Dribbles - 18. His Balloon

"No!"

"Yes!"

"But I don't want to!"

"But... but... you said anything!"

I sighed. I had said anything. "Why did you have to pick a balloon? You know how I feel about being high up. Why can't we go swimming in the ocean or on a camel ride through the desert?"

It was Jack's turn to sigh. That sounded way older than his six year old attitude should be able to come up with. He squinted up his eyes and pointed at me. "You said it was my choice!"

"You are entirely too spoiled," I said. Jack had been obsessed with the big balloon float characters ever since the Thanksgiving parade was on the television. He loved balloons and the bigger they were, the better they were. So now, here I was.

"Yep," he giggled, "now let me tie this string around you before we get the squeaky voice stuff so you can float. Then we can be in the Christmas parade too!"

"I can't believe the dream simulator even has this option. What did they call it, 'Turn your parent into a squeaky toy'?" I muttered.

He laughed as my voice got higher and higher as I inflated bigger and bigger and bigger. Finally I was hovering high over his head and he tugged on the string tied to my ankle.

"C'mon Daddy, I wanna be at the front of the parade so everyone can see us. Don't forget to wag your tail like Odie did."

Oh yeah, did I mention I was a giant balloon person dressed up like a giant dog with a big red bow around my neck? I'm pretty sure it was Jack's not so subtle way of letting me know what he wanted for Christmas.

"Bark for the people Daddy!"

I gave in and barked. Jack laughed as this high pitched yip came out of me even though I was a fifty foot dog. I found myself giggling along with him. It was silly and I didn't like floating five stories up, even in a dream, but I had promised him anything. Nothing could hurt me here and I could lock the tape so no one else could see it. Might as well let him have his fun; this was his dream after all.