Flying the Dragon by Natalie Dias Lorenzi

kite.”
    Skye rolled her eyes and laughed. “I get it, Hiroshi.”
    Was it his imagination, or had the wind picked up? Hiroshi stopped and turned his back to the breeze. He let the reel unwind for a few more feet, then grasped the line.
    “Now!”
    Skye let go of the kite and Hiroshi lifted the line until his arm was stretched above him. He shuffled backward, faster and faster, and the dragon climbed higher and higher. The wind took hold of the kite and Hiroshi let out more line, surrendering the dragon to the sky.
    “It worked!” Skye ran up to Hiroshi. He nodded, keeping one eye closed to block out the sun. He practiced a few dives and twists with the kite before allowing it to drift higher. He’d half expected Skye to mess up the launch, but he had to admit she’d done a pretty good job. Well, he didn’t have to admit it to
her.
    “Nice work, you two!” Grandfather’s voice came from the bench behind Hiroshi and Skye.
    “Thank you, Grandfather,” Hiroshi and Skye said in unison. They glanced at each other, and their smiles faded.
    “Hiroshi came up with a good idea on the way over here,” Grandfather said.
    Good idea? What good idea?
    “He said there are many things about Japan that you have not heard of before, Sorano. And people whom you do not know. This is as good a time as any for Hiroshi and me to teach you.”
    What? First kite-flying lessons, now lessons on Japan? Why does Skye need to know all of that, anyway?
    “I would love to hear about Japan,” Skye said. Hiroshi looked at the dragon and sighed. There was no way Skye would be going home early now.
    Grandfather turned to Skye. “Sorano, is there anything in particular you would like to know?”
    Skye nodded, like she’d been thinking of a question all along. “I’ve been wondering—I mean, I’ve asked my father, of course—but I’d love to know more about my grandmother.”
    Grandfather’s face softened, and although part of him looked sad, he seemed pleased by the question. “I will tell you a story about when we were young. This is one of Hiroshi’s favorites.”
    Hiroshi could barely remember Grandmother, but he’d heard so many stories about her that it felt like he’d known her all his life. “Why don’t you bring the dragon down, Hiroshi? This is a story for sitting.”
    Hiroshi wondered which story it was—he had many favorites. He handed the reel to Skye. “Can you take up the slack with the reel?”
    Skye nodded, looking pleased. With Skye holding the reel, Hiroshi was free to pull in the line hand over hand, coaxing the dragon lower. The kite fluttered down the last few feet, right into Hiroshi’s hands, as if the dragon wanted to hear Grandfather’s story, too.
    Grandfather settled in and began. “Your grandmother was a brilliant kite flier.”
    “She was?” Skye grinned. “Did you teach her?”
    Grandfather nodded. “That is a longer story for another time. But her most brilliant move with a kite string was the time she saved her father’s farm.”
    Hiroshi smiled. He knew this story by heart.
    “Crows have always been a challenge for farmers. One year in particular the crows seemed to have doubled in number. They were picking away at the seeds in the furrows, and everyone worried there would not be enough food to last the winter. Until your grandmother had a brilliant idea.”
    “The hawk kite!” Hiroshi grinned.
    Grandfather looked up as if he expected to see such a kite overhead. “Your grandmother designed a kite that was shaped like a hawk. When she flew it over her father’s fields, the crows stayed away.”
    “Wow, that was smart,” Skye said. “But she couldn’t fly the kite all day, could she?”
    “With the help of her brother, they mounted the kite on a bamboo pole and put it in the middle of the field. Soon all the farmers wanted one. I helped her make many hawk kites that season, which brought extra income to our families.”
    Skye beamed. “What else did Grandmother