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Disclaimers: Little John is back for a new adventure! To better understand this story, you may want to read the other fictions in which John and his friends appeared: A Kiss and Playing time.
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A woman was practising karate in the quietness of her backyard, taking advantage of the few last rays of sun of what seemed to be a rather hot summer day. Her face was hidden but one could very well see her auburn (almost red) hair and, on her upper left arm, a little tattoo representing a blue dragon. Having finished her moves, the woman began to sing slowly, while gathering her stuff and packing it.
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"Arriva la Lolobridgidawas she humming, stroking absent-mindedly her tattooed dragon that winked and somehow seemed to move on her arm...?!? |
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"Arghhhh..." shouted John, waking up suddenly. Trying to get his bearings, he took a deep sigh and, lighting his bedside light, he carefully looked around him: everything was in order in his room. His desk and his school bag were still in their usual place, as well as the shelves holding his books and the cupboard, full with his clothes. Only his Argo teddy was out of place: instead of being in his master's arms as usual, it was lying on the floor. Catching the horse, the boy hugged it and, as only kids can, forgot everything about his dream and went back to sleep. This time, no strange vision came to disturb John's sleep, maybe because of Argo's vigilant watch?
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"Wake up, son. It's time for breakfast!" The voice of his father was slowly cutting through the clouds of sleepiness that surrounded John.
"I'm coming, daddy, I'm coming," answered John, grasping some last minutes of semi-sleep before really waking up. Soon enough he was up, though, eager to eat his muësli and drink his orange juice while chatting with his father.
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His lack of exuberance was not lost on his father, so Pascal asked if he had had troubles sleeping. Shaking his head in denial, John replied he had slept well, if not enough. And, after reflection, he added: "In fact, I also had this most peculiar dream. There was a woman with auburn hair practicing a martial art... karate I think, and at the same time she was singing a kind of strange remake of a Dalida song: instead of Gigi l'amoroso, it was about Gina Lolobridgida! Gina, c'est toi là-bas dans le noir ?said Pascal, with the hoarse voice of the dead French singer, before continuing in a slightly mocking tone: "So you stayed up late yesterday night? When will you learn? You had to stay up last night to watch 'Fanfan la Tulipe' in this late night old movies rerun with your mother... And you wonder why you dreamt about Gina Lolobridgida?" "Well..." answered John, blushing. It was true that his mother had told him he should go to bed, for he would be too tired the morning after, but she was also happy to find him interested in learning more about their culture, so she let it go. "Mom said that every rule has its exceptions and that for such a nice film I could stay and watch it with her, especially since I had been nice all week and today was school-free." "Yeah, yeah, such a nice film... Or rather such a nice actor! Do you remember the last time she forced us to go to this theater because there were so many pictures of him displayed there?" "Oh yes! And her glare when I asked her if my eyes were playing tricks on me or if she was really drooling?" Continuing their easy banter, the two men washed the table, letting it prepared for their mother and spouse. |
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"Go snuggle up to your mother. After all, it is almost time for her to wake up and you really seem to need some rest."
Happily, John went to his parents' bedroom, careful not to make any noise, and lay himself on the bed, soon snuggling up to his mom. Completely oblivious of her son's arrival, Cat did not wake up and, a few minutes later, both of them were sleeping, Cat's breathing only covered by John's light snores.
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Once again, the woman with auburn hair was in her garden, this time sitting in a lounge-chair and, while it still wasn't possible to see her face, one could tell she was well built, possibly a fighter judging from those muscles rippling under her skin.
A little shriek was suddenly heard in the distance -an exclamation of surprise, it seemed- and the woman stopped moving, listening carefully before shrugging after a while, discarding the noise as unimportant. She took a plate and a spoon on the low table near her chair and began to eat her cream cheese while the little blue dragon seemed to once again move, as if it had a life of its own and wasn't a mere drawing under the woman's skin. From there, the situation evolved rapidly: surprised by a second and rather loud shriek, the woman dropped her spoon. It landed on her thigh and projected cheese all around, including on the little dragon which shouted he didn't like cream cheese and preferred to go and fight with the plain yogurt who was calling for his help. After that, it literally extracted itself from under the skin of the completely flabbergasted woman and proceeded towards the kitchen!!
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"Arghhhh..."
"Johnny, wake up. It was only a bad dream...". Opening his eyes, John realized he had been dreaming once again and, as his mother questioned him, he explained her the two different dreams he had had. Amazed by the peculiar stories, Cat laughed and claimed that it was at least a change from the classical dreams of Xena and other mythical Greek heroes. "After all, auburn hair and a blue tattoo speak more of a Celtic influence than a Mediterranean one! But it may simply be an expression of your desire to already be in the summer when we all go to Ireland for the holidays, sweetie. So don't see too much in that dream, ok?" After which, closing this discussion, John and his mother stood up.
In the afternoon, the little boy left his house to go meet his friends Emma and Rachael on the playground. For some time now, they had taken the habit to meet there, to chat, to participate in whatever game was taking place and, eventually, when the three of them were in the mood, to play Xena there or in John's backyard. But when he arrived at the playground, John was very surprised to find it deserted, with no one there but a very sad-looking Rachael, holding an apparently new blue toy.
