I Saw A Boy With A Hat

The clouds leaked, and my ponytails dripped. I twirled my purple polka dot umbrella to the side as I balanced on the curb, blinking raindrops from my eyelashes. My yellow trainers squelched, and my soggy socks sagged, when I saw a boy with a hat made of folded newspaper.

He stomped through the rivulet of water rising in the gutter, and I followed. At the end of the street, he boarded a pirate ship and held out his hand to help me aboard. We set the sails, making for the open sea.

Lightening cracked the clouds. Thunder boomed. The storm erupted. And a gigantic purple polka dotted kraken rose from the waves and wrapped its tentacles around our ship.

We tipped to the side, and the boy clung to the mast and jabbed with a spear. I caught the railing, gave a fierce roar, and swung my sword.

The kraken squeezed tight. The ship's hull cracked, and the boy's hat fell into the sea.

Astonished, the kraken grabbed for it, but a dreadful whirlpool sucked it to the bottom. Distressed, the kraken released the ship and the boy, without a hat, drooped.

Rainwater swirled around his ankles before falling off the street and into the sewer.

I asked if he would, perhaps, like a lemon drop cookie, and he said that he would.

I held out my hand.

Smiling, he took it and followed me home as the great purple polka dotted kraken waved goodbye and slipped beneath the waves.

Photo adjusted | Original by Xiaolong Wong