Chapter 6

Fun and I spent the week in the dragon pet store where we were getting more and more customers from even farther distances. We received several telephone calls from people who wanted us to ship a dragon to them. My stock answer was, "We have to meet all prospective owners of our little friends to be sure you are compatible and to insure the size of the dragon you get is correct."

The people who called were understanding but were disappointed. Fun and I discussed all of the various things we had no answers for until Fun said, "We need to take the boat and bring some more dragons in. How about we leave this morning, so we can be back in a couple of days.

Jill and Mindy said they could handle the store while we were gone so Fun and I stocked up on some food and headed out into the gulf in my boat. Once we were out by the closed oil rigs, we shut down and stood together thinking "invisible." We didn't feel a change but somehow we knew we couldn't be seen by anyone.

Fun called out, "Mom? Are you listening? Can we talk?"

Six giant dragon heads rose from the water. One of the dragons had the biggest smile you could ever see. Mom asked, "How are my two humans. Is everything all right?"

I asked first, "Your plan to make the dragons popular is working well but it is really hard for us to fly around the country like that. Fun and I are not people who enjoy being around all the fake smiles and meaningless handshakes."

Mom said, "I'm hoping all of us dragons can change that. We want people to be honest and giving with each other. We think if people can spend a few minutes with even our smallest pink dragon, their attitude will change."

"That's the other thing Mom," Fun said. "How can we get enough dragons spread around the country to do what you want. We only have one little store."

"Oh my," sighed Mom, "I guess you're ready for the next part of our plan. I want you to advertise via some kind of national media for people to open franchise dragon pet stores. At first they'll only sell the pink and yellow dragons but you can pick some to sell the two larger size. First though, you have to have the purple dragons do something that proves their worth. They aren't good beasts of burden but they enjoy working. Perhaps you could have a couple of purple dragons work on a construction project and have them haul heavy items for other workers."

She thought for a second and said, "An orange dragon or two on a high rise building project would be good. The dragons could be for safety as they could catch a falling worker and they too can carry very heavy items."

Fun needed some assurance. "Mom, we're having to deal with so many strange people and go to some really scary places. We're not very comfortable flying around the country the way we have been. Can you help us feel better about doing what you need us to do?"

"You two are not trusting your two best friends. Pink and Flower can and will protect you from all forms of danger. Keep them with you and you'll see."

Pink was hovering next to Fun so they could be face to face. The smile on Pink's face always makes you happy, makes you feel good inside. Flower had come up along side of me tucking her head under my hand and raising herself so my arm was around its body. Flower said to me, "Trust me Chuck. Pink and I will watch out for both you and Fun."

Fun asked, "Mom, you know how blind people use seeing-eye dogs to lead them, wouldn't a dragon be good for something like that? Maybe even an orange dragon so they could help their blind person do things as well as lead them."

"That's a very good idea Fun," Mom exclaimed. "Do you know any blind people that we could practice with?"

I answered quickly, "There is a family in town with a little girl about ten I think. She doesn't have a dog yet but she's about ready for one. I could take a pink dragon to the training school so they can both learn."

Mom said, "You should probably use a yellow dragon. They are a little bigger plus the pink ones are selling so well that I would hate to miss an opportunity to have another funny little pink dragon with a family."

While Mom had been talking to us with the other very large dragons lounging around behind her, hundreds or it could even be thousands of pink, and yellow, and orange, and purple dragons had surfaced. The dragons were involved in various chase games as well as see who could make the biggest splash.

An interesting display was a pink dragon holding up two yellow dragons who were holding three orange dragons who were holding up four big purple dragons. They all quit using their wings at once which should have pushed the pink dragon into the water, it didn't. The little pink guy was laughing and actually threw all of the others up into the air to come splashing down. The little pink guys were strong, I had not realized how strong.

Pink and Flower were dancing around behind us watching all of their friends playing so Fun finally told them to go play. Both our little friends shot up into the air then dove into the water. They loved to play.

Fun and I decided that we might as well see if we could dive and catch some fish. I guess Mom heard our conversations and two very large Mahi Mahi plopped on the deck. There was enough fish for us to eat on for two or three days. Mom was smiling and asked, "I know you like the dolphin fish, are those all right?"

Fun said almost disappointed that we didn't get to dive, "They are perfect Mom, thank you. I cleaned the fish and got them ready to cook. Fun said, let's go swim a while. We can perhaps play with the dragons if they'll let us.

We were going to get our swim suits but realized we were invisible to the rest of the world so we just stripped down and dove in. As soon as we hit the water, we were scooped up in the air by various dragons and tossed back in. They were having as much fun as we were as they kept tossing us between each other then pitching up in the air for us to dive into the water.

Sometimes a little pink guy would be lifting us into the air, the next would be a big purple guy balancing us on his tale. Once an orange dragon took us to the top of the head of one of the other huge dragons and set us up there. Fun and I didn't know what to do and we really didn't know how the other big ones felt about us.

A very loud whisper filled our heads, "Thank you for visiting with me. Let me take you on a ride."

The big dragon lifted out of the water going up into the air at an angle back toward the islands. We were high enough that it was getting cold. As soon as Fun said she was getting cold, the big dragon said, "I apologize, let me fly lower."

We flew over the islands then over Corpus Christi turning around and heading back. The dragon turned sharply to the north saying, "Oh there's one of your big birds, lets fly with it."

