When Women Were Dragons(109)
The citizenship question, along with the schooling question, were both answered unanimously and heralded as the law of the land by the Supreme Court in 1971. Bogus death certificates were vacated, social security numbers were reissued, and dragons became full persons under the law. They applied for library cards, driver’s licenses, and bank accounts and registered to vote. They took full advantage of both the rights and sacred duties of full citizens. They created spaces for themselves in the highest institutions of learning, graduating summa cum laude from famous universities, and then putting those degrees to work. Dragons later litigated cases in front of state and district courts, arguing on behalf of others who, like them, were once denied a voice. They took jobs as social workers, park rangers, scientists, engineers, philosophers, farmers, and schoolteachers. They were impressively adept as builders, and were in high demand as their strength, dexterity, flight, problem solving, and ability to breathe fire made them veritable Janes-of-all-trades. Not only were they helpful and hardworking and highly skilled, but they also kept costs down.
Even as anti-dragon sentiment persisted, and still persists even today, the effect the dragons had on both local and national commerce cannot be understated. No matter what a person’s point of view, it’s hard to begrudge a booming economy.
Beatrice only had to learn at home for just under two years, until her school relented and allowed the return of dragoned children. For her, it didn’t last. Once she learned what it was to learn on her own, it was difficult—and nearing impossible—for her to remain in school for too long. The yoke of sameness felt like a heavy prison indeed, and the boredom of remaining chained to a desk all day was more than she could bear. Even after the schools opened up to accommodate students like her, she remained unwilling to attend them.
“Why would I waste my day learning what they want me to learn, when I can just go to the library and learn everything?” I didn’t have a good answer to that. As time went on, Beatrice was still able to move back and forth—fully dragon and fully girl—with some ease, though the transitions exhausted her more and more as she aged. Still, her fluidity persisted through her adolescent years and into adulthood. Dr. Gantz published six papers on the subject. There were others he found who were similarly situated, but they were few and far between. Beatrice was, is, and ever shall be, exquisitely special.
By 1980, there were four dragon members of Congress, eighteen dragon CEOs of major corporations, and 422 cities, towns, or incorporated municipalities had at least one elected dragon member to their governing bodies. Dragon-centered nongovernmental agencies began doing work all over the world, in advocacy, peacemaking, animal welfare, environmental protection, and the rebuilding of infrastructure in countries injured by armed conflict. In the autumn of 1985, the Norwegian Nobel Committee shocked the world by awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the dragon founder of one such NGO. The organization in question—Guardian Dragons—had been established ten years earlier by a young dragon from Wisconsin, who made it her mission to broker peace and safety in those delicate regions in the world where the machines of war came perilously close to civilian life. She kept her name a secret, opting to publicly use the moniker the Loving Leviathan as a way of protecting her family back home. The work of peacemaking, unfortunately, is not without enemies. Originally, the mission of these dragon workers was to position themselves near imperiled villages and spirit children out of harm’s way. Eventually, though, the dragons learned that by increasing their speed, they could intercept bullets and bombs, rendering both harmless. They became skilled defusers, and lightning-fast fliers, sending any bullet ricocheting back. Because of their excellent sense of smell, and their ability to hover over the ground, they also helped rid entire regions of the scourge of land mines. Guardian Dragons became, around the world, symbols of powerful nonviolence, as their techniques of passive protection forced seething warlords, self-aggrandizing dictators, and sociopathic CEOs back to the negotiating table, their efforts to rule by force, fear, and coercion thwarted—perhaps forever.
Newspapers around the world either hailed the choice as obvious and overdue, or they condemned it as dragonish bullying, and splashed breathless headlines, decrying the so-called Ascendency of Serpents and the Diminishment of Man and other histrionics. Commentators on news programs debated it endlessly. But it’s hard to argue against the possibility that war, as we have known it, was finally coming to an end. Congress put forward a resolution honoring both the Guardian Dragons and its anonymous founder, only to receive the first veto of the Reagan administration, for fear of offending the president’s favorite dictators and war profiteers. (The veto was overridden. Unanimously.) Radio reporters ruminated on whether the Loving Leviathan would give a speech at all, since doing so anonymously was against the rules. Refusing to do so would mean refusing the prize, and therefore the substantial award check—and like any nonprofit, the Guardian Dragons was perennially strapped for cash. She would be foolish to turn her back on the money.
On December 10, 1985, dignitaries from around the world, both human and dragon, began to arrive in Norway. Security concerns at the University of Oslo, and around the Domus Media, where the ceremony was held, not only put law enforcement and the Norwegian military on high alert but placed the entire nation on edge. It was unheard of, of course, for there to be violence at the Peace Prize ceremony. But given the vitriol and gnashing of teeth among the practitioners of war and the dealers of bloodshed, no one could really say for sure how this particular ceremony would end. Many attendees wore bulletproof vests under their gowns and jackets. Just in case.