Hermione was all aflutter having just come from Infernetta’s Wing Waxing and Nail Salon, sporting her talons burnished in a lush prehistoric purple.
Now, it isn’t very often that a guy finds
himself seeing a dragon, much less sitting across from one in a coffee
shop. Indeed, adults rarely see dragons
at all. Children do more often, well,
because they are children and have little notion as to realities. But dragons
do exist, just beyond the realm of consciousness, and they rarely make the
journey between.
It started with me shoveling my front walk
after a January snow. It was very
slippery and my foot caught a patch of underlying ice. I upended, hitting my
head on the sidewalk. Things faded to
black, and the next moment I found myself sitting in front of this very warm
hospitable dragon in a very strange coffee shop.
Hermione introduced herself and quickly related
as to how she was very lucky in getting booked for a new series of children’s
dreams and that, along with husband Nevermore’s recent success with cooling
breath mints that were all the rage in the dragon community (dragon breath
creates great demand for products like this, she told me ), things were very good
with them .
“But enough about me,” Hermione added, “What’s
going on in your world? Oh, but first, let’s get you a little warmer-upper. Now
I can’t recommend the ‘Brimstone Latte’ I’m having as they can give you
hiccups. Matter of fact they did that
very thing to me last time I had one and I singed quite a few dragons around
me; which I can tell you is not a good thing.
Maybe you should move your chair a tad back, just in case, O.K.? I know; we’ll order you a Crème Brule, and I
can finish it off for you. They say my
caramelizing is to die for.”
So, settled in, as much as one can be with a
dragon, I started relating to Hermione the latest news in our world. She was
very pleased to know we have a female president, that global warming was
getting worse, and that a new volcano had erupted in the Hawaiian chain. Things
were just getting interesting when I started feeling wonky, stars started
swirling around, and things faded out again.
I found myself lying on my sidewalk on that
January day, shovel still in hand. But you know the strangest thing- my
sidewalk was cleared completely… and bone dry. 
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