The Boy Who Grew Dragons by Andy Shepherd

Author:Andy Shepherd [Shepherd, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2018-05-03T16:00:00+00:00

That afternoon it wasn’t just Flicker who’d made a mess though. I came into the kitchen and found Lolli covered in a crispy cornflake crust.

My feet crunched across a carpet of rice. Mum was sweeping cereal and dried pasta into little mountains. A river of yoghurt flowed between them with splashes of ketchup along its banks. Lolli was sitting in the middle of the scene waving a picture at me.

‘I only left her for a minute,’ Mum sighed. ‘I rather hoped we were over the painting-with-food stage.’

Lolli pointed to the mess on the paper and beamed.

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Er … Great work, Lolli.’

She frowned, looked at her picture and turned it the other way up. Then flapped her arms and made a roaring noise.

Now I’m not sure anyone else would have seen what I saw in her ‘artwork’. But then Lolli and I were the only ones who knew there was a dragon living upstairs. Suddenly I could make out the ketchup flames and the scaly pasta wings and the gluey raisin eyes she’d dipped in glitter. She’d made dragons, and lots of them. She waved it at me again and I took it from her.

‘Thanks, Lollibob,’ I whispered. ‘I’m sure he’ll love it.’

And he did. After I pinned it to my wall, Flicker curled up in front of the picture and stayed there, rumbling with contentment.

Meanwhile, I cleared up the lurking poos and hid yet another shredded pillowcase. Feeling pleased with my efforts, I ducked downstairs for a drink – where Mum collared me.

‘Grandad’s been telling me all about his plans for the garden,’ she said while scrambling an egg with one hand and dropping counters into Connect 4 with the other.

Lolli loved undoing the catch and watching all the counters clatter out. She slotted the last ones in and then jiggled up and down in anticipation.

‘Sounds like the pair of you have taken on a bit of a project,’ Mum continued.

I remembered us walking home the day before and how I’d promised him I’d go over today. I smiled awkwardly, a pang of guilt squirming inside my tummy. It was easy to get distracted with Flicker around.

‘I haven’t seen him fired up like this for ages. It’s good.’ Mum glanced up at me for a second. ‘Don’t leave it all to him though now, will you?’

I felt myself blush. Had she just read my mind? If she had, I hoped she didn’t read any further and figure out I had a dragon in my room! Anyway, she was right – Grandad needed me.

‘I’ll go now,’ I said, marvelling at her ability to catch the tiny astronaut Lolli had just launched into orbit before he splat-landed in the egg with one hand, while scooping up the scattered Connect 4 counters with the other. I sometimes wonder if my mum secretly has her own superpowers.

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