Dragons' Truth

Chapter 7

Permalink for this paragraph 0 Every weekday for the next two weeks, Larry went over to Ghadshyk’s house directly after school.  His parents didn’t seem to care whether he was out playing or inside studying as long as he wasn’t getting arrested or getting some girl pregnant.  It was as though they hadn’t heard a word he’d said when he told them about finding a tutor and getting excited about really learning.  Like they lived in their own bubbles of isolation from reality, even the reality of their own families.

Permalink for this paragraph 0 Ghadshyk and Larry worked on his assigned homework when he first arrived, and they continued to discuss the philosophy of education, and Ghadshyk made Larry more and more aware of the ways that humanity’s status quo attitudes were holding it back from fulfilling its potential.  He told Larry stories of his meetings with Merle over the following years of their studies, how Merle did seem more alive than ever after he truly understood ‘Why We Burn’, and how he could finally take to the air after studying ‘Why We Fly’ and learning that soaring through the air was not about aerodynamics or wing shape and span for dragons, but rather it was about a lightness of being and a connection to a larger beauty in the universe.  How Merle chose to use his magic then to try to ‘catch up’ with Ghadshyk, and the two-hundred years of studying he’d done; now that he no longer experienced detrimental effects from living through more time, there was no harm in it.

Permalink for this paragraph 0 And they played further games of Go as Ghadshyk regaled Larry with stories of his interactions with Merle.  Larry was growing to become a better player in great strides, though he had still not yet been able to defeat Ghadshyk.  If he had played nearly any human competitor, he would have stood a good chance of winning.  The amount of time they needed to spend working on the homework was decreasing, but Larry’s hunger for an increasing foundation of knowledge and understanding just kept growing.  They discussed studying things outside of Larry’s regular assigned curriculum, but then, on the second Friday after Larry and Ghadshyk had first met, Larry approached Ghadshyk’s door with unease.

Permalink for this paragraph 0 As had become the way of things, Ghadshyk was standing in the tiny house, by the door that only dragons could open, waiting for Larry’s arrival.  Larry came in upset, holding up an envelope, waving it around, ranting incomprehensibly, and Ghadshyk didn’t know what was the matter until Larry finally handed him the envelope.

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “It’s from my teachers.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 Ghadshyk turned over the sealed envelope.  It read “Mr. Ghadshyk” in a tight, formal script.  Ghadshyk could see why Larry was upset.  He opened the door and motioned for Larry to head down.  “We’ll discuss this downstairs.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 Ghadshyk followed Larry as he stormed down the stairs, visibly upset.  Ghadshyk had no trouble keeping up, and instead of worrying about the letter in his increasingly claw-like hand, Ghadshyk watched closely as Larry’s clothes began to blur a little at the edges.  He had suspected that something like this might happen, but decided that today was not the day to bring it up to Larry, who was already having a bad enough time.  As they entered Ghadshyk’s home, Ghadshyk could see in the light that while Larry’s clothes certainly still existed, there was no longer a seam where his clothes ended and his skin began.  Luckily, Larry seemed not to notice.

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “What are we going to do?  I mean, I couldn’t keep it from my teachers that I was receiving some kind of help outside of school, could I?  I’ve never turned in all my homework in my life, let alone done so well on it.  They thought I was cheating at first, getting the information from the internet, but they asked me questions about the material and I obviously knew it and understood it.  What was I supposed to do?  Lie?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Calm down, Larry.  Everything is going to be alright.  We don’t even know what the note says, now do we?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “No, but there’s another one for my parents,” Larry pulled a second, matching envelope from his backpack that had his parents’ names on it, “I think I heard someone say something about a meeting.  I got both of these from my counselor, but he said it was from my teachers.  Do you know what that felt like, to get called out of class to the office?  I had no idea what they wanted, and now everyone will think I’ve got into trouble or something.  They all know I’ve been getting better marks already, they’ve taken to calling me a know-it-all.  What are we going to do, Ghadshyk?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 Ghadshyk handed Larry the cup of hot tea he’d been preparing as he’d rambled on, and Larry sat down and took a sip.  “Thank you, Ghadshyk.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “It’s no problem.  Tea can be very soothing.  Now, I think that the best thing we can do is for me to open the note, see what it says, and go from there.  You, on the other hand, enjoy that tea and try to relax.  You and I both know you haven’t done anything wrong, so you aren’t about to get into trouble.  I understand that the social situation in middle school is complicated, but there’s very little we can do about the way the other children will treat you aside from trying to educate them, to raise them to a higher level.  Which we obviously cannot do overnight.  So try to relax, we’ll get through this one alright.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 Ghadshyk perched on what appeared to be a mountain of treasure to read the note.  He opened the envelope with a claw, pulled out the single sheet of folded paper inside, unfolded it and read.  Larry tried to relax.  The sight of Ghadshyk as Larry had first seen him two and a half weeks ago seemed to make him feel better.  There was something about seeing a dragon perched atop a mountain of treasure that just felt right.  Larry had learned that it was not actually a mountain of treasure, but rather a custom, and quite comfortable, sort of reinforced foam cushion that Ghadshyk and Merle had had made as a sort of joke about the way people so often envision dragons in popular Western culture.  It was actually the most comfortable thing Ghadshyk had ever perched on, so that is where he did most of his reading.

