chapter 5

TALK TO THE DRAGON

I look at my lap. Got the end of my sandwich sitting there. I don’t want it. My lunch seems pretty ruined. I ball that up with the bag. I mop dry with two napkins as best I can. The sweating is always ahead of the mopping with me. I look up. So far, I’m still the only kid in the SWOOF.

A swish and thud come from behind the bookcase where Ms. Blinny is. Happens a lot. I don’t worry too much. She usually says what has happened right after it happens. Things like, “Oh, spilled my purse.” “Oops, knocked over the pothos plant.”

Today she says, “Uh-oh, my planner . . . and my papers.” I can hear her sweep them off the floor. She pops her head around the bookcase. She says, “Done with lunch, Mason? Good! Come on back here. I have something for you to try.”

She sits me at a small desk that is pushed up against a wall opposite her bigger desk. My knees come up tall underneath it. Lift it some. The small desk is new this year. She opens a laptop in front of me. That’s new too. She brings up a program. I think this: Is she going to ask me to read?

But then I know she won’t. She knows how it is with me. Ms. Blinny untangles a headset and puts it on. There’s a little mic on a wire at her mouth. Her eyes are wide. She says, “Watch this, Mason.” She speaks. She says, “Wake up.” Then she says, “Hello, Dragon. Meet Mason.”

I think, Dragon? I am not a third grader. I watch. But only because I like Ms. Blinny.

Then I see it. Words type themselves on the screen. Ms. Blinny points at them. She tells the Dragon, “Stop listening.” She brings her hands together with a clap. She says, “See that? I tell it to stop listening so it won’t think I’m still writing when I’m talking to you.” She says, “You’ll learn the commands. But look!” She points at the screen again.

I look at the words. They go all floaty. Like always. But I see one word that I know by the shape of it. My name. On the end. Letter M. That’s right. I heard Ms. Blinny say it: Meet Mason.

She gives me the headset. She says, “Your turn. Talk to the Dragon! Start by telling it to wake up.”

So I put on that headset. I gulp. Two times. I tug at the wires. Stare at the screen. Finally, I say, “Wake up.” Then I say, “Y-you don’t look like a dragon.”

I hear tiny clicks. Typing sounds. The words line up across the screen. My eyes open wide. I think I see my sentence. Maybe even spelled right.

Ms. Blinny tells me, “Now say play back and listen.”

I do that. A lady-voice comes through the earphones: “You-you don’t look like a dragon.”

I say, “Holy cow!”

The Dragon types two words. So then I say, “Play back.”

The lady-voice says, “Holy cow.”

Ms. Blinny takes tiny running steps in place. Happy boots. She twirls around. She says, “Is that cool or what? You can pick a font. And a color if you want to.”

I think this: Best part is, I don’t have to look at the screen at all. I don’t have to read it. Don’t have to think about letter sounds. No wishing for pincher eyes to hold the letters in place. No blinking to clear a mess.

Ms. Blinny says, “Those are your words. You’re writing, Mason! Come do it every day. This can be your journal. It’s the story of you. You can use it to dump all the stuff that’s on your mind.” She makes her voice gruff. “Feed it to the Dragon,” she says. She pumps her arms over her head. “Yay!”

In my head I remember what one teacher told me: If you can talk, you can write.

I told that teacher, No. If you can talk, you can tell a story. But you still might not be able to write it.

It was no wisecrack. It was a true thing. I can start the writing. But it is not as fast as talking. I get lost. There is only one way to get back on track and that is to read what I already wrote. But for me, the reading is the trouble.

Now I know Ms. Blinny is right. The Dragon will let me talk out a story. This should be good. Easier. But here I sit. Frozen at the Dragon.

Ms. Blinny sees me being stuck. She says, “Whatever you were thinking about while you were eating your lunch, start there.”

I think this: Well. Maybe some of it.

She says, “Just be yourself while you are at the Dragon.”

So I do that. The Dragon types. And then I know it. If I have a story this is the way for me to tell it. As best I can.