There's a Dragon in my Closet.
By John F. Green
and Linda Hendry.
Jonathan Longfellow Magee awoke one morning and found a dragon in his closet.
It wasn't one of those slimy little green lizards with red forked tongues you find in a pet shop either.
Hardly!
This dragon was huge!
It was sitting all scrunched up like a pretzel, its long tail wrapped around its neck three
times just so it could fit in the closet.
It was covered with silver scales that curled up like sardine lids.
Spiky whiskers stuck out from its broad green snout, where two nostrils perched like twin
railway tunnels in the side of a mountain.
Large, unhappy eyes peered out at Jonathan.
"Hey, how did you get in there?" asked Jonathan.
The dragon looked embarrassed.
"I'm not too sure.
I was chasing a knight through the forest when he disappeared around a corner.
I was going so fast I couldn't stop, and I guess I skidded off the page.
The next thing I knew I was folded up inside this closet."
"Hmm," said Jonathan thoughtfully, "it must have been that book I brought home from
the library about knights and dragons."
"Maybe you'd better find a different place to keep your books," said the dragon.
"It's a bit crowded in here.
Got any ideas how I can get back where I came from?
I sure could use my nice roomy cave."
"Let me work on it," Jonathan answered, and he closed the door.
Then he opened it again.
"By the way," he asked, "do you breathe fire?"
"Only when I sneeze," sniffed the dragon.
"And I only do that when I'm nervous."
"Oh," said Jonathan.
He closed the door again, carefully, and went downstairs.
Jonathan's mother was in the kitchen.
"Mother," he said quietly, "there's a dragon in my closet."
"Of course, dear.
Now, eat your toast or you'll be late for school."
Jonathan's father was in the den.
"There's a dragon in my closet, father," he said politely.
"Not now, son.
I'm late for a meeting."
Jonathan's big brother was in the hall getting his books ready for school.
"Guess what," said Jonathan.
"There's a dragon in my closet."
His brother laughed.
"Don't be silly," he said.
Jonathan's baby sister was under the piano bench in the living room playing with the dog.
When he told her about the dragon she said, Yecchfpssth."
As he left for school Jonathan met the letter carrier coming up the walk.
"Hi, Jonathan.
What's new?" she greeted him.
"There's a dragon in my closet," he answered eagerly.
"Yeah, and I've got Moby Dick in my bathtub!" said the letter carrier, slapping her leg in glee.
At the next house the delivery boy from the meat market was ringing the doorbell.
"Hey," Jonathan yelled across the hedge, "there's a dragon in my closet!"
The delivery boy raised one eyebrow, wiped his nose on his sleeve and said, "Humpf!"
Things didn't go much better at school.
"Oh, sure," said one friend when Jonathan told him his news.
"Fat chance," said another.
One shrugged, one snickered, one doubled over laughing.
No one believed him.
At recess Jonathan asked his teacher if he could speak to him privately.
"Of course, Jonathan.
What would you like to talk to me about?"
"Well," said Jonathan carefully, "when I got up this morning there was a dragon in my closet."
"How exciting!"
"The problem is," Jonathan continued, "nobody believes me."
"You must admit," his teacher said, "that a dragon is a strange thing to find in a closet."
He winked at Jonathan.
"What do you think I should do about it?"
His teacher coughed politely.
"Maybe you should take another look.
Maybe you just imagined you saw a dragon."
After school Jonathan hurried home as fast as he could.
He burst through the front door, bounced up the stairs to his room, took a deep breath,
and yanked open the closet door.
The dragon was still there.
"You're still here," said Jonathan.
"Yes, I'm still here," replied the dragon crossly.
"You must be hungry," said Jonathan.
"What do dragons eat for dinner?"
"Toads, snails, worms, bats –" "Never mind," Jonathan interrupted.
"I'll bring you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."
After he fed the dragon Jonathan sat down at his desk and took out some paper and a pen.
This is what he wrote:
Jonathan Longfellow Magee
cordially invites you to attend A DRAGON SHOWING at 4:00p.m. today in his bedroom
Please Be Prompt!
He wrote the same invitation over and over again.
Then before he went to bed he checked one more time to see if there really was a dragon in his closet.
The next morning Jonathan gave an invitation to his mother, who said, "How delightful, Jonathan!
Of course I'll be there."
He gave another to his father, who said, "Very clever, son.
You can count on me."
He gave one to his big brother, who stuffed it into his back pocket without even looking at it.
He even gave one to his baby sister, who chewed happily on it for the rest of the morning.
On the way to school he gave one to the letter carrier and another to the delivery boy.
"Imagine that!" said the letter carrier to the delivery boy.
"The kid really believes he has a dragon in his closet!"
He gave each of his friends one, and at recess he handed the last one to his teacher.
"It's still there!" he whispered.
"No, kidding!" his teacher whispered back.
"Well, I'll certainly be there to see it."
Promptly at four o'clock that afternoon Jonathan led everyone upstairs to his bedroom.
First came his mother carrying his baby sister in her arms.
His father followed closely behind, then the letter carrier, the delivery boy, his big brother, and his teacher.
Two of his friends were there,
and a couple of kids from his baseball team who were curious about what was going on.
As soon as they'd all squeezed into the room Jonathan walked over and opened the closet door.
"I told you," he announced proudly, "there's a dragon in my closet!"
Everybody stared at the dragon.
The dragon stared back nervously.
Its whiskers itched, its nostrils twitched, and suddenly it sneezed!
A bright flame shot into the room.
Coat hangers flew.
Pants, shirts and socks sailed through the air like kites on a string.
And the closet doorknob shot across the room and stuck into the wall beside the window!
The delivery boy and Jonathan's teacher raced down the hall and locked themselves in the bathroom.
Jonathan's father jumped through the bedroom window onto the porch roof and slid down the drain spout.
The kids were right behind him.
His mother fainted, and his big brother tried to crawl into one of the dresser drawers.
His baby sister went sailing under the bed, and the letter carrier leaped straight up into the air.
"Jumping toadstools!" she yelled.
"The kid's got a dragon in his closet!"
The force of the sneeze knocked the dragon out of the closet, right on top of Jonathan.
They looked at each other and smiled as they lay together under a jumbled heap of clothing.
Then Jonathan spied the book he'd borrowed from the library sticking out from under the dragon's tail.
He picked it up and held it under his friend's still smoking snout.
"Here's your book," he said.
"An Illustrated History of Ferocious Dragons."
"Do you think you could find a good place for me in there?" asked the dragon wistfully.
Jonathan opened the book to a large picture of a beautiful green forest.
"How about this?"
"Delightful! exclaimed the dragon.
He climbed up onto Jonathan's bed.
"Now hold the book still.
I'm going to do a swan dive."
Jonathan held the book out at arm's length.
"I'll miss you," he said sadly.
"Me too, but I don't belong here.
I'm homesick."
"Goodbye…"
In the next instant the dragon had disappeared between the fluttering pages of Jonathan's book.
One morning a few days later Jonathan turned to his father at breakfast.
"Father," he said quietly but firmly, "there's a one-eyed giant in the spare room."
THE END
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