A Boy and His Dragon

by Michael J. Bowler

  CHAPTER 8

  “Summer Vacation”

  Freedom at last! Almost three months without school and John Wagner. Yippee! Bradley Wallace’s heart was light and his step lively as he ran home from the bus stop that afternoon. Of course, summer also meant longer workdays with Mr. O’Conner, but he looked forward to that. Much as he enjoyed not being in school for three months, quite often he had nothing to do during the summer, and tired quickly of hanging around the house with his mother, especially since she always thought up a million chores for him to do, all unpleasant and boring. No thank you. At least she finally seemed to accept both his job and his eating habits as harsh realities she wouldn’t be able to change, and so life in the Murphy household had settled into some semblance of calm routine.

  Both parents heartily praised his report card, especially the B-in math (an improvement over the C he’d gotten last reporting period). They barely commented on the C in handwriting - that was a foregone conclusion anyway and certainly not the most significant subject on the card. They both also noted, to his surprise, the large number of signatures on the cover, and expressed genuine pleasure that he seemed to be making “lots of friends.” He merely shrugged and smiled. Best not to go into that.

  Whilly continued to grow during this period, shedding his original scales for newer, larger, and shinier ones, much in the manner of a snake shedding its skin. His wings, belly, and the ridges down his back were slowly changing color from crimson-brown to a deep scarlet that matched his beautifully piercing eyes. Bradley Wallace commented on these changes on the afternoon school let out, after the companions clicked off the portable television and sent another episode of “Dark Shadows” to the ethereal oblivion of memory. Whilly seemed especially restless this day, as though feeding on the boy’s own excitement and amplifying it. Bradley Wallace feared his friend might be sick.

  I’m not sick, Bradley Wallace, Whilly answered, reading the boy’s mind with ease. I am what you would call bored.

  “Bored?” the child repeated in surprise, slightly hurt. “Don’t you like my company anymore?”

  Of course, the dragon reassured him quickly, knowing how sensitive his friend was, but you’re not here all the time. I’m alone here so much with nothing to do except watch TV.

  “I thought you liked watching TV.”

  I did for a while. But it’s too much of the same thing all the time. I get bored.

  Bradley Wallace had never seen the dragon so fidgety, but he could empathize. He didn’t like being alone all the time either. “I’m sorry I haven’t spent more time with you. But with school and all, it’s hard. And you can’t just go flying around the countryside or someone might see you.” It was a problem, all right.

  Dragons need their freedom just as you humans do, Whilly informed him, obviously having dwelt at great length on this matter.

  Bradley Wallace nodded. “We’re really sort of the same. I mean, I have a little more freedom than you do, but I still can’t just do what I want when I want to. I have to get my parents permission and do what they say.”

  Both lapsed into a thoughtful silence, considering the difficulties children and dragons must face in this world. The quiet was broken only intermittently by the occasional squawk of a circling crow or the tree branches rustling in the hot summer breeze. Finally, Bradley Wallace spoke.

  “Look, what if I promise to spend all my time with you this summer, except when I have to work with Mr. O’Conner?” The idea of a summer with Whilly excited him. They would have such fun.

  But what will we do? Whilly asked, obviously wondering what “fun” the boy had in mind.

  Bradley Wallace hadn’t really thought of specifics. “Well, we could fly around, carefully of course, and explore new places, we can fly kites, that’s fun. And we’re gonna see ‘House of Dark Shadows,’ remember?”

  Whilly nodded, but Bradley Wallace sensed a feeling of detachment coming from his reptilian friend, almost regret. *Dragons are

  supposed to fight pirates, save damsels in distress, befriend beautiful princesses, and destroy evil magicians. Not fly kites.*

  Bradley Wallace was abashed and surprised at the same time. He recognized the truth of the dragon’s words, but didn’t understand where Whilly had learned such notions. “How do you know all that stuff? I mean, you’ve never known any other dragons.”

  I heard it in a song on television, about a magic dragon named “Puff,” Whilly replied sadly. At least he sounded sad.

