“How do we do Backwards Day?” Dragon Little asked her father, once they parked Bonny’s Revenge, backwards, in the space dock around the Planet of Yesterday.
Bonny’s Revenge was the only wooden pirate ship in the space dock, among hundreds of steel and silver spaceships, and yet no one made a comment.
“It’s easy,” Dragon Father said. He had initiated Backwards Day just a few minutes ago, saying everything in today’s adventure will be backwards. “What do we do when we meet pirates and save the day?” he asked his four-year-old daughter.
“We beat them.”
“And?”
“Beat them fiercely!”
“And?”
“And…Get a clue to the next step?”
“Yes. And?”
“Take the treasure they stole!”
“Yes! And return it!”
“Yes!” She jumped excitedly. She loved every part of their adventures.
“So now… we do it backwards. We give them the treasure.”
Dragon Little’s eyes grew wide suddenly. “What?”
“We give them the treasure and get the clue, and move on to the next stage.”
“No! We don’t give pirates treasures!”
“This is Backwards Day, Joy. That’s how we defeat them.”
“We can’t give them treasure!”
“Trust the process.”
“I’m not giving them the treasure back!”
A huge pile of gold and jewels appeared on the deck next to them. Dragon Father reached down to an empty treasure chest that just appeared at his feet. He picked it up and started to move towards the pile. “Trust the process, Joy.”
“No!”
He began putting the gold in the chest. “Trust the process, Joy! It’ll be fine. It’ll be fun.”
Reluctantly, she joined her father near the pile and began to put treasures in the chest.
A pirate climbed aboard the deck, a sword on each side of his belt.
“Dad!” Dragon Little reached for her own dagger.
“It’s all right, Joy,” Dragon Father put his hand on hers. “He’s here for the chest. He’ll wait patiently.”
Joy reluctantly took her hand off her dagger and returned to put the rest of the treasure in the chest.
“There you go,” Dragon Father dragged the treasure chest towards the pirate once the chest was full. There was a lot of treasure still left on the deck. “Tell your boss we need to see him now.”
The pirate nodded. “He’ll see you on the Planet of the Giraffes.”
Dragon Father turned around to face his daughter once the pirate had left the ship. “See?”
She crossed her hands and made a face. “I don’t like helping pirates.”
Dragon Father went to the wheel and began to move the ship backwards again, “Trust the process, Joy. Trust the process.”
—Told by The Red Dragon