Gavin scrambled away, jumping back in the truck with his fellow loggers. Abner stepped on the gas, and this time, the truck sped forward. As they drove away, Gavin could only whisper, “Did you see that? Did you see…? That…was a dragon!”
High above them, virtually invisible in the night sky, Elliot followed.
Pete sat at the dining room table inside Jack’s comfortable and quiet house, wolfing down a peanut butter sandwich. Grace looked on, awestruck. It was as though the boy hadn’t ever tasted anything so delicious.
Grace and Jack watched from the edge of the room as Natalie brought more and more food out for Pete.
“I wish you would have maybe called first…” Jack said to Grace, watching Pete pop the last bit of sandwich into his mouth.
Grace smiled. “I figured you wouldn’t mind.”
“Sure…” Jack answered. “But please tell me you at least told the sheriff?”
Grace tapped the badge of her ranger uniform. “I am a government official, Jack. I do things by the book.”
Jack laughed ruefully, and Grace took the jar of peanut butter from him to make Pete a second sandwich.
“I told the sheriff Pete can stay here just until we find out where he belongs,” Grace said, spreading the thick peanut butter on the bread. “This is cozier than the hospital. And besides, maybe he’ll open up more around someone his own age and tell us where he came from.”
Grace watched Natalie share a cookie with Pete. Just as he had with the sandwich, the boy acted as if he was tasting a rare delicacy from a far-off land. Everything seemed so new, so foreign to him.
Suddenly, he stuffed multiple cookies in his mouth, making his cheeks puff out like a chipmunk’s.
“How long has it been since you ate?” Natalie asked.
“Slow down there, buddy. It’s gonna start coming out of your ears,” Jack said, pushing a glass of water toward Pete. “Here, drink something.”
Pete looked at the glass strangely, then lifted it and tipped the contents into his mouth all at once—messy but effective.
Jack laughed, rushing to grab a towel. Grace watched with a smile as Jack and Natalie cleaned up the mess. That was one thing she really liked about Jack. Despite their disagreements about the forest, he was a good man and a good dad.
Feeling her eyes on him, Jack looked up at Grace and grinned. “Gotta say: living in the woods, doing things his own way…sounds like he’s a boy after your own heart.”
* * *
An hour later, Pete was very full and very cozy. He had changed into some of Natalie’s pajamas. They were sure a lot softer than the hospital clothes—and softer than anything he’d ever worn in the woods.
Pete wandered through the living room. Grace and Jack sat talking, and Natalie followed close behind him. Pete poked his fingers in the ashes filling the fireplace, making them black and sooty. He banged on the piano keys, enjoying the sounds. Then he meandered to a bookshelf. One very familiar book caught his eye—a pristine copy of Elliot Gets Lost. How did that get there?
Pulling it off the shelf, he began flipping through the pages.
“Oh,” Natalie said, looking over his shoulder. “I haven’t really read that book in forever. Someone gave that to me when I was learning to read, but now I read longer…”
Natalie trailed off, a realization coming to her. “Elliot,” she said, pointing toward the cover of the book.
At that word, Grace turned her head, just as the phone started to ring.
Pete jumped at the sound, startled.
“Hold your horses,” Jack said, shooting the boy a smile. “It’s just the telephone.” He went to answer it as Grace moved over to Pete and Natalie, staring at the book.
“Is this Elliot?” she asked, pointing to the picture of the dog on the cover.
Pete shook his head.
Grace tried again. “Is Elliot a person?”
“No.”
“Is he an animal? Like a dog or a cat?”
After thinking a moment, Pete shook his head. “Uh-uh.”
“What is he—”
“Grace?” Jack interrupted them, a grim expression on his face. “It’s the sheriff. He wants to talk to you.”
Grace turned to Natalie, sharing a quick look with her. “Natalie, why don’t you take Pete up to your room for a minute?”
Natalie guided Pete upstairs to her room. Whatever the grown-ups were talking about, it definitely had to do with Pete, and it didn’t seem good.
