Army Brats: David, Pernilla and the Magic Dino Dragon

By Henry Louis Haynes

The young adult story "Army Brats: David, Pernilla and the Magic Dino Dragon" invites readers to explore 1969-70, a time of the first moon landing, an unpopular war, racial unrest and rapid social change. For many teenagers at the time, life revolved around rock and roll and sports, not video games, texting and social media.

Fifteen-year-old David Stevenson must discover who objects to his interracial rock band and taboo romance before the person terrorizes these military brats again. A magic dino dragon that comes from Vietnam helps detect lies, locate missing people and objects, and assists with a larger mystery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665572590

Henry Louis Haynes

Henry Louis Haynes lived in several U.S. states as well as Europe while growing up an Army brat. He is the author of five published books, including "Squarehead and Me" and "Hey, Jackie Robinson, We Love You!" For several years he worked as a correspondent with a daily newspaper, covering local governments and school boards. He graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in English from Villanova University, and he was initiated into Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society.

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2022 Henry Louis Haynes. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/12/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7258-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7259-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022918451

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Dedication:

To salute the service and sacrifice of military personnel and their families

The wise unite us; the fools divide us

Patriotism, yes; nationalism, no

Honor those who came before; pave the way for those who come after

The Crispus Attucks 21st Century Unity Society (CATCUS) informs this work.

Gens Una Sumus

CONTENTS

Author’s Note and Introduction

List of Characters

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

About The Author

AUTHOR’S NOTE AND INTRODUCTION

The young adult story Army Brats: David, Pernilla and the Magic Dino Dragon salutes the millions of forgotten Americans, those whose families have lived in this country for many generations, built our infrastructure and served honorably in the nation’s wars and conflicts. These Americans and their stories and contributions are often ignored.

Readers are invited to explore 1969-70, a time of the first moon landing, an unpopular war, racial unrest and rapid social change. Although this is a story from another time, it deals with contemporary issues and is very much for this time.

The leading characters are 14 and 15 years old. However, the vantage point of the narrator is that of an older person recalling his childhood experiences.

The story features:

Military families: Americans love to praise the military, yet military families and their struggles and triumphs are underrepresented in our literature.

Historical fiction: The story takes place in 1969-70 at a time when the teen currency is rock and roll music and sports participation, not video games, texting and social media.

Magical Realism: Truly amazing what the Magic Dino Dragon can do, especially its life-saving actions at the end of the story.

Diversity: The Army base setting lends itself to a natural diversity of characters. The rock and roll band the major characters form is composed of Black, White, Latino and Asian members. Diversity must also mean diversity of viewpoint and diversity of thought, and the story shows this through everyone from a girl attracted to the Black Power movement to a conservative Army general who is the protagonist’s father.

Magnetic leading male and female: The two major characters are witty, intelligent, talented and compelling. More than that, they have tremendous chemistry between them. However, there are many forces aligned against them, including their parents. Will they end up star-crossed?

Unorthodox: The African American experience is contained in a lot more than just the stereotypical urban and inner-city experience. It is time to hear other African American voices, too, and that is what this work is about.

Strong father figure: In modern young adult fiction, a strong fatherly image is a vanishing breed. Not here. The protagonist’s close relationship to a strong, successful role model father is one of the keys to this novel.

LIST OF CHARACTERS

David Stevenson is a rare occurrence in American young adult fiction: a dynamic, male, African American lead character and first-person narrator who has no ties to inner-city communities or urban environments.

A ninth grader, David is torn between two cultures. His dad has recently become one of the first African American generals in the U.S. Army and base commander of his fort in Arizona. David lives in the cocoon of a military environment, yet he has also experienced the sting of racism and can feel the tensions bubbling up in the war torn, racially divisive late 1960s and early 1970s. He has all the privileges of being a brigadier general’s son, yet people sometimes still expect him to act and sound like he’s from the ghetto. David embraces his father’s careful approach to change, such as when his father makes sure the Army base has a Black Santa Claus for the first time.

