Jesse James and the Dragon's Egg

Breakfast on the Beach

"Jesse." She was leaning over him. The morning sun made her hair and her pale skin glow. "Hey." Kate grinned wide.

"Hey." He didn't bother to hide his delight. "Where are we?"

"Back at the beach. You slept for almost two days."

He shifted a bit and allowed Kate more room to sit. "Ow. Everything hurts." He rolled over and buried his face in the pillow. Al was there. He opened his sleepy eyes just long enough to flick his slim little tongue at Jesse's nose, then went right back to snoring.

"You look good." She immediately caught herself, too late to stop the words from leaving her lips. She turned quickly to look out the window. "I mean, you look better!" She tried to hide the blush as he tried to hide the smile. "It's a beautiful day out there."

"Yeah. Looks like it."

They sat in silence for a moment, then Jesse said, "I thought you guys were dead."

"At the bridge, you mean? So did I." She stared out the window. "We were falling, I know that. The next thing I know, one of the Chernye has me around the waist. Everything went kind of black and we were all on the ground." Jesse thought about Brad. How had he gotten back?

"You hungry?" Kate asked.

"Yeah." He realized for the first time that he was so hungry his stomach was hurting.

"There's breakfast."

"Yeah, man. You gonna eat?" John's voice was almost music to his ears.

"Yeah, Jess." Lamar and John stood in the door, bruised, bandaged, and grinning from ear to ear. "You don't get out there and Brad's gonna eat everything." John put his elbow into Lamar's side. "Uh, we're not interrupting anything, are we?" The two snickered.

"What?" Jesse and Kate looked at each other, their faces glowed red. "No!" Kate lept from one side of the bed as quickly as Jesse scurried off the other.

"Really? Cause if we need to like, leave or something..." Lamar said through a big smile.

"Oh God! Will you grow up!"

~

The breakfast was amazing. Set up in the middle of the great open plaza on three giant tables was tons of food the kids didn't recognize. At the center dining table, however, at the center of the center dining table, was a place set up just for them.

Brad and Jake were sitting there. The two of them were laughing as Brad was trying to make two rectangular toaster pastries function as a duck-bill. He stopped laughing when the rest of the group walked up.

"Jesse!" Jake ran from the table to hug his brother. "Brad said you're a hero!"

Jesse looked across the table at his friend. Brad was exploring a bowl of oatmeal. He wouldn't look up. He mumbled something unintelligible and ducked under the table.

"Dude! You left us some food!" John laughed as he walked up. He ducked his head under the table after his cousin. "What are you doing under here?"

"I'm tying my shoes! Ok?" Brad barked.

"Whatever, man."

Jag's family had provided pancakes and sausages, bagels and bacon, and cereals galore. There were milks and juices and a platter of breakfast pastries. It was some of the best food the kids had ever eaten. They laughed and ate and just felt normal again for the first time in weeks.

Well, almost normal. Brad still wouldn't look at Jesse. He kept ducking under the table anytime anybody tried to speak to him, ask what he was doing, he'd bark at them that he was just tying his shoes. And he was.

He would tie his shoes and then he would untie them.

He would adjust the tongues, center them, then tie them again.

Then he'd untie them.

He pulled the tongue up as far as it would go, then he cinched the laces as tight as he could, straining, pulling at each section individually until they pinched and hurt, and then, blinking back tears, he tied them again.

Then he untied them.

The boy did this over and over again and his friends laughed and ate on the table above him.

"Dude, will you get up here and eat?" Jesse had ducked his head under the table. He had just watched his friend re-tie his shoe for the third time.

"I will. I just have to finish tying this shoe." Brad, not looking up, worked even more furiously. He loosened laces, readjusted sock and shoe, lace, and tongue, and then cinched and tied them again. "Just can't seem to get it quite right."

"Brad." Jesse reached out to his friend. Brad had untied and retied his shoe yet again. This time he was pulling so hard on the laces his knuckles turned white. Jesse put his hand on the toe of Brad's shoe. "Dude. It's okay, man."

Brad looked up at his friend. His face was a mess of sorrow and teary regret. "I'm so sorry Jesse. I'm so sorry. I swear I didn't know it was going to be like that. He just... I... I'm so sorry." Jesse's best friend sobbed.

"I know, man." He gently patted the toe of the shoe. "It's okay."

"Jesse! Jake!"

"Mom!" the two boys called in unison. They nearly knocked over the table as they lept from it and ran to their mother.

"Oh, my babies!" The woman cried as she pulled her two boys to her. She squeezed them so tight it was hard for them to breathe and the two boys didn't mind. Right now they hoped she would never let got.

She buried her face in their hair, pulling their scent from the smell of smoke and sweat. She couldn't stop smiling. She couldn't stop laughing. She couldn't stop crying.

There was a slight movement just at the corner of her eye. Sarah James turned to see that April had walked up. Al sat at her side, an almost quizzical look on his little dragon face. Sarah gazed through her tears at the woman and her loving smile faded, joy replaced by grave concern.

"All will be well, child." April mouthed the words, meeting her concern with a warm smile as Kate, John, Brad and Lamar all came up and hugged Jesse's mother.

"All will be well."

The little group walked down the beach. They laughed and joked and talked, trading stories about the past few weeks' events.

"They're not ready." Randy Chertkow watched them walk away with his arms folded. He willfully surrendered to an air of petulance. Jag stood beside him. He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Neither were we old friend," the Indian man said with a grin. "Neither were we."