The boy hesitated before stepping into her room. The white walls and traces of pink on the curtains and bed seemed to throw him.
“It’s okay…” Natalie said. “We can color. Do you like to color?”
Pete shrugged.
A few minutes later, it was clear that Pete did like to color. A lot. He was sitting on the floor completely engrossed in his artwork. He gripped a crayon tightly in his fist, drawing green markings across a piece of paper.
“Pete, is Elliot your imaginary friend?” Natalie asked, sitting down at the foot of her bed and watching him.
“What’s ‘imaginary’?” Pete asked without looking up from the paper.
Natalie paused before answering. “It’s…it’s when you make something up in your head so that you have someone to talk to and keep you from being lonely.”
Pete kept coloring, but it was clear he was thinking about the question.
Finally, he spoke. “Are they funny?”
“Sure,” Natalie answered.
“Can they fly?” Pete asked.
Natalie shrugged. “I guess they can do whatever you want them to. That’s what makes them imaginary.”
Pete looked up at Natalie. “Are you my imaginary friend, too?”
Natalie shook her head. “I’m real.”
“Oh,” Pete said. “Then so is Elliot.”
Pete put the finishing touches on his drawing. Natalie leaned over to see it. It was a simple but crystal-clear image of a little boy and a big green dragon.
“I have to get back to him,” Pete whispered. “He gets scared when I’m gone.”
Natalie examined the drawing, unsure of what to say. She gave him another piece of paper, and he started to draw another picture of a dragon.
“Does Elliot have any parents?” Natalie asked.
Pete shrugged, focusing on his drawing. “Can’t find them. We looked. Inside rocks, up in the sky, under trees…”
“Oh,” Natalie said, remembering something. “It’s like the song?”
Pete stopped drawing. “What song?”
Natalie paused for a minute, trying to remember the lyrics. She started to sing in a soft, sweet voice:
Go north, go north,
With wings on your feet,
Go north with the wind
Where the three rivers meet.
Now plant yourself down
beside the tallest tree.
Measure the stars shining
one, two, three.
Look all around you and see,
Deep in the forest, there dragons will be.
* * *
At the same moment, not far from Natalie’s comfortable bedroom, Elliot landed with a heavy thud on one of the great smokestacks of the mill just outside the forest. He looked toward the twinkling lights of the town and let out a long and mournful howl.
But there was no response.
Elliot didn’t know where Pete was, but the dragon had smelled Pete’s scent on the strange man in the forest. And he’d followed him.
Elliot watched the man’s truck speeding toward town below him. Then the dragon lifted off the smokestack and flapped his mighty wings to continue following it.
A short while later, the truck drove past the hospital where Grace and the others had first taken Pete. Elliot had no way of knowing this. But he could smell faint whiffs of Pete’s scent in the air around the hospital. He landed on the roof with a heavy thud.
At the nurse’s station, great puffs of dust drifted down from the ceiling. In a
n examination room, a doctor looked curiously at her instruments rattling on the tray. And in a hospital room, a young girl with a broken leg sat in bed watching TV with her mother. Elliot’s large upside-down face peered through the window.
The mother didn’t notice. But the little girl did. She giggled and waved.
Elliot snorted. No Pete.
He’d have to keep following the scent.
He’d have to keep looking.
“I can drop him off on my way to the mill tomorrow,” Jack said. His expression was somber, just like Grace’s.
They were standing in the kitchen discussing what Sheriff Dentler had told them on the phone. The sheriff had figured out Pete’s identity. A missing child report had been filed six years earlier—after the night of the fateful car crash.
The report indicated that Pete had no living relatives. So Sheriff Dentler had arranged for Child Protective Services to take Pete into custody in the morning. Grace and Jack just had to drop him off at the station.
“No, no—I’ll do it,” Grace told Jack, her mind reeling. “I just…”
Everything was happening so quickly. Grace had thought they’d have time to unravel Pete’s story. Now, suddenly, he was being taken away. There were too many questions that still needed answers.
