Chapter 7

"Wait a minute!" demanded Iosif, cautioning Anna to curb her enthusiasm. He asked the dragon, "How would we get to this castle? Would it be safe?"

{Oh, my, yes, yes, it would. You could ride on my back, you will all fit just fine. If you hang on tight, you won't fall off. And there's nothing at the castle to cause you grief, no one ever gets hurt at the castle, } reassured the dragon.

"Come on, Iosif," wheedled Anna, "I wanna go." Dieter and Petrushka added their approvals to Anna's.

Iosif shrugged, out voted. "Okay," he allowed, not wanting to lose all of his authority, "How do we do this?"

The dragon turned around and showed them her back. {I have lots of room. I have a broad pad with many handholds, it gets strapped on with belts around my belly and then you just hang on while I flap along. I'm told the flight is pretty exhilarating.}

Finally Iosif capitulated, to a degree. "If we do this, go and see the castle, then can we go home after?" he demanded of his cohorts.

They all said yes, even Anna.

"Alright," Iosif slowly agreed. He grinned. "This oughta be cool!"

All of the children laughed and gamboled about. A smile turned up the corners of the dragon's long mouth as she rummaged through her gear for the multicolored riding mat.

{Everybody on board, } she announced after she had prepared herself. She lay upon the ground, and the children climbed up her tail and onto the wide expanse over her spine where they grabbed onto the handles provided. {Hang on tight!"} she warned, as she launched herself into the air with huge sweeps of her leathery wings.

"Whoa!" "Whee!" "Holy cow!" "Gee!" Shrieks of joy and wonder filled the air as they flew.

The golden dragon banked into circles and went up and down, thrilling the children. Once they had arisen over the tree tops, they saw that the moon had broken through, and the lay of the land was visible from their great height. The countryside was saturated with blues and purples as interspersed with light greys and pale yellows. Now the dragon took a northern route and made direct way over vast tracts of dark evergreens and barren brown and grey deciduous trees. She slowly lowered their altitude when the huge mountains, awash in the deepest blues and mauves, appeared before them. She aimed for a notch between two giant shapes, and the children could see an enormous arch where the mounts came together. The dragon tucked her wings in, and SWOOSHED through the arch, taking the children's breath away.

The very air they breathed had changed. It was still and incredibly fresh. Everything was midnight blue just beyond the arch. The dragon hugged the contours as she glided just over the treetops. They came around a bend, and Lo! night turned almost to day. Many colors flashed onto their eyes from the dazzlingly lit up castle magically appearing before them.

The ice palace was pale blue and pink and lavender and teal and many other shades, and it was vast. Dragons of numerous hues flew round the parapets and in and out of balconies. In front of the rocky spire bearing the miraculous edifice aloft was a level forelawn, and here the golden dragon aimed herself, lightly touching down.

{Here you go, children, } she panted, winded from her efforts. She breathed for a moment, then said further, {We dragons are not allowed within the castle walls. You may go in yourselves, and I will wait to escort you home after you have explored and perhaps met the King and the Queen, or we can fly away home now. What will you do?}

Anna had already hopped off the friendly dragon. "Come on, boys," she urged.

Only Iosif had a momentary hesitation, but in reality, none of them was going to miss this opportunity.

"You'll come back for us?" Iosif implored the dragon.

{Yes, I promise, } she pledged. She gently touched her paw, claws sheathed, to his cheek. {I've become quite fond of you all. I've adopted you as my own.} She smiled, the grin looking grimacelike on her long snout. {Just come back here when you're ready to go, I'll be watching for you.} She sprang up, and flew away over the trees.

The children turned away from watching her flight, and looked up at the castle. A long, long staircase of blue ice led up from the landing field. A little intimidated, the boys goggled at each other. Anna, per usual, would have none of this. "Come on," she ordered again, grabbing the older boys' hands and pulling them onwards. "We're going in to see the castle!" Petrushka obediently followed along.

Raising his bottle up, Frankie took a long gulp of beer, swallowed, and let his breath out. He hung his head back down, arms stretched out on the bar, the bottle upright in his hand. He was tired, tired. It was only Monday night. He didn't know how he would be able to keep going for the rest of the week. He lifted his head back up, and shook the hair out of his eyes. Picking the PBR back up to his lips, he took in and drained the rest of the lager.

Joe was ever ready. "Want another?" he queried, just like he always did.

"Nah," replied Frankie, per usual. "I gotta get home." He had just enough time to stop for one daily beer after work, before his sister, babysitting the kids, had to go to her own job. He was aware that the one bottle a day limitation on his drinking kept him from becoming a full blown alcoholic. He wouldn't drink at home with the kids there. Mostly, he sure wanted to, but he loved his kids too much to become a drunken bum in front of them.

He trudged out to his near antique Dodge Neon. It was amazing the thing even ran any more. At one time, the Neon had the highest stolen car rate, given how easy it was to slide a slimjim inside the frameless window. Now, you couldn't pay a car thief to take it away. If Frankie didn't have some automotive skills, the thing wouldn't be on the road.

Not like he had the money to replace it. Things were bad. Oh, his job as janitor and handyman at the mountain resort didn't pay too bad for what it was, if he didn't think of the heartbreak of swabbing toilets with a B.F.A. art degree. It just didn't pay near enough to support him and 3 kids. The management had told him that given the living situation that took up so much of his time, they couldn't see clear to put him in any position offering more responsibility with a commensurate increase in pay. The worst of it was that he had brought this dilemma on himself by kicking Nancy out, and the whole stinking mess that had come down as a result. Why couldn't he have just eaten his pride, and given her time to tell her story? It didn't matter now, he couldn't turn back the clock.

He pulled into the potholed driveway of his crappy little rental duplex. Immediately, his sister Sally ran out the door, and yanked open his car door before he had even thrown it into park. "I gotta go, I gotta go, it's late," she scolded, hopping up and down in her haste. Frankie bailed out of the still running car after setting the transmission, and threw a kiss on Sally's cheek on the way by.

"Thanks, Sally," he offered as he cleared himself from the opening.

Sally slammed the Neon's door shut, and rolled down the window. Sticking her head out, she yelled at him while backing out of the drive. "Thank you, Frankie. They've all got homework. The girls' grades came in, and they're pretty bad. Eric got caught by old Mrs. Steen pegging iceballs at her ratty tomcat. Billy got home late from detention..." Her voice faded away as the car zoomed off.

Billy was Sally's boy. In exchange for Sally providing the after school care for his own kids, Frankie would feed Billy, put him to bed, and watch over him until Sally arrived after her McDonald's job let out at 1:00 a.m. She'd bundle Billy up, and off they'd go to their own apartment, since Frankie's place was just too tiny for all of them. Then, after a few hours sleep, Frankie would get back up at 6:00, get Eric, Dawn, and Sidney out the door at 7:00, and go to his own job. All of this, over and over and over, was their broken record/skipping CD life.