"Hey Rach, that's a new teddy you've got here?" tried John, not wanting to ask directly about Emma. The little girl only nodded very slightly. She was keeping the toy so close to her that it was impossible to figure out what it was, but John was not one to be discouraged by such a small obstacle, so he continued: "And what is it? When did you receive it?" As Rachael was not answering, but kept staring at her feet and hugging the teddy, John knelt beside her, ruffling her hair. He was feeling a bit like an older brother towards the small 'Rosy' as Emma sometimes called her sister, finding it always so amazing to watch the metamorphosis of the extremely shy girl into a non-stop talking machine. Speaking of which, Rachael suddenly looked him in the eyes and began, half speaking, half crying: "It's my fault, John, it's my fault if now mom is angry at Emma because she tried to speak in my favor. Emma is punished and she will hate me." The girl was now crying, clenching desperately her teddy, her little world completely ravaged by this incident.
"Come on Rachael, Emma could never hate you. You are her sister, but you are also much more than that: you are her best friend, and she loves you!"
"But because of me she was punished, and she wanted to come here to play. She told me she had a new game idea and that she was looking forward to seeing you. But she can't because mom will not let her go outside. It's my fault! She will hate me!"
Unsure of what to do, the boy took the little girl into his arms -even though it seemed very awkward to him- and he tried to calm down his friend: "I promise you she won't hate you. Don't cry. Emma would not be happy to have you cry because you fear her, you know." And, for a few minutes, John rocked Rachael, making soothing noises as his mother had often done with him when he was younger (but not anymore: he was a big boy and big boys didn't cry... At least, not in front of other people!).
Seeing that Rachael was calming down, John decided that knowing what had really happened could be helpful but he was still trying to figure out how to ask Rachael about it when she said:
"You're sure she won't hate me?"
"Yes, I promise you," answered John with more certainty than he was really feeling, thanking gods for the little girls that were so trustful...
"Today, mom brought us to the toy store and asked us if there was anything that we wanted. And there was this little Argo teddy there, so fluffy, so nice-looking that I couldn't help it and asked for it. But when mom found out that it was related to the Xena show, she said no, that I should stop being obsessed by this show. It is then that Emma tried to help me with saying that it was simply a horse teddy, with very nice expressing eyes... But mom was still refusing so Emma added that she probably would not have the cool plastic sword she wanted. Then Mom exploded, saying our grandmother had really exaggerated and that she would put order to it. Then, she took one Barbie doll for Emma and a blue teddy for me and brought us home, demanding that we play in our rooms with our new toys. It is when she saw the Barbie flying from Emma's window a few minutes later that she changed her mind, ordering Emma to stay in her room until she asked for forgiveness while I was to go play outside. At first, I did not want to go but Emma made a sign telling me to go and, seeing how furious mom was, saying that Emma was a bad example for me, I obeyed. But I should have stayed with her, it's my fault if she was punished and she is alone now!"
"No, no. Come on Rach, I know everything will be fine." And, before he could continue, he saw at last what this new teddy of Rachael's was: a little blue dragon... "By Zeus, it's a dragon!"
"Well yes, that's the teddy mom bought me instead of an Argo, I told you so, Johnny!" replied the little girl, unable to understand why her friend was suddenly so agitated.
"But, you know what? Last night, not only once but twice, I had a dream about a woman with a little blue dragon tattooed on her arm. And, at the end of the second dream, the tattoo took life! And it looked exactly like your teddy does. Rachael, this is an incredible coincidence. I tell you: this teddy is not just any teddy, it is the spitting image of the one I saw in my dreams!"
Totally excited, Rachael had now completely forgotten her troubles and was as eager as John to understand what exactly all this situation meant:
"Do you mean you are a sort of medium or what? But Granny told us it does not exist, that clairvoyants and marabouts are all charlatans..."
"No, of course I am not saying I could see it in advance. It is not possible, nor is time travel! Mom explained me that Back to the Future and Terminator were only films and not reality. What I'm saying is that it is such a coincidence that we have to use it: we can create the story of your teddy thanks to this dream. What do you think of it?"
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Rachael thought about it for a few seconds before nodding. "And what is cool is that it may help me choose her a name too!" |
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"... so we established that the little dragon had left Boadicea to go and fight for the better good of plain yogurts, and we named it Gina, after the song in my dream. It is now Gina, the plain yogurt addict little dragon!"
"The plain yogurt addict? Frankly, sometimes, John you have the strangest ideas... But I must admit it is quite fun," recognized Cat. "And, you know, you could even say that the dragon left Boadicea the cream cheese warrior for her enemy the plain yogurt warrior."
John nodded, understanding what his mother truly meant: "And as Boadicea's old enemy is Xena, who but her will be the plain yogurt warrior? Oh, mom, that's an excellent idea! I'm sure Rachael will love it! And it will also be a nice adding to our plays: Gina the dragon fighting for the greater good!
Finishing his afternoon snack, John sighed: "I only hope that Emma won't be punished all day or, even worse, tomorrow too! I wanted to play and talk to her... Well, she is really smart, for a girl!" he added, blushing softly, before leaving the kitchen.
He did not hear his mother say, just after his departure: "Well, at least now, I'll have a good point when you refuse to eat your yogurt!" And she laughed.
Plain yogurt warrior and cream cheese warrior: the two enemies that will become friends again in The Deliverer.
Cat, August, 27th, 2000.
