe they’re invisible to naturals, or Rowan will have to report all of us.”

  “I’m glad it won’t come to that,” he said.

  “After our flight, we’ll descend to my boat for refreshments.” Willamar pointed to a large catamaran with a gold and silver castle on its deck. “And of course, we’d all like to meet the Heart of Kubera at last.”

  “The news got around about Nanu Nakula?” I asked Miss Drake.

  “There are Council members who also belong to the Fellowship. They heard my report,” Rowan explained.

  The mongoose poked his head from inside Rowan’s coat. “I’m hungry. When do we eat?”

  “Soon. Now, behave,” Miss Drake said.

  Standing on the small deck at the stern of a long, shallow boat, Sir Isaac used a long pole to guide it through the air toward us. “How clever of you, Burton. You’re color-coordinated with the sunset.”

  I held up my arm and saw it was the same shade as part of the sky. “Are we even, Sir Isaac?”

  “My honor is satisfied so the answer is yes.” He raised his straw hat in one hand and the pole in the other. “Huzzah! The war is over, and peace reigns supreme once again.”

  “Sir Isaac,” I asked, trying to sound as humble and polite as I could, “how did you do it?”

  He set his hat on his head again. “That would be telling, Burton. But in class tomorrow, we will learn how to remove pinkness.”

  And, I thought, it will also be a lesson to my classmates about what happens when you try to trick Sir Isaac.

  Sir Isaac’s eyes twinkled. “And if you carefully watch each step of your de-pinking, Burton, you may be able to work out the process in reverse. And then you too can pink-ify anyone you like.”

  I put my hands up. “Anyone but you. I learned my lesson.”

  “Sir Isaac, we don’t want to lose the light,” Lady Louhi said, and then greeted us and Rowan. “Come join us, Rowan. You’ll appreciate Sir Isaac’s new gizmo.”

  She was sitting in the prow, and between her and Sir Isaac was a machine with lots of copper wires, brass coils, and lights. On the very top was a globe about the size of a softball. Miss Drake glided close, and Rowan, with Nanu Nakula, easily leapt down to Lady Louhi’s boat.

  “What’s happening?” I asked.

  Sir Isaac waved one arm in a flourish. “With the Council’s kind permission, we’re going to re-create our own Jewel City. My task will be to gather the raw materials, and Lady Louhi’s will be to shape it. And then Old Sol will paint them in suitable hues.” He turned to her. “Shall we begin, my lady?”

  When Lady Louhi nodded, Sir Isaac threw a brass switch. The next instant, the machine shuddered, and the vibrations made the boat bob up and down. Sir Isaac steadied it with his pole. When the device fell into a steady hum, I felt like hundreds of ants were crawling over my skin.

  Always the teacher, Sir Isaac called to me, “The sensation you’re feeling is caused by atoms gathering and forming into water molecules.” The air began to grow drizzly, and then beneath us clouds began to form, merging into one long sheet that hid even the city’s tallest buildings beneath it—and all of us from the city. It looked like one long layer of cookie dough that the setting sun dyed orange and rose.

  At the same time, Lady Louhi had been whispering a spell, careful to keep her hands hidden inside the boat as she drew her signs. Miss Drake soared left and I waved, but I could see Rowan and Nanu Nakula were already occupied, fascinated by the whirring gizmo.

  When Lady Louhi finished, misty columns began to rise like plant stalks, and the tops of the columns swelled into domes and roofs like flowers blossoming. I began to recognize some of the buildings I’d seen like the Palace of Fine Arts, and of course I couldn’t miss the outline of the Tower of Jewels. The breeze made their cottony sides sway like they were alive and breathing, and the sun colored them in pinks and oranges and greens and blues. And the moisture sparkled so that each building seemed to be outlined in glittering gems.

  It was almost as lovely as the magnificent Jewel City that had once stood below us, a wonderful and beautiful fair I would never forget.

  Sir Isaac cupped his free hand around his mouth like a megaphone. “Everybody, you have ten minutes, and then the illusion will have to disperse. So enjoy!”

  Miss Drake soared up high and then began gliding westward across the cloudy Persian carpet of delights. “I think Mrs. Wilder would have loved this,” I said.

  “So would Caleb,” she agreed.

  As we glided about the regal Tower of Jewels, I thought of how it stood out from the rest just like Laura Ingalls Wilder and Caleb had. “I’d like to do something that counted like they did.”

  Miss Drake arched her long neck, and the setting sun made her scales glow crimson red. But she was beautiful in any light. “You will, my dear. That’s one wish we don’t need the Heart of Kubera for. We’ll make it come true ourselves.”

