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A short fictional story inspired by a crochet dragon and a very talkative group of readers.
At seven o'clock, Nina had arranged six cups, a plate of biscuits, and the book everyone was supposed to have finished. At seven fifteen, she remembered the seventh guest.
She took the small crochet dragon from the shelf and placed it on the side table. Its eyes were closed. Its wings were tucked close to its pastel body. It appeared to have prepared for the evening by taking a very long nap.
“At least one of us will listen,” Nina said.
The first person through the door was Jo, carrying a bag of oranges. She noticed the dragon before she noticed the biscuits.
“Has it finished the book?”
“Twice,” said Nina. “But it doesn't want to show off.”
By the time everyone arrived, the dragon had been given a name, appointed keeper of the reading list, and asked to settle a disagreement about the ending. It remained impressively neutral.
Nina had joined the group only a few months earlier. Hosting still made her nervous. She kept checking whether the cups needed filling, worried that a pause in the conversation meant the evening had gone wrong.
Halfway through the discussion, two people began defending completely different interpretations of the main character. Someone reached for the book to find a passage. Someone else remembered a line that turned out to belong to another novel entirely.
The dragon lay beside the reading list, looking as though none of this required immediate action.
Nina laughed. She stopped counting the silences. These were people enjoying an argument they could leave at the door afterward. She did not need to steer every turn.
When Jo asked what she thought, Nina gave the answer she had been rehearsing all afternoon. Then she gave a second answer, less polished and closer to what she meant. That was the one everyone wanted to discuss.
Across the room, a crochet cat lay on a low shelf beside a stack of magazines. One of the visitors noticed it while looking for a place to set down an empty cup.
“You have a theme,” she said.
Nina looked from the cat to the dragon. “Apparently, everyone in this room is very tired except us.”
They discussed whether the cat should join the next meeting. Jo argued that it would bring a useful perspective. Someone proposed a novel with a cat in it. The suggestion was written down, along with three others and a reminder to return a borrowed book.
When the guests had gone, Nina carried the cups to the kitchen. There were biscuit crumbs on the table and an orange peel curled beside the reading list. The room looked used in a pleasant way.
She picked up the dragon to return it to the shelf, then left it where it was. Beneath its little wing lay a note Jo had added before leaving: “Excellent hosting. Dragon's contribution especially strong.”
Nina put the note inside the book. Next month someone else would host, but the dragon had already received an invitation.
A small crochet animal can be chosen for the kind of stories a person enjoys, whether that means a fantasy creature or an ordinary cat with an unhurried expression. It does not need to match every object in the room to belong there.
The sleeping crochet dragon and sleeping crochet cat are real Saigonmade designs used as inspiration for this fictional scene. If you are choosing a gift for a reader, let their favorite worlds suggest the character, and let them find its place.
