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I, Warren Reginald Nesbitt, at only seven years of age, have discovered the meaning of life. Okay, not of all life. But I’ve discovered the meaning of my life. Because the most amazing thing ever is staring me in the face right in the middle of Tony’s Tops Toy Store. The meaning of my life is that I have to have the Deluxe Volcano Building Set Supreme.
Dragon, my pet dragon, has the same exact thought. “I need this more than I’ve ever needed anything in my whole entire existence,” he declares as he stands next to me, staring at the same box. Dragon’s lived a couple hundred years longer than me, so that’s saying something.
The Deluxe Volcano Building Set Supreme is practically calling our names.
“It says the lava can shoot up to three feet in the air,” I read from the bright orange and red box.
Dragon wipes his mouth with a claw. “I think I’m drooling,” he says.
I check my mouth. No drool yet.
“Warren!” I hear my mom call. I twist my head to see her marching up the aisle. “So, have you found something?” she asks.
Dragon points to the box. “Please, can we get it?” he asks her as he jumps up and down. “If you buy this for me, I promise to never cause the smoke detectors to go off again in the middle of the night. I promise to share it with Warren. Sometimes. Maybe. And I promise to not eat all the marshmallows as soon as you bring them home from the supermarket!”
I notice that Dragon crosses his claws at that last promise. It doesn’t matter though. Mom just ignores Dragon, because she doesn’t understand that Dragon is real. No one but me hears Dragon talk or sees him move. They think he’s a stuffed animal.
Now it’s my turn to point to the box holding the volcano building set. “Can I get this, Mom? Please?” I put on my best pleading face.
“Warren, you’re supposed to be looking for a toy for Avik’s birthday,” she says, shaking her head.
“Can I get Avik a toy and get this for me?” I ask.
Mom shakes her head again. I wonder if she ever gets dizzy doing that.
“Well, can we get the volcano building set for Avik?” I ask, already devising a plan to trade Avik the volcano building set for something else.
Mom checks the price tag and grimaces. “It’s a little much,” she says. “Sorry, Warren. There are less expensive volcano building sets here.” Mom motions to a few other boxes underneath the deluxe version.
I inspect the less expensive volcano building toys. “Mom, these volcanos only have lava fall out the side of the volcano. They don’t shoot up into the air,” I say.
“Also, they don’t have the words ‘deluxe’ or ‘supreme’ on them,” Dragon adds.
“How about we get him one of those slime kits?” Mom points to a display of different colored slime sets behind me.
A slime kit actually seems like it’d be a pretty good birthday gift.
“Okay,” I agree. But I’m not finished with the volcano building set yet. “How much is the deluxe one?” I ask.
“About forty dollars after tax,” my mom replies.
Dragon whistles. “That’s more than a year’s worth of claw manicures,” he says.
I slump my shoulders in defeat. “I don’t have forty dollars,” I say.
“How much money do you have saved?” my mom asks.
I take a minute to add up my savings. There was the three dollars I got for my last tooth. But I had to give all three dollars to my twin sister, Ellie, when Dragon accidentally scorched her new shoelaces after he burped too close to her shoes. I also earned seven dollars for helping my dad rake the backyard. Until Dragon and I made a bet as to who could jump the highest into the pile, which splattered the leaves all over the yard. And then my dad made me give four dollars back.
“I have three dollars,” I say.
“Does that include the dollar bill that someone left too close to my snout when I burped this morning?” Dragon asks.
I groan. “You have to stop burping,” I tell him.
Dragon shrugs. “I can’t. Burping is who I am.”
I turn back to my mom. “I have two dollars,” I tell her.
I think my mom is about to shake her head again, but she just sighs. “You could always earn your allowance by doing your chores.”
“How much do I get for chores?” I ask.
“Two dollars a week,” she replies.
I smack my hand against my forehead. Only two dollars a week? I’d need to do chores for…uh…
“That’s nineteen weeks of chores to earn the thirty-eight dollars you need to buy the volcano building set,” my mom says as though she can read my mind. “I’m going to pay for the slime kit now,” she says, and takes it to one of the cashiers.
Dragon’s eyes look like they’re going to pop out of his head. “ NINETEEN WEEKS? ” he moans loudly. “I can’t wait that long! I need to see gushing, red, molten, hot lava now .”
“We need to find another way to get money besides just doing chores,” I say.
“Hmmm…!” Dragon ponders. His eyes suddenly light up, and he runs over to the cashier where Mom is paying for the slime kit. “Excuse me, cashier person. You have a lot of money there. May I please have thirty-eight dollars? In return, I will bring you marshmallows tomorrow.”
The cashier ignores Dragon as he hands Mom a receipt to sign.
Dragon huffs. “How about burnt marshmallows?”
The cashier still ignores Dragon.
Dragon pouts as he walks back to me.
“This money business is harder than it looks,” he says, and then gives me a funny look. “Hey. You get money for your teeth from the tooth fairy, right?”
“Yeah,” I say slowly. I have a feeling I won’t like where this is going.
Dragon puts his snout right in my face as he opens my mouth with a claw. “You still have plenty of teeth in there, waiting to be traded for money! With a couple of good pulls, I can take them all out.”
I push Dragon’s claw away and shut my mouth tightly. I shake my head as hard as I can.
“Hmph,” Dragon snorts, and stomps his feet.
“We can’t just ask people to give us money,” I tell Dragon. “We’re going to have to earn it somehow. We need ideas.”
Dragon stops stomping and looks at me with a smirk on his face.
“Oh, I can come up with ideas,” he declares.
I cover my mouth with my hand in case he’s thinking of pulling more teeth again.
“I can think of lots of ideas,” Dragon adds.
That’s what I’m afraid of.