The dragon flew right up to it, just in front of it. Fun and I could easily see the pilot and co-pilot through the windscreen. They didn't even flinch, I guess they really couldn't see us. The dragon flew all around the airplane then turned heading back to the gulf. It said, "Your big birds don't play. I've tried to get them to play many times but they just ignore me and keep going mostly in a straight line."

We flew back to our boat with all of the dragons splashing in the water around the boat. There were dozens of dragons sitting on the boat rails and on top of the helm area and on the front deck. When the big dragon sat down in the water next to the boat, he lowered his head to the rear of the boat where Fun and I could just step off his head onto the deck.

I turned around and said, "Thank you for the ride but how did you do that without us feeling the wind? If we were going three hundred miles an hour with that airplane, the wind would normally knock us off."

The big face, even larger than Mom's boomed, "I put a bubble around you so you couldn't fall off. You don't fly without getting in one of your big birds so I had to make you safe."

Mom said, "You've made another friend. All of us are curious about humans and you two are the first to really become acquainted with us in a friendly manner."

I looked around the deck to see if I could tell which pink dragon was ours and which yellow one was Flower. They were the only mixed couple sitting together near the captain's chair. I smiled and asked our friends, "Did you two have a good time. Did you get to play enough? Are you going to go eat soon since you're out in gulf? Are you two going to sleep with us or with all your friends?"

Pink flew into Fun's arms almost knocking her over just as Flower did the same with me. In our heads we heard, "We'll go eat but we want to be with you while you sleep. It's our job to take care of you. We'll be right here. I'll bet we have a couple of hundred helpers to watch over you too."

We ate a great dinner while our buddies dove deep into the gulf to graze on sea grass. We had a pleasant evening listening to the radio. We could pick up FM signals where we were from several stations. We settled on some sixties and seventies rock and roll. The music caused all of the friendly creatures to cavort around the boat doing all sorts of gymnastic tricks.

The next day we made some plans with Mom. We were going to find the family with the blind girl and offer to have a yellow dragon be her guide dog. I guess it would be a guide dragon though. Mom said she had picked out the dragon that she thought would do a good job. The other thing we were going to do is to have our crazy agent find a business manager to help us open ten stores across the United States.

We were going to use a small island far off the coast of Mexico as the island the dragons lived on so other people could verify that an island existed. Mom said they would decorate the island with trees and bushes. She said the most difficult part would be to make a spring for fresh water or at least partially unsalted water so the plants would grow. She said that they would let people get fairly close to the island but as soon as they approached it, all of the dragons would disappear. Soon people would realize that Fun and I were the only ones allowed to go to the island where the dragons lived. Mom hoped the cover story would hold up.

Mom took Fun and I on a flying trip to the Mexican coast. About fifty miles off shore there was a cluster of volcanic islands that were mostly just rock and sand. Right in the middle of the group of islands, hidden from view by the other islands was a fairly large body of land that would be the home of the dragons. It already had some trees on it as well as some grasses along the water line. Fun and I walked around the island discovering some turtles and thousands of various clams and sand crabs.

The water around the island was very deep so it would be perfect for the little guys to dive into and disappear. Of course all they really had to do was to dive into the water and become invisible. Then no matter how much people searched, they couldn't be found.

Mom flew us back to our boat but we were surprised to find another boat just on the other side of the oil platform. Becoming more used to our critters, Fun and I asked a couple of purple dragons to give us a ride to see what the people were doing. We watched them a while realizing they were just fishing around the structure. Mom boomed into our heads, "We scared all of the fish away so they should give up soon. We'll make sure they don't catch anything."

Fun and I sat around on our boat but didn't turn the radio on as we didn't know whether noise would be invisible too. Just before dark, the other boat pulled anchor and headed back to Texas. The direction they were going looked to be more toward the Houston area.

We talked about the whole plan making up some lists of things to do. This was a lot for a couple of bums like Fun and I. We were used to a laid back life on the water earning just enough to exist and to pay our bills. That reminded us, we were going to have to do something with all the money we were making at the pet store. Fun said, "We'll fix up the house a little then we'll find some good causes to help. It will be fun do things like that."

The next day we sailed into our harbor and docked at my rented slip after refueling and topping off our water. Mom had loaded the boat up with a bunch of pink and yellow guys quite a few orange dragons and two purple ones this time. We made quite a sight walking down the sidewalk toward the store. Two sun bronzed gulf bums were followed and surrounded by about fifty colorful dragons. Some of the dragons were doing their silly walk on the ground while some were doing the walk in the air. Others were just flying along as if they were sitting on a chair. It was funny enough that Fun and I laughed almost the whole way.

The store was very crowded as usual. Jill and Mindy were busy helping people decide what size dragon to get. I yelled very loud, "Make way, new dragons are coming through, make a path."

The people separated and watched all of the dragons except the purple ones go into the store. The new group completely filled the sitting area for the dragons. There really wasn't any room for the purple ones. I told the two, "Thank you for staying outside with us. We'll take you home in a little while." I called out in my mind to the dragons, "I want a yellow dragon to come out with me."

Flower came up to my face looking at me quizzically asking "What?" I smiled and said, "We need a yellow one like you to help a little girl see." Flower understood and said, "I'll get the one that Mom said should do the job."