Pernilla Olson is a wisecracking, flower power, free spirit of Scandinavian heritage. She insists on having fun, breaking rules and telling off-color jokes. The thing she values most in an acquaintance or friendship is someone who can make her laugh. Although she is intelligent, kind, generous and empathetic, Pernilla is also impulsive, and this leads to many mistakes with varying degrees of consequences. Later, as she recovers from being injured and hospitalized, Pernilla develops even more empathy and compassion, as is shown in scene after scene.

From the moment Pernilla moves onto the Army base, she turns David’s world upside down. After a rocky start, David and Pernilla bond around songwriting, being members of the same rock and roll band, and having fathers who served together in the same unit in Vietnam. But not everyone is in favor of their integrated band or their budding romance that is still taboo in 1970.

Pernilla is drugged and assaulted and left in an alley with a needle in her arm. A man intentionally slams into David near the restroom entrance of the gymnasium at the junior high school prom and escapes on a motorcycle. Then a note arrives at David’s door that reads: I can’t stand integrated bands. I hate mixed-race couples. Segregation is our way. I have now warned you three times. Don’t make me warn you again. Wake up!

Who is causing these problems? This mystery must be resolved before the bigoted person strikes again.

LaKisha Lambert - David’s ex-girlfriend provides a stark contrast to the lead male character. She is caught up in the late 1960’s Black Power movement and demands immediate change. Her beliefs and attitudes are perhaps a forerunner to the logic behind Black Lives Matter, and her musical style anticipated hip hop. LaKisha feels David has abandoned her for Pernilla.

General Stevenson - A World War II, Korean and Vietnam War combat vet, the brigadier general is a strong role model and attentive father who often provides counsel to his teenaged son. He is a revelation because it seems Black teens are almost invariably portrayed as growing up in single-parent households, usually headed by a woman.

Ava Nguyen is a Vietnamese orphan the Olson family has adopted. Her father sacrificed his life to save First Sergeant Olson in the jungles of Vietnam. Ava is increasingly confident and assertive as she learns the American language and customs. Even as she adapts to America, Ava insists on maintaining her Vietnamese customs and traditions.

Ava brings with her from Vietnam a four-foot Magic Dino Dragon she has inherited from her grandpa and late father. Under their instructions, the Magic Dino Dragon cannot be used commercially or given a name until it proves its worth beyond a doubt. The dragon is constantly learning and can understand many languages and facial expressions. It is skilled at detecting lies and locating missing people and objects. In the final chapter, it does prove its worth by helping to save the lives of the major characters in the story. It can now be named.

Olaf Olson - Pernilla’s twin brother and the band’s energetic drummer, Olaf is physically strong and mentally tough. Like his sister, he is often in a jocular mood. But he also brings calm to chaos and reason to riot.

U.S. ARMY FORT, SOUTHERN ARIZONA, AUTUMN 1969

CHAPTER

1

Standing by the back door of the blue school building, she gazed out the window at the afternoon rain. The dismissal bell for our junior high school had sounded about five minutes ago.

You’re the new girl? I asked, walking over to her. Pernilla Olson, is it?

Got it, she said, turning to face me. And you are— David?

Right, David Stevenson.

Yay, I remembered.

Probably not too hard to match my name with my face since I’m the only Black kid in our class. Sorry I didn’t get to speak to you more on your first day. It’s nerve-racking, I know. So welcome to Fort Lawson Junior High School.

She looked back out the window. Didn’t know it rained in Arizona.

The monsoon season is over, but it still rains every now and then.

I was going to wait for the rain to slow down a little before I ventured out. I don’t have an umbrella.

You’re in luck. I happen to have an extra umbrella in my locker. When you see it, you’ll know why I use it only as a spare. Come on, let’s go get it.

As we walked down the hallway toward the lockers, we passed the trophy case.

Those are all my contributions to this school, I joked, pointing at the shiny trophies inside the glass panel.

She laughed. Do they have trophies for music in there?

I think they’re just trophies for winning sports teams. Why?

I’m musical.

Hey, so am I.

She was medium height and average weight for a ninth-grade girl. I couldn’t tell how long her blonde hair was because it was piled up and pinned into a bun on top of her head. Thick, black horned-rimmed glasses guarded her blue eyes. She wore braces on her teeth. Her blouse fit her snugly and she filled out her blue jeans that were a size too small.

