Tags:
Fiction,
General,
Action & Adventure,
Juvenile Fiction,
Magic,
Fantasy & Magic,
Cousins,
Animals,
Dragons,
Body; Mind & Spirit,
Dragons; Unicorns & Mythical,
Magick Studies,
Proofs (Printing)
up again.”
“Did the mine run out of gold?” Daisy asked. “Is that why Goldmine City turned into a ghost town?”
“Nope,” said Uncle Joe. “The mine blew up.”
“Blew up?” said Jesse, setting his milk glass down with a
clunk.
“Kaboom,” said Uncle Joe. “Some say the explosion was caused by underground gas. Others say it was a human being who caused it. Something to do with a feud.”
“What kind of feud?” the cousins chimed in eagerly.
“A feud between the mining company and the farmer,” said Uncle Joe, squeezing more ketchup and mustard onto his hamburger. “The farmer who worked the land behind this house, as a matter of fact.”
“
Our
farmer?” Daisy asked.
“The Magical Dairyman?” Jesse whispered.
Uncle Joe snapped his fingers. “Now, what was his name? It’ll come to me in a second…. Anyway, according to the stories, the farmer got all worked up and told everyone that the mining company was tunneling onto his land when they didn’t have a claim,” said Uncle Joe, biting into his burger.
“So what happened?” Daisy asked.
Uncle Joe shrugged and spoke with a full mouth. “The farmer blew the mine to smithereens, according to some people,” he said, swallowing hard and smiling. “Buried the mine under so many tons of rubble, no one’s ever dug back down. Oh, yeah, and the explosion killed the head of the mining company.”
“Did the farmer get in trouble?” Jesse asked.
Uncle Joe shook his head. “The investigation was inconclusive. It might have been human mischief, but it might also have been natural gas. The farmer fled overseas. He’s long dead now, of course—this was over a hundred years ago.”
“Who owns the Dell now?” Jesse asked, stealing a look at Daisy.
Uncle Joe said, “That’s a very good question. No one knows. The land’s held in some kind of complicated trust. A bank in Switzerland pays the taxes every year, but no one knows who or wherethe current owners are … which is lucky for you guys, because you get the Dell all to yourselves.”
“Not anymore, we don’t,” Jesse muttered as he dropped his half-eaten hamburger onto his plate.
Late that night, a sudden noise awoke Jesse. He sat up in bed and blinked at the clock until it came into focus. It was two o’clock in the morning, but the full moon lit up his room like daylight. He went over to the window and looked out.
Emmy was standing in the driveway, staring right back up at him. She was in full dragon form, her beautiful blue-green scales resplendent in the moonlight. Jesse’s heart pounded. They had been careful, as always, to lock her in the garage. How had she gotten out?
Jesse jammed his feet into his sneakers, ran through the bathroom to Daisy’s room, and shook her awake.
“Emmy’s out,” he told her in a loud whisper. “Get your sneakers on!”
“Yikes!” Daisy popped up and peeled away the covers, her hair a nest of snarls. She groped around under the bed for her sneakers and fumbled with the laces. Then the two of them tiptoed down the stairs and through the kitchen. They opened and closed the back door, careful not to let it slam.
Then they ran down the path toward the dragon in the driveway. Daisy whispered frantically, “Emmy! What are you doing? What if someone sees you?”
“No one sees me,” Emmy hissed back at Daisy. “Mrs. Nosy-Britches is fast asleep in her nest.”
“How did you get out?” Jesse wanted to know.
“My new friends opened the door,” Emmy said happily. “I love them.”
“New friends?” Jesse asked.
“What new friends?” Daisy asked.
“Those new friends,” said Emmy, waving her arms toward the trellis by the side of the garage.
Two figures as tall as trees towered in the dappled shadows. Daisy gasped and reached out for Jesse’s arm as one of the figures stepped forward into the moonlight. His hair was long and dark and snarled and full of pine needles. His feet were bare. His toes were very dirty, tinged with
Kristene Perron, Joshua Simpson