The Dragon Tree

by Kavich, AC

  She released her death-grip on his cartilage. She extended both arms like she was walking a tightrope and – with a smile from one ear to the other – she walked along the raised ridge of Billy’s dragon spine. His body was rising and falling under her, but she gave the challenge all of her concentration. She sped up as she neared Billy’s tail, then pirouetted gracefully and raced back toward his head.

  “This is really weird but really fun!” she cried happily.

  When she reached Billy’s head, she collapsed on his cheek. His massive black eye was inches away from her normal-sized hazel eyes. It should have made for an uncomfortable moment, but Eva was somehow comforted to find him looking up at her. And she could see the corner of his mouth turning up again in a classic Billy smirk.

  “I’m going to stand on your head when you turn human again,” said Eva with as straight a face as she could manage. “Fair warning.”

  Billy started to purr again. This time for show, she was certain. Eva flopped down on his cheek and let her tired eyes flutter closed.

  “You two look comfortable.”

  Eva sat up so quickly she slid right off of Billy’s head and landed hard on the rocky plateau. She picked herself up distressed to find she had sullied her pink dress, but she couldn’t stop smiling as she looked at Hiroki.

  “There you are!” she cried. “I thought you gave up on him.”

  She hadn’t heard Hiroki’s Buick as he drove it onto the plateau and parked it behind her father’s SUV. Nor had she heard him close the door and stride across the rocks toward Billy’s lounging dragon form.

  “I tried to talk him out of it – changing again – but he wouldn’t listen. I’m surprised he came back to the cliffs so soon,” said Hiroki with no emotion in his voice. “Thought he’d fly too far out to sea and wouldn’t notice the sun about to rise. Thought he’d get caught out there when the change happened.”

  “He didn’t. He’s here and he’s fine,” said Eva. “What about you? Are you… okay?”

  Hiroki’s backpack was dangling from his fist. He lowered it to the ground and kneeled to unzip it. “They were too hard to reach, but I climbed down a little farther. Just like Billy did. I filled up the backpack as much as I could.”

  Eva crouched by Hiroki and reached into the backpack. She pulled out a handful of stiff black leaves. “Amazing! You did it!”

  “They don’t blow in the wind, so I thought they’d be hard to snap off. They weren’t.”

  Hiroki gathered up a handful of leaves and slowly crossed the plateau until he was standing in front of Billy. Like Eva, he felt hot exhalations on his face. He stared at the same big black eye that Eva had stared at, but the black eye had narrowed.

  “Eat these, Billy,” said Hiroki firmly. He dropped the black leaves on the rocks in front of Billy’s snout. “It’ll be dawn in an hour or two. We need to find out if they work before the sun rises and you change anyway.”

  Billy pushed himself up off the rocks, stretching his limbs and swaying his tail behind him. He shuffled his wings and dipped his head to sniff the pile of leaves. The odor didn’t please him, and he emitted a low growl.

  Hiroki wasn’t swayed. “You want to be a dragon for the rest of your life, Billy? Every night, totally out of your control? If not, you have to do this.”

  Billy stretched his neck and angled his head to look past Hiroki… at Eva. She was leaning against her father’s SUV, feeling the evening chill in her pink dress. They found each other’s eyes again and Eva nodded.

  Billy grunted a small protest, but he opened his jaws and rolled out his leather tongue. He held it inches above the rocks and extended it – endlessly – toward the leaves. Then, with the quickness of a magician performing sleight of hand, he slurped up the leaves in a flash.

  Hiroki nodded his approval and walked to the edge of the cliff where the nylon rope was still secured. He carefully worked to unfasten the knot and hauled the rope back up to the cliff. “Can’t risk someone seeing the rope and finding the tree. Can’t risk it,” said Hiroki quietly, to no one in particular.

  Hiroki carried the rope back to his Buick and tossed it in the passenger seat. Eva followed him, now shivering badly as the warmth she temporarily absorbed from Billy’s hulking body left her own.

  “How long will it take,” she asked.

  Hiroki opened the Buick’s door and climbed inside. “I don’t know. But I want to be warm while I wait.”