You know at this school we’re not supposed to wear jeans, don’t you? I asked her.

Yes, she replied. I know by now. Sometimes you can get around ridiculous rules, sometimes you can’t. I won’t have them on tomorrow.

And you can only chew gum outside the building.

You aren’t going to play hall monitor on me, are you? she asked coldly, blowing a pink bubble right in my face.

I didn’t think people could chew gum when they wore braces. Especially bubble gum. Doesn’t it stick to your braces?

Once in a while, she admitted. But I’ve gotten good at preventing it.

Well, I’m surprised you can chew gum with braces.

I may surprise you about a lot of things.

We turned the corner and arrived at my locker.

You’ll have to look away while I dial the combination, I said.

Why?

Just being safe. You may be a secret spy, for all I know.

How did you guess? What did I do to blow my cover? She smiled and looked away. I wouldn’t remember the numbers anyway.

I spun the combination, opened the locker and took out a red umbrella. I held it up.

Now you know.

She looked my way again. What’s wrong with a red umbrella? I think it’s groovy.

Well, you can have it. I don’t want to be seen with it. I won it in a raffle and just threw it in here. I handed her the umbrella. Which way are you going? Maybe I can walk with you a while. I rode my bike in this morning before the rain started, but with the rain, it’ll just have to sit in the rack overnight.

We exited the school building and walked across the wet concrete part of the school grounds.

Sitting near the center of the Army post, our junior high school was for seventh, eighth and ninth graders. It felt great to be in the upper class this year after spending two years looking up. Next year I would be attending the high school off post in Lawson City. That is, if my dad didn’t get transferred to another post before then. Picking up and moving every couple years was just par for the course for an Army brat.

I know a lot about you already, Pernilla said, because of your father.

Yes, I was a nobody till he was put in charge of the base, I said. Now, all of a sudden, everyone wants to be my friend.

My father became base commander when he was a colonel. When he was promoted to one-star brigadier general, he remained the base commander, even though colonels usually held that job. Because he was the first Black man to command the post and one of the few Black brigadier generals, Dad received a lot of notice. There were write-ups in all the local papers and even in the Stars and Stripes and Army Times. And our whole family was photographed for some of the articles.

I read that your father is one of the first Negroes to ever become a general, Pernilla said.

Yes, but we kind of go by Black now. Or else African American.

Oh. I usually say Negro or colored.

You shouldn’t say those anymore.

Why not?

I guess because James Brown says so, I joked.

‘Say It Loud — I’m Black And I’m Proud.’

Yeah, I didn’t know if you’d get that. But I’m not into that kind of stuff. I don’t want to be a soul brother. I just want to be me.

Your father is pretty tall, from the pictures I saw. You’re on the way to being tall like him.

Growing like a weed, my mom says. He’s tall and she’s short. But I’m thin like she is.

I carried my notebook and a couple textbooks in one hand and held my black umbrella over my head with the other hand. Pernilla had just the red umbrella and no books with her.

Aren’t you planning to do homework today? I asked.

Not if I can help it. I usually put it off till the last minute.

But some of it’s due tomorrow.

Teachers will cut me a break ’cause I’m new. I don’t usually have trouble keeping up in class. I stay in the advanced class without even trying. My twin brother had to bribe his way into 9-1, but it was no problem for me.

I chuckled.

Our school divided kids into groups, depending on their grade point average. 9-1 was the most advanced class, the same as 8-1 and 7-1. There were four levels for each grade. Although we had different teachers for each subject, and went from classroom to classroom throughout the day, our 9-1 classmates stayed together in each class.

So you’re one of those lucky ones who don’t have to study hard, but if you did, then you’d really be dangerous, huh? I kidded.

I’m probably kind of dangerous anyway, she replied.

Wouldn’t you and your brother walk home together, since he’s your twin and in your same class? I asked.

I guess till we find our own group of friends. But today he braved the rain and went on ahead. Of course he doesn’t have to worry about his hair the way I worry about mine.

We