This Camp is Cursed!_ " "But, what if I don't believe?" "Then, you'll just be a little mummy for a little while." "Or . . . I don't know . . . maybe that other guy?" "No! Don't you dare!" I say. "You're getting confused! Don't you see? They aren't bad, they aren't bad. They're just misunderstood, that's all!" "Okay, okay . . . I'll believe. For you." I take a deep breath. The two-headed dragon flies up, down, up, down over the house, but he keeps turning and turning on the other side so that his tail is always toward me. "I think he likes me," I say to the man. The two-headed dragon dives down and the man and I both duck. "But I've always been his best friend." "You are?" the man says. "No, no. That's the crazy thing," I say. "You have to come with me." "Come with you where?" "Wherever I go. You'll need to . . . er . . . join." "Join," he says. "I'll join." He steps on my foot again. "No, no," I say. "Go in the house." "Inside the house? Why?" I look at my house, then over at the two-headed dragon again. I close my eyes. The Dragon Turtle looks over and shakes its head. It starts to turn but stops. Now the sun is going down and the whole sky is turning red. That dragon looks pretty scary. But no matter how many times it flies, I don't get sick. I don't know how many times I get up and run across the grass. And I don't want to know, because I know, I just _know_ that we're winning. And just because I can't see where I'm going doesn't mean there aren't obstacles. I just jump over everything. "Coward," the man says. He's hopping about in the middle of the lawn. "Come with me," I say, but he doesn't follow. We see him when he turns and points to the sky. He's running back toward his house. He doesn't look like he's very good at running and the two-headed dragon is right behind him, swooping down, its jaws open. I shout, "Wait!" but he can't hear me because the dragon swoops again and he doesn't hear me and the man has run into the house and closed the door and the dragon doesn't seem like it's stopping. I wave my arms in front of my face like this is a movie and I see my own body on the screen with the dragon's wings and I wave my arms around to get his attention and get him to stop. But it's not working. Now, I'm standing there screaming and running around in circles on the lawn. He comes running back out of the house again. "Stop!" I shout. "Stop!" but the dragon is only stopping for a second when the man tries to climb up onto its back. Now the dragon is turning itself into a great ball with the man and me on top. It flies over the whole neighborhood, over all the houses and down the road, flying over lawns and swimming pools, and then, suddenly, it turns and plummets into a backyard. The two-headed dragon is falling like a black rain. The man and me are both flying off the dragon's back as it lands with a huge crash. It's about as loud as an atomic bomb. It makes me deaf for an instant, and then . . . There's this sound like a loud whistle, but it is a siren. A whole bunch of police cars are screeching up to the front of my house. Then I hear a deep voice call, "Stop right there! Stop right there!" A policeman with a nightstick is running right at me. "Stop right there, boy!" I feel like this whole nightmare is turning into a dream, but then I feel the rough hand grabbing my shirt. I'm not on the grass anymore. I've been yanked off the dragon turtle's back. I struggle. I kick and spit and hit. I scream, "Let go!" But the policeman is already pulling me away from the dragon, then I feel him slap the black cap on my head and tighten the strap around my chin. Then he grabs me by the arm. I am in a headlock. "Let him go! Let him go! Help! Stop him!" I hear yelling. I see the dragon standing in the doorway, his wings extended and his mouth open wide. I open my mouth and scream. "Stop!" says the policeman. He drags me through the front door and throws me onto the couch. I sit on the edge of the couch, rocking and rocking, but soon I get over it. Now I can hear my mother talking to someone on the phone, her voice filled with calm. There's a voice too, someone kind of older, talking about how bad my mom is going to feel when she knows. I am so scared that I can't even cry and I am shivering too. The policeman sits down in a big chair by the front window. He says something to my mother and then he pushes something into her hands. She reads it out loud and her face gets all red, all pink. She stands up. "I'm sorry," she says. She walks into the hall, crying. The policeman looks out the window again. "They're gonna take your mom away." I think that's the most horrible thing I've ever heard. "No, they won't," I say. "I'd like to stay home tonight." "Yeah, me too," says the policeman. "But no one is going to take my mom." "Yeah, maybe not," the policeman says. "But I want to stay home too." And then the policeman gets up and walks out the door and all I can hear are footsteps going out the door and my mother and my dad talking low. My mom comes over to the couch and kneels down. She grabs my shoulders. "You didn't hurt the dragon," she says. "It was just scared. And you're not going to go to jail." "But—" "No buts, just remember that." "But I didn't do anything, really, Mom. It's not like I even touched him." "Let's go to sleep," she says. "Tomorrow is Sunday. We'll talk tomorrow. Okay?" "Okay," I say, but then I'm crying again, not being able to stop. "Now you go to sleep," she says. "And don't you worry about the dragon again. You just dream about everything. You just get ready for school tomorrow." I walk into the living room. The dragon stands by the couch. I open the couch and he crawls in. He sticks his head out and hisses at me. I shut the couch and he climbs in. "You can come out now," I tell him. He crawls out, his head hanging, his wings drooping. I crawl into the bed next to him. I feel his hand on my shoulder and he sighs. And then he snuggles into me like I'm a warm log. I know it's a good sign, that he feels that good about me. I've been so worried, but I don't want to worry anymore. I don't know how long I sleep, but when I wake up it's already morning. The sun is shining and the dragon is gone. The living room is so quiet. I sneak in the back way and there's my mom curled up in the big chair. She's reading a magazine. I walk over to her and give her a kiss. I love her, but right now I can't stop thinking about what happened. How could I be in so much trouble for something that didn't even happen? "We should have left you with your brother," she says. "Don't worry, Mom. Everything is going to be fine." "I don't know," she says. "But I'll make sure you get the care you need." My brother doesn't want to go to school that morning. His head is too hard to sleep. "Is there a game today?" he asks me. "No," I say. "I've got a real test." "A test?" "I've got to come up with something to talk about. How are you going to do that if you don't know any one thing about anything?" "Well, we _should_ play," he says. "I'm coming, right, Dad?" "We need to finish setting up the dragon egg." "I want to see the dragon egg," he says. "We don't know if it's ever going to hatch," I say. "It's a turtle egg." "Come on, you're being silly. Come on, Dad," my brother says. "We've got to take care of our dragon. We have to be