I’ve told this story elsewhere but not here. I don’t know how it ends yet, but I’m excited to find out what happens next.
This is my son, Elian. He is four years old. He attends an in-home daycare with his younger sister, Aletta. He’s very sharp (if I do say so myself), and, being my son, he has quite the imagination, and endless encouragement to indulge it.
Several months ago, he found a glass landscaping marble at his daycare. Here it is:
Elian informed us that it was a “Dragon Tear”. (I suppose he does not know yet that dragon tears turn into Jelly Beans.) Elian was very proud of his dragon tear and talked about it constantly, wondering if he would find any more of them. Around that time I was frequenting craft stores for D&D terrain supplies, and I came across a bag of landscaping marbles for a dollar. I scooped it up, and once a week or so I would leave one of them on his windowsill to find. Elian was ecstatic! He told us that he now had his own “Finding Place” (c.f. Tumble Leaf), and kept the marbles in his Treasure Box with other precious items:
But after a few weeks he wondered where all of these dragon tears were coming from. He wondered...which dragon is putting all of these tears in the finding place? Why were they crying so many of them? He brought these questions to his mother, and she recommended that he write the dragon a letter and leave it in the finding place. So, he dictated it to her, word by word and occasionally letter by letter, as you can see:
Thank you for leaving such beautiful dragon tears for me!
Which of course translates to:
Dear Dragon,
What is your name? Thank you for leaving such beautiful dragon tears for me!
Elian
In the morning, the note was gone. For a few days, nothing appeared on his windowsill finding place. Then, one morning, he awoke to find that a reply had been left there:
(The reply on the windowsill, with four dragon tears, as Elian found it.)
Thank you for your lovely note. I am so glad that you like all the dragon tears I have left on your windowsill.
Don’t worry -- they are not tears of sadness, but of joy. I am happy that you are my friend. Thank you.
To answer your question, my name is...
P.S. Here is a poster of some friends of mine. Their names are Haku and Chihiro.
P.P.S. I will come to see you soon and stay for a while.
(A poster of Haku and Chihiro from Spirited Away.
So the dragon’s name was Zalnidor, and he was happy to share his tears of joy with his friend. Mystery solved. Elian was happy to have a dragon for a friend! “But wait,” you may interject. “Zalnidor said he was coming to visit for a while! Did a dragon really ever come to visit Elian?”
Why yes, yes it did. But I’ll save that part of the story for next time....