Jack reached out to touch her arm. “Just what?”
“Six years, Jack! How could he have survived? Through the cold and the snow?”
“Kids are stronger than we think,” Jack said.
“I know, but he was out there for so long, and I never saw him once.” Grace sank into a chair.
Jack sat down next to her. “Well, I think it’s safe to say that there’s more out there than any of us will ever see. You’re lucky you found him. And so is he.”
* * *
A few minutes later, as Grace was heading upstairs to check on Pete and Natalie, the doorbell rang.
Jack went to open the door, and his brother burst in. Gavin seemed frazzled, his hair disheveled and his face pale. He immediately checked the peephole to see whether he had been followed.
“Gavin?” Jack asked. “What’s going on?”
Gavin peered through the blinds and out the window.
“There’s something out there, Jack. In the woods. Something big, and dangerous. It almost killed us—”
“Oh, my god!” exclaimed Jack. “Are you okay?”
Gavin continued as if he hadn’t heard his brother. “That kid, he knows what it is. Is he here? Is Pete here?”
Jack was even more confused. “Yes. But—”
Gavin interrupted him. “We’ve got to sit him down! We’ve gotta ask him just what it is we’re dealing with—”
“Hold on, hold on. Calm down,” Jack said. “Ask him about what?”
Gavin was pacing the room. “You remember those stories? The ones Grace’s dad used to tell all the kids?”
“About a dragon in the forest?” Jack asked. “Yeah. Why?”
Gavin looked straight at his brother. “I don’t think he was making them up.”
For a moment, Jack didn’t say anything. Then he furrowed his brow. “You sure you weren’t just seeing things?”
“For crying out loud, Jack! I’m lucky to be alive right now! I know what I saw. And if we go out there, the two of us, if we can catch this thing—we’re not going to have to worry about the mill anymore. We’ll be rich!”
Now Jack was starting to feel annoyed. Even when his brother seemed scared half to death, his mind always went back to money. Always.
Gavin must have sensed his brother’s irritation because he stopped trying to convince him. He moved to go upstairs. Jack stepped in front of him, blocking the path.
“Let me just see Pete. Okay?” Gavin said. “I just need to talk to him.”
“No, Gavin,” Jack said firmly. “Not tonight.”
“But—” Gavin insisted, moving to step past his brother.
Jack blocked him again. “Here’s what we’re going to do: you get some sleep. Tomorrow, meet me at the mill and you and I will go out to those woods. We’ll get Grace and the rangers to come with us.”
“Aw, come on…”
Jack shook his head. “If there’s something out there, we’ll find it. Together. We’ll do things right for once.”
Gavin frowned. “You don’t believe me, do you?”
“I want to, Gavin.” Jack sighed. “But sometimes you make it pretty hard.”
Gavin’s face flared red. “Okay. Fine. I get the picture.” And with that, he angrily stormed out of the house.
“Gavin…” Jack called. But it was too late. His brother was already gone.
* * *
As Gavin’s truck sped into the distance away from the house, Elliot quietly emerged from the dense brush.
The dragon’s green fur shone under the moonlight. He looked at Jack’s house distrustfully, as if it were another animal. With a sniff of caution, the large dragon took a step forward.
Suddenly, a hissing sound came out of nowhere, startling Elliot. He jumped back and then growled at the source of the noise.
It was a lawn sprinkler. It had turned on. But to Elliot, it looked like a tiny glowing creature that sprayed water on the grass.
The dragon narrowed his eyes and padded forward, waiting for just the right time to strike. The glowing creature was small, yes. But Elliot could tell that it was a dangerous enemy. And so the dragon bided his time until…
BOOM!
Elliot pounced, landing on the sprinkler with all his weight. Victory! The sprinkler had never stood a chance, and its evil water-spraying ways were forever put to rest.
Now Elliot had to get back to finding Pete.
