The Anger Dragon

Tommy’s bright blue eyes followed the slow drift of the important papers over the water’s surface. They looked like the toy sail boats on his favourite lake at the park. Each leaked his multicoloured markings into the bath water, making pretty patterns that moved and changed. Now that his anger dragon had retreated back into its cave - words his Papa had taught him to explain the big feelings he sometimes had - he wondered how it had all happened. He had just been so MAD! When the bathroom door behind him eventually swung open, he accepted that his Mama had found him and that she would see what he had done. There was no hiding the paint that stained both paper and tub. So, he stood still, watching the reds, blues and greens spiral in the hot water and waited for her to start shouting.

“What on EARTH do you think you are doing, Tommy?!” She yelled as she barged past him to snatch the important papers from their soak in the bubbles. He thought it was rude that she had pushed him, he didn’t like to be pushed. She didn’t wait long enough for him to answer her question, she just went on shouting. “I TOLD you that these were important! I told you not to touch them! Why…” she pleaded, shaking her head, “why would you do this?”

Tommy stood still and kept his eyes on the colourful bubbles. He didn’t want to risk making her even more mad by doing something else wrong. He didn’t even know if she wanted him to answer this time. So, he thought he should probably just stay still and be quiet for now. 

“Well!? What do you have to say for yourself?”

She only asked him that question when she really wanted him to talk. He couldn’t tell her the truth, that would make her use her super cross voice and he didn’t want to cry. He couldn’t help but cry when she was super mad. So, he decided to try the story that worked about half the time.

“It wasn’t me,” he said using his most innocent, nicest voice, “I found it like this.”

“Really?” his Mama asked, “Then who was it, Son, who else could have ruined these forms?”

“I don’t know. I guess it must have been Lily-Ann?”

“Tommy…your sister is away with Papa. They are looking after Grandma for a while. Or did you forget? Now. Please don’t lie to me again. Why did you do this?”

“I told you, I DIDN’T!” He couldn’t help but yell, his anger dragon always made him yell. He flinched, waiting for the super anger to come from his Mama’s even bigger dragon. Instead, she slid down the wall, sat next to him and took a deep breath. That was good. Deep breaths were what blew the dragon back into its lair.

“I’m not angry, Tommy. I’m sorry…I was just surprised. Can you help me understand what happened to these forms? I needed these for tomorrow morning and I can’t get replacements tonight.”

He wanted to tell her. He really did. She had asked so nicely, with all of her manners. It was just hard to find the right words sometimes. He still didn’t know what they all meant. In Tommy’s mind he could remember everything that had happened, as if it was a cartoon playing on the television, it was difficult to get anyone else to see it too though.

In his imagination he could see the edge of the white paper sticking over the edge of the cabinet in the hallway. It was high up, but he was getting so tall now that he had reached it anyway. It was scary to get so close to that ugly, old, wooden thing. It smelled like Grandmas house and had lots of dust underneath. Sometimes there were even spiders in the gap behind it. He had been brave, though. He had pulled those important forms down and carried them all the way to his craft corner. One page dropped in the hallway and slid across the ground, but he had picked it up and didn’t drop a single one after that. He remembered getting out his paint set and the brushes he got for his birthday. The caps were really strong, but they clicked open once he had tried harder and used his big muscles. After that it was nothing but fun. The first things he had painted were dinosaurs. He was best at those. The spikes on their backs and for their teeth were easy to do. Then he had thought to show them how good he was at his numbers and letters, so he did a big letter A and then every number all the way up to TEN. Who needed special forms when he could already do all of that? On the last page he had giggled so much. He had painted a big bum doing a poop. It was really funny. He thought everyone would laugh when they saw it. It would make sure that Mama knew that her forms were poop too.

How he wanted to tell her the whole story, to help her see it just like he did in his head. Her big eyes were looking at him and waiting, using all of her patience and letting him think of the right words. He even wanted to explain that after all of his hard work painting, he had started to feel bad. He had remembered that he would get into trouble for taking what wasn’t his and that he wasn’t supposed to play with the paints without help. So, he had tried really hard to make it right. The taps had been tough to turn, but the warm water filled up the bath once he found the plug. Tommy still didn’t really understand why the paint wasn’t all cleaned off the page. The soap he found probably hadn’t been the right one.

None of this came out when he spoke though. The words he said, came from his dragon instead. His breaths sometimes weren’t strong enough to keep him inside.

“I PAINTED THEM, OKAY! I NEEDED TO!” he roared. “They were STOOPID and I DON’T like them, so I made them BETTER! I DON’T EVEN CARE!” He huffed and crossed his arms, stomped one foot and made sure that Mama knew exactly how he felt. She needed to see. He wanted her to understand.

“If you are going to continue speaking to me like that Tommy then you can go straight to your room and stay there until you calm down!”

She didn’t see. She didn’t understand.

“GOOD! That’s where I WANT to go! I want to STAY!” he said and stormed off to his bedroom. He made sure to slam the door really hard with both of his hands.

Tommy had sat on his bed for ages. He had stayed mad for a long time. But after a while his anger dragon went back into his home all by himself. It usually got bored if there was no one to shout or cry at. After that, Tommy got bored too. He started climbing under his covers and watching the light shine through them. Sometimes he could make whole pictures out of the patterns. He heard his door open while he was still underneath and decided to stay there. He didn’t want to talk to his Mama again. He didn’t want her to shout at him anymore. In his little tent he could hide from all that horribleness. He couldn’t help but smile and giggle though, when she climbed in under the covers as well.

She snuggled raspberries at his tummy and that made him laugh a big laugh. Then she kissed him and told him she loved him. That made him fill up with happiness. He thought he might burst. Then her voice went quiet and serious. So, he knew she was going to ask him again.

“I want to ask you one more time about my forms, Tommy”

“Ok, Mama” he said, feeling scared instead of angry this time.

“Do you know what they were for?”

“Yes.” he answered.

“What do you think they were for?”

He knew he had to tell her the truth. He was always supposed to tell her the truth, but sometimes it was hard when he knew he was going to get in trouble. Every time he got sent to his room, that was when he knew he couldn’t get away with it anymore. He had to use his words properly this time.

“You want me to go away. You don’t want me around anymore. Those important papers will make me go away. I don’t like them.” There. He told her. Now she would understand that he knew all about it. 

“Oh Tommy,” she gave him the biggest cuddle ever and a kiss on his head. It made him feel snuggled and safe when she did that kind of hug. “We aren’t sending you away! You are going to go to school! You will still live here with us, you donut! You will just spend a few hours playing with other children, learning more letters and doing fun activities. I will be there, waiting to pick you up straight after. We love you and we would never want you away from us. This will be fun!”

Well, that didn’t sound so bad. Other children? Fun activities?

“Will they have paints?” he asked.

“Yes, but only if you promise, no more bums or poops, okay?”

“I promise, Mama. No more bums or poops”

He laughed his head off to have said those words out loud to his Mama. She even laughed too! Laughing and cuddling together was all the sorry they needed. Tommy spent the rest of the evening giggling to himself whenever he remembered saying the naughty words and he saw his Mama smirk more than once too.