Dragon of the Red Dawn: A Merlin Mission

walking, a man stepped out from the shadows of the garden. The man wore a blue coat and two swords hung from his belt.
“Excuse me,” said the samurai. “May I see your passports, please?”

J ack couldn’t speak.
“Our passports?” said Annie. “They—um— they got destroyed in a fire—on the other side of the Great Bridge.”
The samurai narrowed his eyes. “Your passports burned?.” he said. “Why were you on the other side of the Great Bridge?”
“We were with Master Basho,” said Jack.
“Master Basho?” said the samurai.
“Yes,” said Annie. “We are students of his.”
“Ah!” The samurai’s expression brightened.“So you study poetry with Master Basho?”
“Yes,” said Annie. “Would you like to hear some poems?”
Oh, no! thought Jack. Not again!
“Yes, please,” said the samurai.
“No problem.” Annie thought for a moment and then said: “Here’s a simple little poem.” She recited:
Rain falls outside ,
But the tiny cricket on the hearth
Is dry tonight.
The samurai nodded. “Hmm,” he said. “Yes. Very simple, but very lovely.”
“Thank you,” said Annie.
The man turned to Jack. Jack could hardly breathe. His mind was blank. He looked to Annie for help. But Annie just smiled, waiting to hear his poem.
Jack cleared his throat. He tried to stay calm. He closed his eyes and let his mind roamover their visit to Japan. He opened his eyes. He looked up at the cloudless sky and said:
The sun is shining ,
The day is hot.
But moonlight
And cool breezes
Still fill my heart ,
Left over from last night.
“Whoa!” whispered Annie. “Good!”
“Yes, very good!” said the samurai. He looked at the sky. “The moonlight, the cool breeze,” he mused, “left over from the night. Very good. Master Basho has taught you well!”
The samurai strolled away, shaking his head and murmuring to himself. He let out a happy laugh, as if delighted with the day.
Jack couldn’t believe it. They were free! “Hurry, let’s go,” he said. “Before someone else sees us!”
Jack and Annie ran to the rope ladder andstarted up. As soon as they climbed inside the tree house, Jack grabbed the Pennsylvania book. He found a picture of the Frog Creek woods. “As the famous samurai once said, ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step,’” said Jack.
“Or one sentence,” said Annie.
“Right,” said Jack. He pointed at the picture. “I wish we could go home.”
Annie gasped. “Wait a minute!” she said. “We forgot our mission!”
“What?” said Jack.
But the wind started to blow.
The tree house started to spin.
It spun faster and faster.
Then everything was still.
Absolutely still.

The early-morning air was cold.
Jack and Annie were back in Frog Creek,wearing their own clothes. Jack’s burlap bag was a backpack again. He looked inside to make sure the Wand of Dianthus was there. It was. And Basho’s frog poem was there, too.
“I can’t believe it!” said Annie. “We didn’t look for a secret of happiness for Merlin. How could we forget that?”
“Oh, man,” said Jack. “We were so busy worrying about the samurai and putting out the fire that we forgot our mission.”
“What will Morgan say?” said Annie. “We’ve never forgotten a mission before! And this one was the most important we’ve ever had! To help save Merlin!” Annie was near tears.
“Wait, wait. Calm down,” said Jack. “Let’s think a minute. Maybe we actually found a secret of happiness. Maybe we just don’t know we found it.”
“You mean, like—were we extra happy at any time?” asked Annie.
“Yeah, sort of,” said Jack. “Were we?”
“I don’t know, were you?” said Annie.
“I think a few times …,” said Jack.
“Like when?” said Annie.
“Like when we were crossing the Great Bridge with Basho, I felt sort of happy then,” said Jack.
“Me too,” said Annie. “And I was pretty happy eating sushi.”
“Yeah, but I got scared when I saw the samurai watching me,” said Jack.
“What about the sumo-wrestling match?” asked Annie.
“That was fun,” said Jack. “But I don’t know if it really made me happy.”
“Riding the dragon and putting out the fire?” said Annie.
“That was great,” said Jack. “But I was too worried about saving the city to be happy.”
“Making up poems for the samurai?” said Annie.
“Too nervous,” said Jack.
“Well, when were you purely happy?” said Annie.
“I think it was when …” Jack stopped. He felt silly saying