Rainy Day

Kieran and Lily were looking forward to the carnival that their school put on each May. They had two weeks to prepare for it, and everyone at school was excited about it. It was to be at Deer Park, across the street from their school.

The students worked together to put up the flyers around the neighborhood. Mr. Bauer, the school’s custodian, oversaw setting up the tables and the other amusements.

“I’m planning to have some little rides for the young ones this year,” he said. “I know my grandson will love that!”

“Come and have fun at the Horizon Elementary School Carnival”, the flyer promised.

The nice thing about the carnival was that there was an opportunity to buy different wares and home-baked goods. Lily was especially interested in this because she loved to cook.

Kieran was happy because he could maybe sell some of his plane models that he had been working on all year. The planes were made of balsa wood and painstakingly painted according to the picture on the box. Kieran already had completed twelve of them and was very proud of them.

Lily looked through different recipe books to find some nice cookie recipes. She was not able to find anything that sparked her interest until she came across one recipe from a Christmas magazine.

“Mom, look at these.”

Lily called her mother over to the desk and showed her some pictures of beautiful petits fours. 

“I’d love to try some of these,” Lily said. “Look at the cute little flowers on the icing.”

“I don’t know, Lily,” replied Doris. “They look a little complicated to make, but I can help you if you want. We can go to the market tomorrow to get what you need.”

“Thanks, mom that will be great.” said Lily with a smile.

“Well, you better start on your homework now,” said Doris. “Tell Kieran to get started, too.”

Lily went into Kieran’s room. “Hey, brother, Mom said it’s time to do homework.”

Kieran looked up from the craft magazine he was reading. “Look, here is another model I would like to do, maybe I can complete it before the carnival.”

“You and your models!” exclaimed Lily. “There might not be room on the table for all of them.”

“Well, we will see what happens” returned Kieran. “They will be more interesting than a bunch of cookies,” he added.

Lily left the room in a huff. “I can’t see why anybody would want a bunch of models cluttering up their house,” she muttered.

Kieran’s dad had a special interest in the models, as his own dad was in World War II, and flew a Curtis SBC Helldriver. “Try to find a model of one of those,” he said to Kieran.

The day before the carnival Lily and her mom set to work on the petits fours. They bought a special pan and some decorating tips with colored icing. Lily’s friend Molly came by and helped with the project.

“I know everyone will love these.” she said. “Can I sample one?

“Yes,” replied Lily. “Mom and I will have one, too.”

Kieran’s friend Pete was at the house, too. He peeked into the kitchen to see what was going on.

“I was hoping for some chocolate chip cookies,” he laughed. Lily could hear Kieran and Pete joking in the other room and her eyes filled with tears.

“Oh, don’t let them upset you,” said Doris. “Boys will be boys.”

Lily tended to be sensitive about things though, so she avoided Kieran and just continued to prepare for the carnival in the evening. She was too upset to even eat dinner and just spent the evening in her room.

The petits fours did look beautiful, though. Lily used three different colors of icing and spent a lot of time decorating them with little flowers like in the magazine. She made a colorful sign to put next to the display.

On the day of the carnival everyone was up early. Kieran’s dad packed the tables that he was lending the school in his station wagon.

“I’m going to drop these off at the park. Mr Bauer is already there, setting things up.” he said. “I’ll be back to pick you guys up in an hour.”

Doris was sitting at the table, finishing her coffee. She glanced out the window and saw ominous clouds in the sky, and it was a little windy.

“You better take jackets” she said to Kieran and Lily. “I don’t know about the weather…” Her voice trailed off. “I hope the weather stays nice.”

Kieran was already waiting by the front door, anxiously waiting for his father to return. He ran upstairs to get his jacket and returned quickly. The models were carefully packed and covered with newspapers.

Lily had also packed her wares in a large white box. “I have this warm sweater”, she said to her mom. “I think I will be okay.”

There were a lot of people milling around the park when Kieran and Lily arrived. Kieran’s dad had set up two tables beneath one of the large willow trees. Kieran happily started setting up his models. He was joined by two friends who helped him.

Meanwhile, Lily took a beautiful white tablecloth out of her box, and three plates of her mother’s fine china. She put the doilies on the plates and placed the petites fours in a pretty design, alternating the colors. She put the sign she had made in front of the plates.

Lily sat in her chair and observed the people milling around the park, hoping that some would come to where she was.

Suddenly, there was a large clap of thunder, and a minute later, torrential rain fell. It all happened so quickly; Lily hardly had time to move the cakes before they were soaked. The icing had melted into a swirl of colors.

Kieran rushed to cover up the models, but it was not long before the rain soaked them. The paint ran in rivulets onto the table.

“Sorry about your models, Kieran,” said Lily tearfully. “Maybe you could re-paint them?”

“Yeah, maybe,” said Kieran. “Sorry for you, too.” Kieran picked up one of the cakes and took a bite. “You know, these are pretty good.” He gave his sister a hug and they sat together watching the rain.