  I put my arms around her and pressed my face right against her scales. They were dry, cool, strong. “You are my wish come true.”

  Miss Drake nuzzled her cheek against me. “And you are mine.”

  And we went on gliding through that city of light and dreams.

  AFTERWORD

  Without Laura Ingalls Wilder, we would never have written this book. So, in her honor and as an homage, we wished her to be part of it.

  In 1915, forty-eight-year-old Laura Ingalls Wilder traveled by train from Missouri to visit her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, and to see San Francisco
and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, known as the PPIE. At the time, she and her husband, Almanzo, were farmers, and she occasionally wrote for local newspapers about rural life and raising her chickens.

  “I intend to try to do some writing that will count,” she wrote to her “Manly.” And she did—she wrote many more articles, and then many years later, books based on her own childhood—the Little House books—that have delighted and inspired generations of young readers.

  In the 1970s, when I was a young editor at Harper & Row, I helped edit the book West from Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, San Francisco, 1915. I was a New Yorker through and through, but I had been to San Francisco and had, like many others, left my heart there. So Laura Ingalls Wilder’s lively and affectionate descriptions of the city, the ocean, and her introduction to this marvelous fair won me over. I wished I could travel back in time to see the PPIE too.

  The PPIE celebrated the completion and opening of the Panama Canal and especially the revival and rebirth of San Francisco from the destruction caused by the 1906 earthquake and great fire. San Franciscans were ready to show the world their city was flourishing again. The fair was spectacular, full of inventions, amazing machines, aeronautics, and the best art, culture, food, and fun that the world could offer.

  Larry is a San Francisco native, and when I left New York to be with him, we settled there for over a decade. In 2015, we joined in the festivities celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the PPIE. We decided to write a story so Winnie could visit this wonderful fair and, through her, so could our readers. We imagined Winnie briefly meeting her beloved author and being able to tell her how much she enjoyed her books…though to Laura Ingalls Wilder they were still just a wish and a dream. Laura was courageous and curious, like Winnie, and we felt that if ever they did meet, they might be kindred spirits.

  The PPIE opened on February 20, 1915, and closed on December 4, 1915. Our descriptions include activities and sites throughout the time of the Exposition.

  Joanne Ryder

  Serendipity is part of writing. Joanne introduced me to the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. There I saw the most wonderful statue of the potbellied Kubera, the Hindu and Buddhist god of wealth. He was grinning as he squeezed his mongoose like a tube of toothpaste—only what came out of his pet’s mouth was a stream of jewels. While Kubera has numerous names, forms, and attributes, he not only grants riches, but according to the museum, he and his mongoose remind people to be equally generous and selfless. The statue was my inspiration for the Heart of Kubera—a mongoose with a ruby heart.

  Laurence Yep

  SOME RECOMMENDED SOURCES ABOUT THE SAN FRANCISCO FAIR OF 1915

  Wilder, Laura Ingalls. West from Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, San Francisco, 1915. Edited by Roger Lea MacBride. HarperCollins Publishers, 1974.

  Written long before her Little House books, Laura’s letters to her husband convey her personal impressions of San Francisco and the 1915 Fair. These early letters will charm her fans with glimpses of her life and aspirations as a writer.

  Ackley, Laura A. San Francisco’s Jewel City: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. Heyday, 2014.

  Elaborately illustrated and carefully researched, this is an excellent and well-written guide for anyone interested in the 1915 fair and its background.

  Bruno, Lee. Panorama: Tales of the 1915 Pan-Pacific International Exposition. Cameron + Company, 2014.

  A coffee-table book with photographs, helpful maps, and stories of the 1915 Fair.

  Lieber, Robert, and Sarah Lau, editors. The Last Great World’s Fair: San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition 1915. Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, 2004.

  An overview of the Fair, including hand-tinted photographs and fascinating firsts and facts.

  ONLINE SOURCES

  Panama-Pacific International Exposition. ppie100.org

  This website of the 2015 centennial celebration in San Francisco and vicinity contains a wealth of information about the original Fair.

  Macomber, Ben. The Jewel City: Its Planning and Achievements; Its Architecture, Sculpture, Symbolism, and Music; Its Gardens, Palaces, and Exhibits. San Francisco, 1915. http://www.archive.org/​details/​jewelcityitspla02macogoog

  Much of this material originally appeared as articles in the San Francisco Chronicle. Written at the time of the Exposition, it includes detailed descriptions of the 1915 Fair buildings, courtyards, artwork, illuminations, and exhibits.

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