  Eva watched Billy’s return to human form from behind the wheel of the SUV.

  She wanted to wait with Hiroki in his Buick, but he had closed his door so abruptly – and without looking at her – that she didn’t feel welcome in his passenger seat. After reclaiming her pink heels, she climbed into the SUV. It was closer to the edge of the cliff than the Buick, so she turned on her headlights to cast light on the great blue dragon curled up on the precipice. His clothes were lying on the ground at his paw, so small by comparison. It was hard to believe that the hulking beast with the flared nostrils would soon fit inside those clothes.

  What if Hiro’s grandfather is wrong? What if the leaves are poisonous? What if Billy ate too many of the leaves and the amount will be poisonous?

  The fearful thoughts came rapid fire, but the change soon started and purged them all from her mind. She massaged her throat nervously as Billy’s wings dissolved and his tail shrunk and his head compressed.

  It’s even faster this time. The leaves make the change faster.

  When most of Billy’s characteristics were once again human – when his frame was human-size and his skin regained its natural color – Eva remembered his imminent nudity. She blushed and turned off her headlights so he could dress in darkness.

  Billy wobbled as he walked across the rocks, as if regaining the ability to walk on land after many months spent living on the deck of a ship. He appeared to be in pain, but no amount of discomfort could remove the grin from his face. He approached the driver’s window of the SUV and Eva rolled it down.

  “Was it amazing?” she asked.

  Billy drew a deep breath and nodded. “I’ve never felt more alive. Lame to say so, I know, but it’s true.”

  “I think you should ride back to town with Hiro,” said Eva. “I know you don’t care, but he’ll be angry if you ride with me.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t eat the leaves like I promised. I’m sorry I let you down. I just… I couldn’t…”

  “We can talk about it later. Just ride with Hiro, okay?

  Billy nodded. “You look nice in that dress, by the way. You look beautiful.”

  Eva felt herself blushing again. Cool air was flooding through her open window, but she didn’t feel it.

  Hiroki was surprised when Billy climbed into the Buick rather than the SUV. He was even more surprised when Billy leaned over and bear hugged him awkwardly.

  “I know what you had to do to get those leaves. Thank you, bro.”

  Hiroki pushed Billy off of him. “All right, whatever. Let’s just go.”

  “I’m serious, Hiro. No fooling, I wouldn’t want to climb down from that shelf again. So thank you.”

  Hiroki sighed and put the Buick in gear. He checked his mirror to make sure Eva was behind him and he piloted the car down the access road. It wasn’t quite dawn yet, but the sun would rise soon enough.

  “You gotta try it, Hiro. Flying,” said Billy.

  Hiroki turned to look at Billy, his eyes cool and clear. “I’m going to.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  As Eva pulled the SUV into her parents’ driveway, she noticed the ovular object sitting in the passenger seat. She wasn’t sure how she had failed to see it before. The coarse black fiber that covered its surface was unmistakable.

  Hiro must have put it there while I was… with Billy.

  The living room curtains parted and Rosa’s face appeared between them. Even from inside the SUV, Eva could see that her mother had been crying. Like Eva, she still wore the dress she wore to the wedding the night before. />
  Eva snatched the fruit from the dragon tree and slipped it down the front of her dress. With a heavy heart, she stepped out of the SUV.

  “I would scream at you, Eva, but I did all my screaming last night.”

  Eva sat at the kitchen table with Rosa, both of them cradling a cup of tea. Rosa’s hands were shaking, and her teacup clanked repeatedly against its saucer.

  “Your poor father took the brunt of the yelling for you. Salvadore is a good man, a kind and gentle man. He deserves better from his wife than abuse he hasn’t earned. He deserves better from his daughter than brazen deception.”

  Eva made no attempt to prevent her tears from coming. She didn’t even bother to wipe them away. She looked down at her wrinkled pink dress, worried that her mother would notice the unnatural bump made by the hidden piece of fruit. There were enough layers of fabric covering the area that she was probably safe. But the sight of the pink material itself made her nauseous. She’d been wearing the dress when she slipped her hand into her father’s jacket. If he saw her in the dress now, he would remember the image of her marching around the Humphries house to do her misdeed.