Inside the house, Grace gently knocked on the door to Natalie’s room.
“Hey, you two,” Grace said, opening the door. “Natalie, do you think I could talk to Pete alone for a minute?”
“Sure.” Natalie hopped off the bed. She gave Pete a reassuring look before leaving the room.
Grace knelt near Pete, who was sitting by the window. Outside, trees swayed in the wind.
“Pete,” Grace asked gently. “Do you remember how you got lost in the woods?”
Pete thought for a moment. His expression darkened as the memories returned to him.
“It was a long time ago, wasn’t it?” Grace asked, reaching out and stroking the young boy’s hair.
Pete nodded. “We were on an adventure.”
His words sent a pang through Grace’s heart. She couldn’t imagine how hard it had been for the poor boy. How hard life had been for all those years on his own. “You know, Pete…” Grace fidgeted, working to find the words. “I lost my mother when I wasn’t much older than you. I know how hard it can be. But you should know—you’re not alone.”
Pete looked at Grace. “I know.”
“You do?” Grace asked.
Pete nodded. “I have Elliot.”
Grace paused. She needed to get to the bottom of this. “Who is Elliot? Can you tell me more about him?”
Pete walked over to Natalie’s desk and cleared away the crayons he had left out. Underneath was his drawing, which he carefully picked up and handed to Grace.
“For me?” she asked.
Pete nodded and Grace looked down at the drawing.
“That’s Elliot,” Pete said.
Grace was stunned. Whatever she had thought Elliot was, it wasn’t that. She felt her heart leap into her throat. The drawing was…familiar.
Grace cleared her throat. “He must…he must be a very special friend.”
Pete nodded. “When I go back tomorrow you can see him.”
Grace stared at Pete, who was looking at her with large, hopeful eyes. In the course of the past few minutes, he had opened up so much. And tomorrow she was supposed to drop him off at Child Protective Services, to be shuffled out into the system. She would probably never see him again.
Unable to bring herself to say otherwise, Grace nodded and said the gentlest thing she could t
hink of. “Tomorrow…we’ll get you back where you belong.”
Pete’s face lit up with joy. He reached out and hugged Grace.
Grace barely knew how to react, her own guilt weighing heavily on her. Instead of saying anything, she hugged him back.
“Okay,” Grace said finally. “Let’s get you to bed.”
“Can we read my story?” Pete asked hopefully.
Grace tilted her head. “What’s your story?” she asked.
* * *
Unbeknownst to Pete, Elliot was quietly lumbering up to the house at that exact moment. He stepped as lightly as a giant green dragon with the power of camouflage possibly could.
Elliot bent down, his large snout almost touching the wet ground at the base of the house. Pete’s scent was stronger than ever. He had to be there! Elliot peered in a window. No Pete. He looked through another one. Still no Pete.
Moving quietly around the side of the house, the dragon craned his neck to peek through a third window. His eyes grew wide. There was Pete! He had found him!
The dragon was about to howl happily. But then he stopped. What he saw was…confusing.
Pete was sitting on a foldout couch, snuggled up with other humans—a little girl and a man. The woman with the red hair from the day before was standing by the window, watching them with a warm smile.
The man held a book on his lap, reading aloud. “‘This is the story of a little puppy. His name is—’”
“Elliot,” Pete finished.
Elliot’s ears perked up. That was how Pete’s storybook started. The man was reading their story!
The man continued. “‘He is going on an adventure with his family. They are going—’”
“Wait,” Pete interrupted. “This isn’t how it is when I tell it.”
“Do you want me to stop?” the man asked.
Pete thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. “No. I like it.”
Elliot watched as Pete smiled and snuggled deeper into the cushions, sandwiched between the other humans. He looked…happy.
Elliot’s face fell. Pete had found a new story and a new home.
His head hanging, the dragon turned away from the window and began the long trek back to his cave—alone.
Pete's Dragon Junior Novel Page 5