  And Bradley Wallace instantly felt sad. He liked that song about Puff, but it always left him with a deep, wistful feeling of melancholia. “There just aren’t any of those things left in the world, Whilly,” Bradley Wallace apologized, wishing fervently that he could dig up just one pirate or sorcerer. “I wish there were. That would be so exciting.” His own eyes lit up at the prospect. Times like that would be even more exciting than living in Huckleberry Finn’s era. “But there just aren’t,” he concluded morosely, his heart going out to the misplaced dragon who belonged in another world than this one.

  I am an anachronism, Whilly stated flatly and unemotionally.

  “What does that mean?” the wistful boy asked, amazed at the dragon’s obviously burgeoning vocabulary.

  It means I’m a mistake, Bradley Wallace, the dragon explained. I don’t belong in this time or place. I heard it on television.

  “You do belong,” the boy insisted, feeling guilty for thinking those very thoughts moments ago. Had Whilly picked up on them? Most likely. “You belong with me. There might not be any knights or princesses or wizards, but you and me are friends, right? Forever, right?”

  You won’t forget me, like the boy in the song? Whilly asked uncertainly.

  The dragon obviously meant Jackie Paper, Bradley Wallace realized, who’d grown up and forgotten his friend Puff. That was the really sad part.

  “I won’t ever forget you, Whilly,” he asserted firmly, hoping to convince the unusually pensive dragon of his sincerity. He apparently succeeded, for Whilly nuzzled him gently.

  I forgot to tell you, Whilly went on in a lighter, more conversational tone, I can breathe fire now.

  “Really?” Bradley Wallace exclaimed with genuine excitement, relieved that the dragon seemed to have shaken his uncharacteristic gloominess.

  Watch me.

  Before the boy could even think a protest, or any kind of response, Whilly opened his massive maw and exhaled deeply. A searing projectile of roaring flame burst from the dragon’s mouth, scorching the wall of the tank and raising the temperature inside to almost unbearable limits.

  “Okay, okay,” the sweating boy croaked, his throat parched, and his eyebrows singed, “turn it off before I bake!

  Whilly clamped his jaws shut and the sheet of flame vanished, leaving only tiny wisps of smoke billowing from the dragon’s nostrils.

  Drenched in sweat, his hair plastered to his forehead, his mouth dry as the desert, Bradley Wallace fanned himself frantically with his hands.

  “Wow!” was all he could utter, staring awestruck at the silent dragon, which, he sensed, felt a certain amount of pride at having impressed his friend so thoroughly. “Can you do that any time you want?” Bradley Wallace asked, finding his voice after a momentary pause. He continued to gape in astonishment at the scorched and melted wall where the flame had struck.

  Whilly nodded.

  “Wow,” the boy repeated. “That’s cool.” Then another thought pierced his amazement. “You sure better be careful with that,” he warned. “You could set the whole hill on fire.”

  I’m not a child anymore, Bradley Wallace, the dragon pointed out, a trifle huffily, the boy thought. *I am two months old, you know.*

  For the first time, Bradley Wallace felt like his mother must feel dealing with him, and apologized to the dragon for talking down to him. He sure didn’t want to act like a grown up. “I said it without thinking,” he concluded.

  Whilly accepted the boy’s explanation and they parted that afte
rnoon in high spirits, both looking forward with anxious anticipation to the summer ahead. As Bradley Wallace started home for dinner, he vowed to return the next day with his kite, promising the dragon “lots of fun.”

  The following morning dawned bright, sunny, and warm in short, a perfect summer day. There was even a hefty breeze whisking in off the ocean, a definite kite-flying breeze, Bradley Wallace noted, wetting his finger and holding it up to the air like he’d seen in so many TV shows. He didn’t know what the action was supposed to accomplish, but somehow it made him feel more intelligent and competent. And he needed all the self-confidence he could get. He and kites had always been at odds, much like Charlie Brown and his nemesis - the kite-eating tree. Trees were a problem for Bradley Wallace, too, but his true enemies were telephone lines. Yeah, he could relate to good ‘ole Charlie Brown, he thought, as he trudged up the hill toward the old water tower, which, he suddenly realized, would eventually become too small for the rapidly growing dragon. How big do dragons get anyway?