  “That kind boy Aidan gave your father and me a ride home. He told us that he had some sort of argument with you. He said it was all his fault and he would do whatever it took to make it up to you.” Rosa locked eyes on Eva as if bracing herself for a debate. The debate never came, so she continued. “I happen to think you’re to blame. If I know Aidan and his family like I think I do—”

  “You don’t know them,” Eva whispered.

  “I know class when I see it. And when Aidan told us you were going to see that boy from the track meet – that Hudson boy – I nearly passed out. What are you thinking, Eva?! Staying out all night with riff-raff like that? Don’t you care about your reputation? Don’t you care about your safety?”

  “Billy isn’t dangerous. He’s my friend—”

  Rosa slammed the tabletop with her palm. “I don’t ever want to hear that name again in this house! I forbid you to see him again. I absolutely forbid it! You can run to your father and plead your case with him, play the part of the weepy daughter, but he won’t listen this time. I assure you, little girl, that your dear father agrees with his very angry wife.”

  Eva shook her head slowly, searching for words. None came. She pushed her neglected tea into the center of the table and finally wiped her eyes dry. “I’m sorry, mama.”

  “Sorry isn’t good enough.” Rosa rose from her chair and placed her cup and saucer on the kitchen counter. She smoothed down the front of her dress and touched her curls, clearly distressed to feel how much they had fallen during the night. The bags under her eyes seemed to grow heavier before Eva’s eyes, and her voice dropped an octave as she turned back to her disappointing daughter.

  “Go to your room, Eva. And don’t wake your sisters. They slept in their beds last night.”

  The twins had not slept in their own beds.

  When Eva entered her bedroom, she heard the girls snoring under her covers in identical fashion. She took her hand off the light switch without flipping it and, still wearing her pink dress, climbed into bed between Anita and Myra. They stirred, but they didn’t wake. She felt the piece of fruit from the dragon tree slide farther down her dress and yelped quietly, but managed to fish it out and buried it under her pillow.

  ***

  Hiroki made it back to his house mere minutes before his mother returned from an overnight shift at the clinic. He bounded up the stairs and crept into his bedroom, careful not to walk heavy on the creaky second-floor hall and wake his grandfather.

  He would have gladly slept through the last hour of the night, but Hiroki’s mind was replaying the previous night’s events. He stared at the ceiling, wondering if the leaves that had worked for Billy would fail for him. He had eaten the two items in the wrong sequence, after all. Maybe the leaves only worked if you ate them second. He rolled onto his side and peered out his window, anxiously waiting for the sun to rise.

  I’m going to transform. Any minute now. And it’s going to hurt.

  But then the sun rose. Hiroki had not changed.

  And he wouldn’t change for at least sixteen hours. Plenty of time to think through his options and make a smart decision.

  Strong smells from the kitchen drew Hiroki downstairs. He found Reiko at the stove, frying bacon and whipping raw eggs into yellow slurry.

  “Well good morning!” Reiko said. “I couldn’t sleep so I thought I’d make you a real breakfast for once. Cereal gets old after awhile, right?”

  Hiroki nodded eagerly and gave his mother a kiss on the cheek. She affectionately swatted his butt with a hand towel and sent him to the kitchen table. “How many eggs do you want?”

  “I don’t know, two,” said Hiroki. The moment the number left his mouth, he noticed the gnawing ache in his empty stomach. “Maybe… six?”

  “Six!” Reiko laughed. “You have to save room for sticky buns, with the red bean paste you like. I’m making everything in my repertoire.”

  Hiroki popped up from the table and wandered over to the fridge. He pulled out a carton of orange juice and upended it. He guzzled every drop in seconds and tapped the bottom disappointedly.

  Reiko was watching, amazed. “You must be having a growth spurt. Do your ankles hurt?”

  Hiroki shook his head. “I feel great. Six eggs, please. And bacon and sticky buns and whatever else is in your, your um…” he trailed off, enjoying the sensation of the orange juice sloshing around in his belly.

