Dragon Dad and the CVS Caper

Starring Justin, Sofia

Justin and Sofia pop into CVS for one thing — chapstick — but Justin's dragon spirit turns a simple errand into a magnificent, slightly chaotic store adventure. Sofia keeps careful track of every twist on a scrap of paper she finds near the greeting cards, and it's her tiny written note that saves the day when Justin's big idea goes hilariously wrong. A funny, warm story about a dad who can't do anything small and a daughter who notices everything.

Justin held Sofia's hand as they pushed open the glass door of CVS. "One thing," he said, holding up one finger. "Chapstick. That is all we need." Sofia spotted a notepad display near the entrance and tore off a tiny scrap of paper. She tucked it into her pocket, because you never know when a promise needs writing down.

The chapstick aisle was all the way in the back. But on the way, Justin stopped at a giant display of inflatable pool floats shaped like flamingos. His hazel eyes lit up. "Sofia," he said slowly, "what if we got just ONE flamingo?" "You said one thing," Sofia said, already uncapping her pen.

Justin put the flamingo back. He really did. But then he discovered the candy aisle. He grabbed a basket and began dropping things in — gummy worms, a chocolate bar, two bags of sour rings, and a very large bag of pretzels. Sofia wrote on her scrap of paper: "chapstick, flamingo (no), gummy worms, choco, sour rings, pretzels." Her list was getting long.

Justin found the chapstick at last. He reached for the plain one, then noticed a display of one hundred and twelve different flavors. Mango. Mint chip. Pickle. Birthday cake. "Sofia, smell this one," he said, holding out a green tube. Sofia sniffed it and made a face like she had stepped on a wet sock. "That is pickle, Dad." "Put it back."

Justin set the basket down so he could spin the chapstick display and find the perfect flavor. He spun it too hard. The whole rack wobbled, tipped, and sent a waterfall of tiny lip balm tubes skittering across the white floor in every direction. They slid under shelves. They rolled into the next aisle. One bounced off a man's shoe. Justin froze. His face turned the color of the sour ring bag.

Sofia did not panic. She pulled her scrap of paper from her pocket and turned it over to the blank side. In her careful, loopy handwriting she drew a map of the aisle. She pointed. "You get under the shelf. I will do the far ones." Justin looked at her little map. He looked at her. "When did you get so organized?" he asked. "I learned from someone very messy," she said.

They picked up every single tube. The employee in the red vest helped them reload the rack, and Justin apologized twice and also bought the employee a chocolate bar from his basket. Sofia added one more line to her list: "fixed it." The rack stood perfectly still, full of colors, and smelled like a mix of mango and birthday cake and, just faintly, pickle.

At the register, Justin put the gummy worms back. And the sour rings. And the pretzels. He kept the chocolate. The cashier rang up two items: one plain chapstick and one chocolate bar. Sofia folded her scrap of paper very small and tucked it safe into her pocket. It read, from top to bottom: "chapstick, flamingo (no), gummy worms, choco, sour rings, pretzels, fixed it." Proof that some adventures are worth keeping.