NOMAN

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. In fact, that was quite a surprise even for us. We had always read about them or heard about them from our mothers before we laid ourselves to sleep. Oh you know the drill, mom wraps you up in your favorite blanket you're sure you were born with, kisses your forehead until you feel safe then begins to tell you about the ridiculously large lizards that fly about burning everything you hold dear including, possibly, your own flesh. Yaay mom!

And yet here we were, a small, insignificant town just outside the large city of Boston and we were paying someone to kill one of those impossible creatures that started terrorizing us about 2 weeks ago. And the monkey was dead. That, of course, was another story. But it all started with a statue, a strange pen, and a very vivid imagination.

In the small Jewish town of Brookline, Massachusetts, there resided an incredible storyteller named Josh Porter. We had all read his stories since he was in high school as they were being published in the Brookline Tab. Being known for writing often, it wasn’t surprising to find him constantly looking for new writing implements. A new store had popped up one day early that summer and it seemed to house a myriad of creative assistance for the budding, well, anyone. Of course, Josh made his way there and after only an hour, left with a rhinestone notebook and a black, sleek, silver-lined pen with a feather that stood up from the silver.

He told us about an idea he had for a great story he was hoping to turn into a novel. It was about dragons. He took his bounty home with him and began to write that night. His father wasn’t to be home that night as he was always putting his son down about his imagination and not living in “our good and honest reality”. I mean really, did HE live in “our good and honest reality”? Had he ever seen the world? Not that it was about to get any better, but I mean really.

Josh wrote late into the night. The way he recounted it, it was the most he’d written in one night. At some point, he said that it was like the pen hadn’t seen that particular piece of paper in a while and they were old friends. It was practically writing the story itself.

“The ink seemed to flow from the pen so easily, I felt like there was a little dragon trying to get out of the pen. I even thought I fell asleep at one time and low and behold, 3 pages had been written that I don’t remember writing.” Said Josh. He had no idea how right he was. About the dragon anyway.

It was a Wednesday morning before dawn when the sound was first heard. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have woken up thinking I was asleep at an airport. There suddenly came a noise like a long drag on a huge engine and then a loud rumble like thunder. Then light….and a lot of it! The light came out like large flame throwers on crack. Despite it being Summer, the light came with a sudden burst of heat as well and we could feel it. Then came the screaming.

I went outside and looked towards the running people exiting their houses like streams of water. A large figure caught my eye even though it was completely behind me. I turned to see an enormous crown-shaped head attached to a scaley body standing at the street entrance. It was black with a large stripe silver stripe starting in the middle of its head and heading to the back of its body. Along the silver strip were feathers that flattened against the body then stood up right before it took a long breath and sent another wave of fire roasting out at the row of houses laying before it.

An ironic melody started from somewhere down the street. It sounded like police sirens. Quite the comedy of Dante this was. I mean what exactly were the police going to do except evacuate everyone. I was pretty sure everyone would evacuate themselves. The dragon’s coloring and shape looked familiar but at that moment I couldn’t think of why. It was clear we needed some serious help or an incredible miracle or some really long sticks with marshmallows at the end! I’m sure I was thinking what everyone was thinking; no man would be able to help us. So we needed to find Noman.