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “This is no big deal, Larry.  Your teachers want to get together with you and I and your parents on Sunday to discuss the future of your education.  As long as they don’t mean to suggest that I become your only, full-time source of education, you’ll probably be happy with the outcome.  I expect that they simply want to step up your curriculum to match your recent level of absorption and understanding.  I am a big proponent of taking the appropriate time it takes to do a thing, especially when that thing is your education, but perhaps they are right and you can afford to work at a faster pace.  If that is what they are going to suggest.  They just don’t say here.  But from the context, I can infer that that is their intention.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “More work, faster?” Larry was still a little upset, and was reacting as he would have a couple of weeks ago.  “If I’d know it would lead to this … I just don’t know if I can handle more.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Larry, keep drinking your tea.  Relax.  Remember what we were discussing yesterday?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 Larry took another sip of the tea, followed by a deep breath, “About how Merle felt when he finally took to the air?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Before that, when we’d finished your homework, and that essay that isn’t due until next Friday.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “I said… I said that I thought I might like to study things with you above and beyond my current curriculum…  That it was all too easy for me, and I needed more of a challenge.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “That’s right.  Just yesterday you said that.  And now your teachers very likely agree with you and you’re up in arms?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 Larry paused for a long moment and seemed to be contemplating the steam rising off his tea.  “You’re right.  I was over-reacting to the notes.  It’s probably for the best.  Really, there’s no way to know what they want until we meet with them on Sunday, is there?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Right again.  See, your increased understanding of how to think logically has helped you to see this situation for what it really is.  I see a big unknown on Sunday afternoon, but since I know what the terms are, I can get an idea of how it’s all going to work out.  And so can you.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “I uhh…  I don’t really have any homework tonight.  The other students fell behind in algebra because they don’t understand how to solve polynomials, so you and I are way ahead there.  I finished the required reading for English and History last weekend, and since I already understood what I was doing, I completed the science lab today before anyone else, and did the written work in class, then helped Becky out with hers.  She was my lab partner today.  I think I may have taught her more today than she learned all year, and she seemed happy to finally understand some science for a change.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “That’s great, Larry.  I’m glad you’re already able to help and teach others.  That shows you really understand the subject.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Thanks, it felt good.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “So what about Drama, was it just more sitting at your desks reading Hamlet aloud?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Yes… and they made me read as Hamlet again.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “You probably did an admirable job.  You really seemed to understand what Shakespeare was trying to say through Hamlet when we went through it at the beginning of the week.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “You were a big help, though.  Learning all this stuff is … it’s fun when you’re teaching me.  Then I go back to school and it’s like trying to learn from someone who has no interest in the subject or whether I learn anything.  They’re teaching down to the lowest common denominator in the class, and that isn’t very high.  When I come here after school and you go over the same subjects, in less than half the time you cover twice as much depth or more, and I really understand it and want to know more.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “That’s the attitude you should have about education, Larry.  Whether I am teaching you or someone else is.  And you, as the student, have a right to demand more from your teachers.  If you find yourself in a class and the teacher is not teaching up to your level, challenge them, politely, by asking the right questions about the subject, to force them to teach you.”  Ghadshyk closed up the note and walked over to where Larry was sitting, “Although, if this meeting Sunday goes the way I expect it to, you won’t have to worry about that anymore.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.  I hope so.  I don’t know what my teachers would do if I started asking them the hard questions about their subjects.  Most of the time the questions that come up in class lower the bar rather than raising it.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “So, let’s hope they raise the bar for you, and not worry about Sunday until Sunday.  I’ll be meeting you at the school; your parents will be driving you there.  For now, since we’re ahead or caught up on all your current assignments, let’s go straight to the story of how I finally introduced Merle to the rest of the dragons.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Really?  What happened?  I bet they tried to kill him for knowing so much about dragons!”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Well, their reception wasn’t as positive as I was hoping, and I didn’t exactly have high hopes to begin with.  But as you know, I’d been working with him for nearly a decade to get him to the point that he knew almost as much, and had as true an understanding as, the average two-hundred-year-old dragon.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “It was really risky of you to sneak all those texts out to him, wasn’t it?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Well, sort of.  Remember, I just had them out for one day at a time; I would bring them to him, and he would magically spend the time it took to fully understand them, in an instant of my time, and there was no way the elders could have suspected what was going on.  I mean, I could have gotten into trouble if they did find out, but as you’ll soon see, by revealing that I had been educating a human, I was about to get into as much trouble as there was available.”