  Such worries soon faded into oblivion as Bradley Wallace and Whilly devised a novel method of flying the boy’s kite, and put it in motion. Bradley Wallace tied the end of the string to Whilly’s tail and, kite in hand, clambered up into his familiar niche atop the dragon’s neck. Once airborne, soaring high above every tree and telephone pole, Bradley Wallace released his kite. He laughed delightedly as it fluttered behind the flying companions, and shouted victory at the trees far below. He bet no one had ever flown a kite this high before. Whilly pointed out, quite logically, that no one ever had a dragon to fly it with before. The giddy child laughed gleefully.

  For the duration of the summer, Bradley Wallace was to spend every afternoon working with Mr. O’Conner, who seemed of late to be keeping an extra sharp eye on the boy, as though watching and waiting for something to happen. One day during that first week of vacation, the old man commented on how fast the boy was growing. Bradley Wallace had the eeriest feeling that Mr. O’Conner’s intense scrutiny was for the purpose of actually watching him grow and expecting something significant to accompany that growth. But that didn’t really make much sense, did it?

  In any case, the boy’s mornings and most evenings were spent on flying excursions with Whilly. They generally soared at cloud level or higher so as not to be spotted from the ground. That way, too, Whilly would not have to remain invisible all the time, which had a debilitating effect on the dragon’s constitution. Bradley Wallace’s inability to breathe efficiently at high altitudes was compensated for by the dragon. The boy didn’t know how, but Whilly managed it. More magic, he supposed.

  It seemed that each day their excursions took them further afield of the water tower and his neighborhood. Bradley Wallace especially loved winging out over the shimmering ocean, just gazing down at its swirling eddies and snowy whitecaps pushing their way determinedly toward the shore, like salmon forcing themselves upriver to spawn. And he loved the boats - all the boats. Sailboats, speedboats, yachts, and freighters - every nautical vessel fascinated him. He often wished Whilly could swoop down low so he could get a better look, but of course that wasn’t possible without giving themselves away.

  What he liked the most, naturally, was the flying itself. He could never get enough of it. He felt so special up there, and the world below with all its troubles seemed so far away and unimportant. Floating so freely above the earth made every problem the boy faced seem small and easy to rectify. Once airborne, Bradley Wallace, the child no one ever seemed to notice or expect much from, felt he could do almost anything. He felt like Superman.

  In the third week of June, “House of Dark Shadows” opened at the 101 Drive-In, located just off Highway 101 (imagine that) near Lucas Valley, about ten miles from San Rafael. Bradley Wallace excitedly announced these facts to a less-than-enthusiastic Whilly two days prior to the film’s release.

  How are we to watch the movie without being seen? Whilly asked, obviously having been thinking long and hard on this problem. Bradley Wallace agreed that a plan was in order, and the two companions stretched out on the sloping hillside near the water tower and considered the possibilities.

  For a moment, Bradley Wallace actually thought of asking his father to drive him, but dismissed that notion immediately. It would only stir up unnecessary trouble (and things had been pretty quiet at home lately), and his father wouldn’t take him anyway. The only solution, he finally decided, was for Whilly to fly him to the theater and the two of them could watch from near one of the speakers at the most secluded corner where the darkness could obscure them. Whilly, of course, would have to remain invisible throughout the film, despite the intense effort it would require. But the dragon agreed there didn’t seem to be any other way, and “Dark Shadows” was worth a headache. The only other stumbling block was when to go so the boy wouldn’t be missed at home. They settled on the midnight show that Friday, and a relieved Bradley Wallace scampered home that afternoon in a deliciously effervescent mood.

  After what seemed an eternity of waiting, Friday finally arrived and Bradley Wallace again went to bed fully clothed. At eleven fifteen, he slipped from under the covers and stuffed extra clothes under them, just in case someone should check in on him. Armed with a pocket flashlight and a warm sweater (it could still get cool, even on a summer night) and set off for his rendezvous with Whilly.