  “My repertoire,” Reiko said, stirring her eggs. “Get your grandpa up so he can join us. I want him to see how much this new version of his grandson can eat.”

  Hideo had materialized at the kitchen door. He slowed as he walked past Hiroki on his way to the table and leaned toward his grandson. Hiroki flinched at his grandfather’s closeness, and nearly recoiled when he realized what his grandfather was doing.

  He’s smelling me.

  Hideo found Hiroki’s eyes and shook his head slowly. The meaning of the gesture was perfectly clear to Hiroki. The full weight of its meaning only sunk in when he sat down across from Hideo and the old man refused to acknowledge his presence.

  “Mom?” asked Hiroki, his voice cracking.

  “Yes, son of mine?”

  Hiroki lowered his eyes, ashamed to feel that his lip was quivering. “Nevermind.”

  After the uncomfortable moment with his grandfather at the breakfast table, Hiroki hurried out of the house as quickly as he could. He drove around aimlessly for about twenty minutes before surprising himself by taking the turn west for Hudson.

  With William Rasmussen’s truck gone, the trailer looked deserted. But Hiroki knew Billy would be sound asleep inside. He sat in the Buick for a few minutes before he finally climbed out and knocked on the door.

  “Shouldn’t you be at school?” Billy had answered with a yawn.

  “It’s Sunday.”

  Still groggy, Billy followed Hiroki into the Buick without much thought. Only when they pulled into the library parking lot after a silent ten-minute drive did Billy wake up fully.

  “Eva better be inside, or I’m walking home.”

  “This isn’t the first time I’ve been in a library, you know,” said Billy. He was tipping back in his chair, completely ignoring the stack of books in front of him. “Not even my second time. I’ve got a library card in my room somewhere, I think.”

  “That’s very impressive,” said Hiroki without looking up from his book. It was a text on folklore, each chapter devoted to a different region of the world. He started with Asia simply because his Japan-born grandfather had experience with dragons, but the more he flipped through the book, the less surprised he was to find references to dragons in almost every culture. “I assume that means you know how to read.”

  “Yes, ass wipe,” said Billy a little too loud. A few readers glanced up from their books to shush him. “Why don’t you explain to me again why this isn’t
a huge waste of time.”

  “We need to learn about dragons,” Hiroki answered.

  “Maybe you do. I don’t need to learn about them since… well, you know. I’m kind of an expert already. Where the hell is Eva?”

  “I don’t know,” Hiroki whispered.

  “Think she got home all right? She probably never drove before last night and those access roads are in bad shape.”

  “I said I don’t know, Billy. I don’t know.”

  Billy threw his hands up. “All right, what’s with the tone?”

  Hiroki had left a message on Eva’s cell, pleading with her to join him at the library. He wasn’t certain they could find any valuable information from books, but he was determined to do as much research as possible before he let the dragon blood in his veins transform him.

  If she found the fruit in the passenger seat… She needs to research, too.

  “Okay, here’s something good.” Billy had flipped open a book on mythology and was tapping a page with his forefinger. Hiroki slid over to take a look. “See Hiro? It says right here that dragons aren’t real. Case closed.”

  Hiroki frowned and slid back to his own book. The center pages were full of illustrations and photographs. One photo featured a medieval shield with a fierce dragon on its crest. It was hundreds of years old – from the Crusades – and was encased in a Scottish castle where its lord had once lived.

  The dragon was blue.

  “They can’t all be blue, right?” Hiroki asked aloud. “Unless they always live near water and it helps them stay hidden from view.”

  Billy shook his head dismissively. “They – we, I mean – stay hidden from view because our big beautiful dragon bodies are reflective on the bottom.”

  “You got that from one of those books?”

  “Nope. Got it from Eva. If she ever gets here, I’m sure she’ll tell you all about it.”

  Hiroki glared at Billy, not buying a word of what he was said, until he remembered his digital camera. He had taken multiple photos of Billy as he flew away from the cliffs last night, but Billy wasn’t visible in any of them.