The big red button!

The big red button

Mary’s had been a grey childhood. All shades of grey that was true, but still as grey as her favourite cat’s tail in November. Of course living with Great Aunt Sal and Uncle Fred in Hull had not helped. They were careful people. Careful of money, friends and the ways of the world. So they protected themselves and Mary, from the lurking horrors  of  bright colours. Bright colours they would say, almost ruined Aunt Sal when she was a girl and it was only the careful care of Uncle Fred….well then they would stop eating their cereal and look in their special way at each other. It was at these moments that Mary almost fancied that they became a little pink. But such thoughts had little role to play in the daily colourless way on Number Six Wellstone Avenue.

Of course their neighbours Bella and Horace were too colourful to talk too. They waved cheerfully to Mary as she walked to her grey school in her dark grey coat with hand knitted deep grey scarf and matching hat. Just sometimes, Mary felt a terrible urge to smile back. It was almost as if a huge, bursting balloon of laughter wanted to jump outside her body and run, barefooted towards Bella’s garden and would you believe it, to SKIP!

Then one day (this is a happy story after all) she felt the balloon of laughter twitching in her chest, climbing upwards towards her throat and then with one huge burst if air, she laughed and laughed and laughed. Such an occasion brought everything and everyone in the avenue out from their gardens, to wonder at this wonder-  and guess what happened next? Well you can…They began to laugh too…a community of laughter and smiling faces.

As Mary stood on the pavement laughing in the most wonderful way, a small red button started to roll out of nowhere, heading straight for her grey shoe. Naturally, being rather more carefree than before, she swept down in this new carefree way, and picked it up!