How It All Began

Many moons ago, while snuggling with Ben at bedtime, he asked me to tell him a story . . . and thus was born:

The Adventures of Jammin-Ben and Lewis
How it all began

Once upon a time, a young boy named Jammin-Ben woke up to the sounds of people screaming. When he went outside to investigate, he saw the frightened townspeople running and shouting, "Run for your lives!!!" And, "There’s a fire breathing dragon!! He’s destroying everything!" Indeed, Jammin-Ben could see the black clouds of smoke filling the air.

But, Jammin-Ben was a brave soul, and curious too, so, instead of running away, he ran towards the smoke. As he got closer, he could see houses and fences burning. And then, he saw him. The great fire-breathing dragon, burning down house after house.

But, as Jammin-Ben approached him, he heard, "Hiccup-phhhgh", "Hiccup-phhhgh". For, after each hiccup, flames came shooting out of the dragon’s mouth. Jammin-Ben thought, "This dragon isn’t trying to destroy everything. He has the hiccups!" And, quick as a wink, Jammin-Ben grabbed a bucket and ran to the river. He filled the bucket, and ran like the wind back to the dragon.

"Quick, drink this whole bucket of water!" he told the dragon. The dragon quickly grabbed the bucket. "Gulp, gulp, gulp." Quick breath. "Gulp, gulp, gulp." When the dragon paused again, Jammin-Ben yelled, "Don’t stop until it’s all gone!" So the dragon continued gulping until the bucket was empty. When he finished drinking the water, his hiccups were gone! "Oh thank you!" said the dragon. "That was my worst case of hiccups yet."

Then, as the dragon looked around him, and saw all the damage he had caused, he felt so bad. Jammin-Ben could see the sadness in his eyes and said, "It’s o.k. We can rebuild these houses and fences together! My name is Jammin-Ben. What’s yours?" "My name is Lewis," replied the dragon. "Would you really help me build new houses and fences? I don’t want people to be afraid of me." "You bet!" said Jammin-Ben, and together they started rebuilding the town.

As the other townspeople saw Jammin-Ben with the dragon, and realized that they were working together, they took courage and came to see what had happened. When Jammin-Ben explained that Lewis was not trying to destroy their town, but that he had only had the hiccups; and when he told them how Lewis was building new houses and fences to replace the ones he had burned, the people cheered. The entire town welcomed Lewis as one of their own, and they all worked together to build a better town. (They also each kept a bucket of water handy, . . . just in case!)