Noelia wants an omelette

Have you ever suddenly had a craving? It’s a very strong desire to
sink a tooth into a gummy bear, a piece of chocolate, a delicious
sausage sandwich or some macaroni with tomato. Noelia that day
had been craving an omelette.

– What a strange craving, Noelia! – her friend Carmelo had said,

when in the middle of recess the little girl had confessed that instead
of a sour apple, she fancied a rich omelette.
– Well, yes, it’s weird, but so what? It sounds so good! My father
makes them very well…

She was right, Noelia’s father made the best omelettes in the world.
He was able to flip them in the air once and again with a style that the
greatest French chefs wished they had. That day, Noelia couldn’t
stop thinking for a minute about the delicious omelette of her father.

So, when she finally arrived home, before even starting her
homework, Noelia gave a huge hug to Dad and asked that please,
please, please would he make omelettes for dinner.

– But we’ve already bought fish. It can’t be an omelette, Noelia…

– Dad, I want one so bad… I’ve spent all day thinking about it,
please…

And she insisted so much that, in the end, Dad had no choice but to
accept. So, Dad laid out some conditions:

– Okay, we will leave the fish for tomorrow, and you have to be my
kitchen hand. But first… homework!

Noelia took out her Tuesday notebook and finished her problems,
copied the dictation words that had been poorly written, and finished
painting a picture that had been half in plastic.

– I’m finished, Dad. Shall we make the omelette?

And so as Dad told her, Noelia opened the refrigerator and searched
for eggs. There was only one and it was a strange egg, larger than
the rest and with a more brilliant white than normal.

– Come, crack the egg against the plate and begin to beat it –
exclaimed Dad as he put on his apron.

But when the egg was cracked, Dad and Noelia received the biggest
shock of their lives. In place of a yoke, yellow and round, they found a
strange and tiny animal.

– But, but, but… – babbled Dad without knowing well what to say.
– Dad, it’s a dragon, it’s a dwarf dragon. It’s a dragon equal to, equal
to the ones that live in fairytales…
– But, but, but…how can it be a dragon?

To resolve all of Dad’s doubts, the tiny dragon snorted and small
flames came out of its nostrils.

– But, but but…from where came this dragon?

– Well, the egg, Dad. Didn’t you see it? – Noelia thought for a
moment how it was possible that a person as clueless as Dad could
make such delicious omelettes.
– Of course I saw it, but I can’t believe it. What is this dragon doing
here?

Once more the dragon was responsible for resolving all of Dad’s
doubts.

– I was bored at home and decided to go out for a stroll. But I ended
up in this horrible egg and now that I am out, I want to return home.
– But, but, but…which is your home?

And as much as the dragon tried to explain where he came from,

neither Dad nor Noelia was able to understand where to find his
home.

– What do the books and fairytales say? Don’t you understand

anything?
Luckily in that moment, Mom arrived home from work. (Mom worked
in the afternoons and tended to arrive at the house just after Noelia
had eaten dinner, just in time to tell her a story before sleep.) Mom
saw what had assembled in the kitchen: cracked eggshells, a tiny
dragon, and worst of all, Noelia hadn’t eaten dinner. She became
very angry.

– But, but, but…we have a dragon!

– Big deal, a dragon! – she exclaimed as if it was the most normal
thing in the world. – Surely it has escaped from some book. It
happens a lot. They get bored when no one reads about them and
they tend to go for a stroll, and later they don’t know how to return.
– But, but, but…now what do we do?
– Easy, we have to find which of the storybooks of ours is the one
that the dragon has left.

So the three got to work rummaging through all the books in the
house. Finally, when they had spent a half hour opening and closing
books, the tiny dragon began to snort more fire through its nose than
usual.

– It’s that one, it’s that one. I’m sure of it! To there I go…

Said and done. In a jiffy, the dragon returned to its book, and Mom,
Dad, and Noelia returned to the kitchen. As there were no more eggs
left, Noelia didn’t have any choice but to have the fish. After, Mom
told her a story before sleep. Of course, that night, the chosen tale
was of the dragon that had escaped his story. So that he wouldn’t get
bored and try to return to real life…

– Well that ends the story, Noelia. Did you like it?

Of course she had liked it. It’s true that Dad made delicious
omelettes, thought Noelia, but no one in the world told stories like
Mom.

And immediately after, she fell deep asleep.