A boring rainy day is enlivened by a creative babysitter.
Raindrops pitter-patter on the living room window. "You're not going out. You're not going out. You're not going out, today," the rain sang.
"I can't ride my bike," I told my cousin Lorna. She was babysitting me. "We can't go to the park. We can't do anything. I hate this day."
"Why don't we go for a magic carpet ride?"
"You have a magic carpet?" I asked.
"No, you do."
"I do? Where?"
"Right there." Lorna pointed at the area rug in the middle of our living room floor. "Jump on and we'll go for a ride." Lorna swept her hands around like feathers. "And we will travel far away and distant lands we'll see. We'll fly over teal-coloured seas. We'll see tall snow-capped mountains. We'll find wondrous treasures. All will be yours. If you'll travel with me."
"You're silly. That's just an old rug."
"You have to look with your heart," she told me. "Close your eyes."
I closed them.
"Now, open them."
The rug was gone. A magic carpet hovered a few inches off the floor. Lorna patted a spot. behind her. "Come on. Get on."
The carpet went higher and higher and higher. It broke through the living room ceiling. It wasn't raining anymore. We flew over the park. Way down below, I saw my favourite swing. The sun shone on my face. The wind whipped my hair.
"Hold on tight," Lorna said.
I wrapped my hands around two corners of the carpet. The carpet zigged and zagged. I burst out laughing.
"Oh. Oh. We're going to crash into that mountain," Lorna said.
I saw the snow-capped mountain. Its granite walls loomed just in front of us. Closer and closer and closer and... "Fly higher," I told her.
"I'll try." She pulled back on the carpet.
We flew right over the top of the mountain.
"Look at the water. It's just like glass." Lorna pointed the carpet at the sea.
I looked down. Someone was smiling at me. That, someone, was me. Looking at the sea was like looking into a mirror. I jumped into the water. I reached up, grabbed hold of the carpet, and pulled it over my head. So did Lorna.
We threw open the door. We chased the rain until the sun came out and we found a rainbow, way up high, in the bright blue sky.
photo by ldyck
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Jesse Thistle gives voice to the homeless
