Sparkles

Sparkles

Pearl looked through the doorway. There they were! She could barely contain her excitement. She’d been so afraid they were never coming back.

Over the last few days she had thought about what she might have done to scare them away. She thought they liked to play, they seemed to love to play. If only they talked she could have found out, but they never did. She talked to them all the time but they never talked back.

If they did talk they probably didn’t speak her language anyway, like the tall things that lived here. They talked all the time, and they were very nice, but Pearl didn’t understand anything they said. They didn’t seem to understand anything Pearl said either, though she tried and tried to talk to them. But they were very nice anyway.

Maybe being nice was enough. Maybe playing with them was all the shiny things wanted. They always had lots of fun before they left. Pearl knew they were afraid of the shadow that came in the window just before Mom yelled that word, “Lunch!” Well, she’d play and play until they ran away! Maybe it would make them happy. Off she went.

“Oh look Honey,” Susan said, “the kitten is chasing the lights from the prism in that big square window again. So cute. I bet she missed that after three days of rain. I’m so glad the sun came out this morning, that room doesn’t get any sun at all in the afternoons.

The sun glanced down from the clear blue sky, and smiled.