  Soaring high above the freeway towards the 101 Drive-In, the boy’s heart beat furiously with anticipation. This movie would be great! As the theater loomed into view, Bradley Wallace noticed with an audible groan the long line of cars backed up from the ticket booth. He’d hoped the late show wouldn’t be very crowded. Then he scanned the theater area itself and noted, with relief, that there were only three cars already inside. Maybe the crowd wouldn’t be too big after all.

  Bradley Wallace advised Whilly to disappear as they neared the drive-in, and the dragon complied. He banked right and approached from behind the massive, decaying screen, where Bradley Wallace felt he could enter most unobtrusively. Scanning the ground around the screen carefully and seeing no one, he nudged the invisible dragon downward. Whilly landed softly and the excited child slipped quickly off his long, muscular neck. Still seeing no one about, Bradley Wallace whispered for Whilly to follow, and edged silently along the fence surrounding the theater area until arriving at the snack bar. From here on out, no one would even suspect he hadn’t entered through the front just like everyone else. Unless he did something stupid, which he had no intention of doing.

  He made a quick trip to the bathroom (which was filthy and stank of urine and vomit), and then stood in the short line at the concession stand to buy popcorn. The pimply teenage girl behind the counter ran her fingers slowly over his as she handed him his popcorn, and winked several times. He eyed her nervously, afraid she might have seen him sneaking in, and quickly paid for his popcorn and coke before she could call the manager or something. But she only appeared disappointed as he hurried from the concession area, and it occurred to him that maybe she’d had something else in mind. But what?

  He quickly lost interest in her and her motives as he positioned himself beside the furthest removed speaker in the establishment, making certain the darkness enveloped him completely. Most of the cars were parked closer to the screen, so he was pretty isolated. He wished he could be closer, too, but realized he had to take what he could get. After all, he hadn’t paid, and that made him feel slightly guilty. But what could he do about it without giving himself away? He whispered for Whilly to make certain the dragon was nearby, and was promptly told to Shut up or we’ll get caught for sure. Bradley Wallace smiled. Whilly was sounding more like him every day.

  The night was clear and cloudless, and the stars twinkled in the heavens like golden glitter someone had tossed there indiscriminately. It was a magnificent night for a movie, and what a movie it turned out to be. From the opening shot of mist-enshrouded Collinwood accompanied by the familiar theme music, to the final shot of a bat flying away into the
end credits, the two companions were enthralled, and stunned.

  Almost every major character from the TV series was killed off in this cinematic version, including, it appeared, Barnabas Collins, himself. Bradley Wallace had no idea this was to happen, and viewing the deaths of his friends sent shudders throughout his entire body. A thoughtful silence lay between the companions as Whilly winged them away from the theater and the departing line of cars. Once high and away from the area, a relieved Whilly popped back into view. At least they hadn’t been caught, he pointed out to the quiet boy. And the movie did have Josette’s music box in it.

  Bradley Wallace agreed that the movie had been good, and he was glad they came, just surprised that everyone died. Whilly concurred that he hadn’t liked that part. Fortunately, the boy pointed out, his spirits lifting, it was only a movie, and the real characters were still alive on the TV show. Whilly could not think of a suitable reply to such a confusing statement, so he merely agreed and flew onward toward home.

  Ever since Bradley Wallace announced his intention to become a vegetarian, his father had pretty much steered clear of him, even to the point of not pestering the boy about playing with the neighborhood kids. Perhaps, at long last, he realized his son was different from the others and it would be best to just leave well enough alone. At least, Bradley Wallace hoped such was the case. If his father couldn’t understand him, at least he could leave him alone.

  But the fact of the matter was, Jack was merely biding his time until he could devise another method of approaching his son. The vegetarian business had thrown him for a loop, but the week after Bradley Wallace’s escapade at the drive-in, Jack saw his opportunity. He was reading the newspaper and observing his son set the dinner table.