[ WP ] `` Take your dragon-repellent with you , they get more common around this time of year . ''

`` Mikeeeeee!'' the professor yelled from within his house, in a tone that reminded Mike of his grandmother when she was still around. He turned around to see the Professor running hastily towards him. The way the professor ran did indeed look like Mike's grandmother, the way the professor's right hand was gripping his waist and the long tired pant he took with each step. 
 
 After what seemed like an eternity to Mike, the professor stood before him, or half-stood, if you may say, considering how the professor's hands was on his knee, trying to catch his elusive breath. 
 
 `` Take... your... dragon... repellent... with... you,'' the professor wheezed, as he took out an oddly shaped bottle from his white robe, which Mike swore looked like a rarely washed bath robe. 
 
 `` They... get... more... common... around... this... time... of... the... year...'' the professor continued, waving the bottle in front of Mike. If Mike did n't know any better, he suspect that the professor was going to have a heart attack. Stay cooped in a research lab all day does this to you, Mike thought, before warily removing the bottle from the professor's hand. 
 
 Once in his hand, Mike studied the bottle. The bottle was made of semi-transparent plastic, red in colour, in a shape that Mike seemed to almost recognized. He turned it a few more times, before it finally hit him. `` Did you take this from my toilet again?'' 
 
 The professor, no longer wheezing at the mention of Mike's toilet, immediately stood up straight. `` Your toilet, no! I was not there yesterday night, when your family was sleeping. No no no no... I was busy in my lab, you see,'' the professor exclaimed, in a rather excited tone. 
 
 Mike however, was taking none of it. `` Mum!'' he called out to the house next to the professor's, summoning a big looking woman from it. She stomped and she huffed, the way a mother would when she sensed that her precious children are in peril. 
 
 `` What is it my dear mushy-kin?'' she called in a sing-song voice. 
 
 Tom's finger was already in the air, pointed straight at the old man in a dirty yellow bathrobe that used to be white. `` Grandpa is being weird again with his story about dragons!'' 
 
 The professor, realizing he is outnumbered and facing the prospect of not having any dinner later that night, immediately ran away in a speed that both Mike and his mum never thought possible. All the wheezing just now had turned out to be a show instead, played out in a dramatic fashion in the professor's head. 
 
 With the professor no longer around, the mum bent down, facing Mike directly, both her hands on his shoulder. Her eyes were no longer angry now, but one of sadness. `` Mike, you know that your grandpa is getting old, and sometime's he may get a little carried away in his imagination. Just humour him, a little, will you, darling?'' 
 
 Mike nodded his head, not because he had a choice, but because like the professor, he knew an argument with his mum never end up well. Especially when the smell of bacon was wafting over from his kitchen. `` Alright mum.'' 
 
 `` Good boy,'' Mike's mum rubbed his head, before walking off. Why did she thought it was a good idea to stay next to her dad instead of sending him to a home, she asked herself again. 
 
 Lost in her own thoughts, she did not hear Mike muttering softly to himself. `` I just wish grandpa would stop asking me to call him Professor Pine.'' 
 
 -- -- -- -- -- -- 
 
 /r/dori_tales 
 

