Chapter 5 - Mud (Perkin)

My name is Perkin. I am only nine years old. But I still like lots of things. I like my flute, my pet cat. I like honey cinnamon bread, kickball, kremon fighting and horseback riding. But most of all I like my flute. My mam says I’m a child and I should act like a child. But I don’t always feel like one. I think I am a flutist, not a child. Piping is my favorite thing anyway. Why would I do something else if I could be making flute music? Dove, the lady that does our Mam’s laundry, says she thinks I’m the best musician ever. It’s nice for her to say that. I’m pretty god, I think that she likes the traveling drummer more. He could make her dance if he wanted to. Dove only danced for me once.
It hadn’t rained in forever and her garden was dry. (Dove loves flowers. And vegetables, but not because they taste good, but because they grow.) Now her plants were choking on the dusty air. But heavy clouds began to roll in and the hot day was swept away with clear cool air that prophesied thick, round raindrops. Dove stood outside for one full hour, just watching the black clouds; waiting for the storm to come. She whooped when the fat drops finally started to patter in the dust. I knew that she would dance if I could play something. So I reached into my room and snatched my flute from my bed. I played loud so she could hear over the roar of the water. Already soaked, Dove danced in her bare, wet feet. The dirt from the yard quickly turned to mud and streaked her legs. Wild hair whacked her neck and clung in dripping clumps from her cheeks. She wouldn’t have looked very pretty if she had been standing still, or walking normally. I think she would have probably looked like a drowned cat. But while she danced she looked beautiful. Everything looked beautiful, even though she was covered in mud. I played in the beautiful mud all day. My mother said I must never do that again because grown ups never play in the mud. And if I wanted to play flute for Dove I had to become a grown up. That doesn’t make sense, because Dove is a very grownup person, but she danced and played and dug and gardened in the beautiful mud too.

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