"What’s happening?"
"Something, something’s there."
The darkness seemed empty, no sounds or smells, only silence. Then I started moving. Something blocked my path. A huge, thick barrier blocked out any light. Walking next to it, the blockage seemed to stretch out with no end. Tracing the surface with my fingers, I found something rough and hard.
“It’s sorta jagged. I can’t get through. It’s massive and so hard, harder than anything I’ve felt. I don’t know how anyone can get through it. Not hot or cold, there’s no give at all.”
“Max… what does…?”
Stone’s voice sounded so indistinct, blocked out by a sound. A rustling, rushing, it came from all around, then cut out. A cracking sound and whizzing over my head, like a—
“A tail?” I said. “Cutting through the air.” Then I looked at my companions. “Lysander when did you get here?”
“You’re back with us. It’s okay, take it easy.”
I blinked, taking in the room and suddenly feeling dizzy. Lysander offered his arm and I latched onto him for support. I had indeed arrived back in the real world.
“I wasn’t done,” I said. “There’s still no answer. I need to go back."
"Why don’t we focus on what you did see?" Stone suggested. That hardly seemed like enough until I realized she had an arcane looking book on her lap, scrolling through yellowing pages written in calligraphy.
Did they have an idea? Did it work?
“There are some clues.” Lysander listed everything we gathered. “A tail, a rough impenetrable exterior that’s the same temperature as the environment for camouflage, the powers you already exhibited, it’s all coming together.”
"Y-you know what I am?"
He smiled. “You did it, Max. We have our next lead and it’s very promising.”
“Oh,” I said. “Cool.”
"Cool? That’s it?"
Awesome. It was awesome and everything I’d been eager to discover. Yet I felt strangely hesitant. When Frost struck out at reading me, I hadn’t been glad. But I expected setbacks. Had I gone from blank slate to answers already? This was only our second attempt. How did we get here so fast?
Everything inside me went strangely blank like the white walls from my mind. Guess it didn’t seem real yet.
"Only a few dragons can move things telekinetically.” Stone shut her book with authority. “And those from the fae realm are the most powerful and elusive.”
"Dragon?" I echoed.
"Yes, a dragon.” Lysander smiled at me. “We believe you’re a fae dragon."
15.Winning at Therapy feels a lot like Losing
Max
"Have I done it? Did I finally win therapy?"
"Max, I told you—"
"There’s no win or lose in therapy,” I recited Aaron’s greatest hits for these sessions. “Feelings are valid, healing doesn’t happen in a straight line, blah, blah. I’ve heard them all, but seriously. Do I win?"
Our therapy session passed quickly when filling Aaron in on everything, from the latest Being a Person lessons to being a dragon. The day I’d been anticipating for so long finally arrived. I was starting to fill in the blanks about myself. All my dreams were coming true.
Well, actually, I had a bad dream last night, so not literally. But I was becoming a real boy, just like Pinocchio from the Disney and Pixar movie week we had on my floor recently.
"If it were possible to win at therapy,” Aaron said. “Then yeah, you’d be kicking ass."
