There on the table next to the restaurant guide – the five pound Complete and Unabridged Toonworld Illustrated Guide to Cartoon Transformations (Deluxe Coffee Table Edition). The dragon hastily opened it to a random page in the middle, slipped Carrie in and clapped it shut. “That should hold ye.”
John was just working up the courage to come out of the bathroom when the bang startled him. He leapt into the doorway. His jaw dropped to the floor then sprang back up. “C-Carrie? Is that you? You look just like that, that …”
She batted her heavily massacred eyelashes and flashed a fang-filled smile. “Aye – I’m that beautiful dragon from the desk.” She tried to slink sexily over to John, the floor bouncing with each clawstep. “I knew ye’d love me, er … her, er … it, er … the costume that is.” She tried to giggle, a deep steam-filed rumble. She ran a talon lightly through the tuft of fur between John’s ears. “I always ken ye had a secret crush fer full figured women,” she whispered.
John squirmed backward to the wall. “And you have a-an a-accent.” he stammered.
“Jest getting into character for ye,” she gently moved her snout around John’s face, her sniffing and snorting ruffling his fur. “Let’s go snuggle, Johnny.” She carried him over to the loveseat and squeezed herself in next to him. “Let me show ye a few other things I can do.” She tenderly blew another heart shaped smoke ring and leaned down for a kiss.
“Now s-stop, hold it right there,” John announced, shrinking down in the seat. The closer she got, the lower he sank, compressing his torso like a concertina.
“What’s the matter, Boyo?” she asked mischievously. “Gittin the jitters? Give us a proper kiss there then an be a man.”
By now, she leaned so far over John had retreated into little more than an upturned face on the seat. “I’m starting t-to t-think you aren’t Carrie at all,” he squeaked thinly.
“Har!, An why woul ye think that?” she laughed. Her bellows shook the furniture. “What’s wrong wi’ me?” She hoisted him to eye level. “What’s she got to offer ye? She can’t even smoke!”
“W-well, I hardly know you,” he answered, staring her in the eye. “And she’s my wife.”
She snorted. “Bah, ye can get to ken me soon enough.”
His courage returned as he thought of his wife. “And I love her, … very much.”
The dragon slowly and gingerly lowered him to the floor. ”Oh, I hadna thought o’ that,” she said quietly. Shoulders slumped, she turned her back. Tiny tears and sniffles turned to steam. “I’m sorry, Johnny. I’m not really good at relationships. I grew up withou’ family.”
He gave her a gentle bunny hug and patted her on the back. “It’s alright. It must have been hard.”
She gave him a tiny smile. “Aye. It was out o’ the shell and out o’ the cave as quick as ye hatched, or ye ran the risk o’ being asked to babysit 800 siblings.” She sighed deeply, smoke spilling into the room. “Thank ye, Johnny.”
He coughed and cleared his throat. “So, where is Carrie?”
She pointed a claw at the table. “Oi, in that there book then.”
John lifted the huge volume. “Don’t be silly. I mean, it’s a big book, but how could a grown woman fit in there?” He dropped it to the tabletop with a thud.
“Aye, she’s a little smaller now.” The dragon started paging into the book. “And a whole lot thinner too.”
John looked worried. “Don’t you know where you put her?”
The dragon waved a claw. “It’s a toon book. All we need to do is look her up under the proper subject.” She stopped and pointed to an ‘A’ page. “Like ‘Anthropomorphic’. Bet ye didna ken I could spell that one.”
“Is she there,” John asked, dreading to see what Carrie might look like.
“No, but there’s plenty o’ other subjects to look under,” the dragon said as she flipped pages. She muttered as she came upon the subject headings, “’Flat, Flatten, Flattened’. Nope. ‘Mouse’. No. Naught even under ‘Pressed’.” She paused for a moment to comment, “Lor', this is a tricky one. Might take awhile to figure out where she’s filed.”
John looked ill.
The dragon slapped him on the back. “Cheer up, Boyo. We’ll find her eventually.” She slapped the open book with one huge palm. “Sure, an I told ye she’d turn up. On the page under ‘Squashed’. I should o’ thought o’ that first.”
John timidly peeked into the book. There was Carrie, still a small, startled mouse and still very flat.
“She’s fine,” the dragon assured him. “Look, not o’ wrinkle on her. Go ahead, take her out.”