Ponzo of the Laughing Lake, illustrated by Daniella Koffler

Ponzo the Dragon lived in the laughing lake. He had seven heads. One was always out, and six he kept in his belly, all zipped up. Every morning Ponzo swam up and down the lake, and counted: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven! Afterwards he pulled them out, one after the other, and nodded: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, mauve, purple! Seven colors, like a rainbow.

The head that was always out and in charge of all the others, was red. The smallest one was purple, like the purple of the stars. When Ponzo popped all his heads out, they played catch in the water. That is, with the exception of the purple one, who liked to play hide-and-seek.

And when the heads played, the lake laughed, creating water-dimples.

Every evening, after Ponzo had toasted some bread and peanuts in his belly, he would start having worrisome thoughts:

One morning, as the sun rose and tickled the lake with its rays of light, the heads were busy playing catch with their thoughts. That is, with the exception of the little purple head, who didn’t like to think. He just closed his eyes and dreamed. A short while later, Ponzo began counting his heads, as was his custom: One, two, three, four, five, six…

“Where’s the seventh one?” he panicked. He counted again: “A,B,C,D,E,F…”.  “Red, orange, yellow, green, mauve…” Where’s the little head”?

Ponzo searched all the rooms in his belly. He searched and searched. He pulled out the trumpet most carefully, looked inside, blew it – but he couldn’t find the little head. By then the other heads had gathered round, and they whispered:

“What am I going to do?” Ponzo was getting desperate. “Could the purple head have swum to the far end of the lake?”

He began swimming in that direction, thinking of all the things he had lost long ago. Suddenly he saw a strange creature on a rock at the edge of the shore. The creature seemed to be looking for something. Ponzo raised his red head and asked, curiously:

“Who are you?”

“I’m a child”, the strange creature answered.

“Are you looking for a head you’ve lost?” the Dragon asked.

“Im looking for rain worms”, the child said. “I put them in my pocket.”

The dragon’s eyes grew larger and rounder. He looked at the child for a long minute and asked:

“Poor child. Just one head,” said the mauve head. “How can you think all your thoughts in just one head and not get confused?”

“Don’t they turn upside down when you stand on your head?” asked the blue head.

“My thoughts are a secret. I don’t even tell them to myself,” the child whispered. He then put on his yellow-dotted purple hat, and went back to look for rain worms.

Upon seeing the purple of the hat, Ponzo immediately remembered the missing little head. He pulled the Chinese flute out of his belly and began playing a song that brought tears to his eyes. As he cried, he could hear the grass among the rocks weeping along with him. And he thought of sad things.

“I hid inside the violin”, said the little head, “and had a peaceful dream. I dreamed I saw a creature with only one head, who was wearing a yellow-dotted purple hat.”

“The main thing is that you have come back to us from your dream”, said all the other heads. “That you didn’t decide to stay there.”