Julie Ann Shapiro

Dinosaur Kisses Dinosaur kisses. It's what B called them. The way his tail flapped over his trousers and his wings jiggled when he sat down at the breakfast table to eat pancakes with blueberry syrup. He'd eat the blueberries first with the swish of his tail and tell me how they did things in reverse in T Rex land. I'd laugh and eat my pancakes with my mouth. I'd stretch my lips flat and ponder when did my boyfriend become the purple plush dinosaur, the very one, he gave me last Valentine's Day. I remember B sat down in the bathtub with champagne and lavender bubble bath. He waited for me to join him while I melted chocolate. The rain made a steady drumbeat on the roof. B called out, “Don't forget the strawberries.” "I did.” “I knew you would. It's ok, just bring the banana slices. We'll dip them in chocolate.” I cut the bananas. Thunder blasted. The flash of lightning made crimson in the sky, ripened by the sunset. The house went black. I fumbled for the candles. He said, “It's ok, I got it.” A flame reached towards me and then another. “The house is on fire,” I screamed. “No, it's me, honey.” “What you're a flame thrower?” “More like a dragon.” “Stop joking.” “No, Felicia. It's true. I believe my relatives roamed the land with the Knights of the Round Table, and the knights got things wrong. So they called us dragons and we became them.” I laughed, not sure what else I could do. Lightning flashed across the sky. B said, “It's time, time for you.” Just like he said last year, only then I'd been too afraid to get in the tub in the dark. I just hoped this year I could become one too. I sat in the water with the purple plush dinosaur, the one I'd bought like he gave me the year before. A bolt of lightning lit the sky in a flash of white. I screamed, “No, it's not the same,” as my skin began to fold in on itself. Wriggles appeared. My skin felt so scaly. “I'm getting old, I'm getting old,” I screeched. “No, Felicia. You're a cute lizard, a real cute one. We both have tails, the same species many generations and millenniums removed.” “Now what?” “Let's enjoy the bath.” He got in beside me as I heard a rumble. We both stared out the window as the lightning flashed white. “What if you…” “Turn…white you mean?" “It won't happen, Felicia. What are the odds us of both becoming identical looking plush dragons.” And he was right. B stayed purple breathing fire, while I remained a white, pearly white like my tub.

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