As May draws to a close, so does The Blue Dragon. Life is uneventful and that’s a good thing.
Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales. I hope you and your loved ones are still safe. This week, our word prompt is GREAT.
Enjoy!
Beef got up and jumped off the bed, revealing the paper he’d been sitting on. Sam reached for it, not sure which drawer it had come from, and turned it over. It was a newspaper clipping pasted to a sheet of paper. Someone had written December 1983 under it. In it, four older women stood in front of the walls of the Forbidden City, the Chinese imperial palace in Beijing.
“I don’t know who these people are, but this is definitely Aunt Esther. This must’ve been taken just after China reopened its borders to tourism. I didn’t realize she’d traveled at all after her heart attack thirty years ago, which would’ve been in 1976. But look at the pin on her jacket.”
Phil picked up the picture. “It’s shaped like a dragon. Do you think that’s what we’re searching for?”
“I don’t know.” she exhaled heavily. “It’s not a good copy and it isn’t in color, so I can’t tell if those stones are blue, but it’s the only dragon we’ve seen so far.”
“Finding a piece of jewelry that size is really going to be looking for a needle in a haystack. You packed up her clothes in here. Was there any jewelry?”
“On the clothes, no, and I did search all the pockets so I looked carefully. I did find some in the second drawer, but no dragon. If she had anything of value, like the money we keep finding, it could be anywhere. I found a hundred dollars in the first drawer, thirty-seven in the second, and another thirty in this one, along with that thing.” She pointed at the complete skins of six minks, attached head to tail to form a circle. Beef was sniffing at it, hitting it with his paw now and then as if he wanted to play. “It scared the daylights out of me. Not sure I could ever have hung dead animals around my neck, but—”
The rumble of the snowplow interrupted her.
“That should be Lou. Why don’t you finish in here, and then we’ll head into town? We can get lunch and then do what needs to be done. Tacos or burgers?”
“Burgers all the way, with onion rings and a vanilla shake.”
He closed his eyes in appreciation. “Great! You do realize this is a match made in heaven, don’t you?”
Sam laughed. “Fast food heaven, maybe.”
That’s it. Thanks for visiting. Don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.
Living the Dream 
I enjoy the way you include the wonderful cultural tidbits from the past, such as the mink stole. I can’t imagine wearing one today, but they were all the rage. It reminds me of my mother’s armadillo purse. Great job!
Those minks biting their tails give me the creeps! LOL
Melissa, they scared the daylights out of me when I first saw them!
Sounds like you’re using some of your real life experiences in this story — cleaning out drawers and such. I remember those mink skins. They were all the rage, back in the day. Yes, they were a little creepy, with the jaw refitted as a clasp that could be opened to fast the mink to another or to itself. But nobody seemed to freak out about it when I was a kid. But nowadays? Wow, no, never do, never do. Well done. You’ve given me lots to think about and a mystery to unravel.
My grandmother had one of the mink skins back in the day. It was all the rage! Great snippet.
I have to agree with everyone. Those things were scary and crazy to see. My great-grandmother had one. It totally creeped me out. Well done on bringing back that memory. 🙂 Jillian
LOL. It’s still hanging in the back of my closet .I can send it to you!
Hahaha. I’ll pass. Thanks anyway. Lol lol.
Great detail. I am dying to know more about the dragon pin and what it means. And the minks – eeek! Grat job!