Jimmy’s Dragon

“But you can’t be a dragon,” said the boy. “Dragons aren’t real.”

“Listen here, kid. I’m real, so just hop on my back so I can take you back to your parents.”

“What? No way. You’ll disappear once we’re up in the air because you’re a figment of my imagination and then I’ll fall out of the sky.”

“Ok, so you won’t come with me? You don’t want to get out of this damned forest? It took me hours of flying around to spot you from the air, you know.”

“Why would my parents send a dragon? It doesn’t make sense. I’m supposed to be rescued by the police.”

“What can I say? You have weird parents, kid. So are we gonna go or what? I’m not gonna wait for you forever.”

“Ok, I’ll go with you. But I don’t want to fly. You’ll just have to lead me out of this forest on foot.”

“But that’s gonna take forever!”

“That’s the only way I’ll go with you. Take it or leave it.”

The trek out of the forest was tedious. The dragon had to keep switching back and forth between flying to get his bearings, and walking, to lead the kid in the right direction. Once they reached a road, the kid looked for passing cars. He wanted to use it as a test to check if other people could see the dragon. Finally, there was a car heading their way. As it got closer, it slowed to a stop. The driver got out.

“That’s a fine dragon you got there, boy.”

The boy couldn’t believe his ears. “You can see him?”

“Why, yes son. I can see the dragon standing beside you.”

“But dragons aren’t real!”

“Well, then why is there one standing beside you?”

“I don’t know. Am I in a dream? Am I still asleep?”

“Told ya I’m real,” butted in the dragon.

The boy sighed in frustration. “I guess I have no choice but to play along with this craziness until I wake up,” he thought to himself.

The man driving the car was nice enough to drive the boy back to his parents. They were escorted by the dragon from the air, to make sure the boy got home safely. The boy shook his head as he found that no one thought it was unusual to see a dragon following them home. Eventually, they reached his house. His parents were right in front waiting for them.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re safe, Jimmy,” cried his mom as she threw her arms around him and squeezed tight.

“We’re so happy to have you back, son,” said his dad.

Jimmy waited impatiently for his parents to explain to him why they left him in the forest, why they sent a dragon to find him, and why dragons are real all of a sudden. But they never did.

“So we’re just going to pretend that dragons have always existed?”

“Jimmy, what has gotten into you? Of course, dragons have always existed. What a silly thing to say,” said his mom.

“I give up,” said Jimmy, “none of this makes sense. I’m going to sleep and when I wake up, everything better start making sense or else.”

Jimmy angrily stomped his feet as he made his way up the stairs and into his room. He quickly fell asleep and as he slept, he started dreaming. He dreamt that everything was normal, dragons never existed, and that he never got lost in the forest. When he woke up, he was very disappointed to find that he was still in the same non-sensical world. He just threw his hands up in the air in disgust and decided he was just going to play along until things went back to normal. But things never did go back to normal.

Later that day, he turned on the news and saw a news report about “a local boy, saved by a dragon. Full story at 11.”

Time passed and Jimmy the boy grew up. He eventually moved out to go to university. That’s when he met Jessica. Through sheer coincidence, he found out that she, too, thought that the world they’re living in didn’t make any sense and everyone around them was crazy.

“What do you think it is? Are we in a dream?” asked Jessica.

“I don’t know. I’ve never had a dream that lasted this long. I mean, I’m actually a young adult now. Plus, if we’re in a dream, then that means you’re not real either or I’m not real and you’re just dreaming me up.”

“Good point.”

Jimmy and Jessica just continued playing along with the reality they found themselves in. Eventually, they got married and had kids. Then one day, Jimmy’s dragon came to visit them. The dragon took the entire family for a ride. Gliding through the air, Jimmy forgot for a second, all his thoughts about this world not being real and allowed himself to enjoy this extraordinarily surreal moment. Then suddenly, the dragon vanished. Jimmy and his family found themselves falling out of the sky. Just as he was about to hit the ground, a giant hole opened up and swallowed him into eternal darkness.

He woke up to find that he’s back in his bed. He was a kid again, living at home with his parents. Had it all been a dream? But it felt so real. The fate of his wife, kids, and dragon, continued to gnaw at him, and left him deeply disturbed. He questioned his parents but they had no memory of him getting lost in the forest or that dragons ever existing.

Days turned into months, and the months turned into years. Even with the passage of that much time, he was unable to shake off his memory of the alternate life that he seemingly lived. He spent so much time searching for traces of that life, that he neglected the one he’s currently living. At university, he expected to meet a girl named Jessica but he did not find her there. He was so disheartened that he avoided getting into relationships altogether. He blindly cornered himself into a bleak future of an empty and lonely existence. His thoughts only consisted of finding a way back home to his family - his wife, his kids, and his dragon.

If Jimmy’s dragon could see how Jimmy was living, he would take pity on him, and he might be tempted to save him one last time.

One day, Jimmy was spending another evening at home, alone, just endlessly browsing the internet. He stumbled onto a website for writers called Vocal. There he found amazing stories written by regular people like himself. It made him feel less alone, but more importantly, it inspired him to write. Then something caught his eye. In the section for writing challenges, he saw his life - not his current one, but the alternate one he dreamt about. The prompt for the writing challenge was “A grown dragon finds a lost — or abandoned — toddler in the forest. Write a fiction story about what happens next.” Memories of his lost alternate life came flooding back to him. Was it just a coincidence, or was this his dragon reaching out to him in the only way possible, in this reality? With his mind filled with longing for what was (or what could have been), the words just flowed from his fingers as he began to type:

“But you can’t be a dragon,” said the boy. “Dragons aren’t real.”