The rain was getting heavier and Jack’s coat was leaking. He pulled his hat down harder. He hunched his school bag higher up his back. But still a cold, wet dribble of rain kept dripping and slithering down the back of his neck.
The rain got harder and noisier. He shouted to Poppy, “Did you bring your umbrella? The one that folds into your bag? My coat’s leaking.”
Poppy peered out from under her big floppy rain hat and shook her head. Her little folding umbrella hadn’t gone to school that morning. She wanted to wave her hand and make her ‘sorry-about-that-sign’, but if she lifted her hand the rain would run into the arms of her coat. Then she’d be wet and miserable! So she just put her head down and bobbled along the footpath. Splash. Splosh. Slip. Slosh. Stamp.
The rain drummed and thudded on their hats and shoulders and they hurried on towards home as fast as they could.
They came around a corner, all bent over by the downpour and not really looking where they were going. Jack lifted his head a bit and spotted a small shop up ahead. It had a wide veranda! He called to Poppy and made a dash for it.
“Nice and dry under here!” he said shaking some of the wet off his rain coat. Poppy grinned and pushed back her floppy hat so she could see better. Then she squinted and said, “Where is this place, Jack? Have we been here before?”
Well, Jack was about to say, ‘of course, we walk by here every day after school’ but he didn’t. Because when he pushed his rain hat back and looked around he suddenly realised he’d never ever gone past this shop. He said, “Have we come the wrong way?” Poppy said she thought so. “All this heavy rain, Jack. We’ve turned a wrong corner somehow.”
They turned and looked at the shop. It was small. The door was dusty, with faded paint and it was shut. A sign hung crooked and said ‘Closed’.
Jack pressed against the big dusty shop window. There were no lights and inside was gloomy, but he could see that immediately on the other side of the glass there was an old red bike. It had flat tyres and was leaning against a tired wooden box and looked like any minute it would topple and fall over. Jack thought the box was being used as a table because a battered vase of plastic flowers was standing on top and a comfortable old armchair was drawn up alongside the box. Ready for someone to sit on and read a book.
Poppy joined him and shaded her eyes and tried to see inside. She saw a black wooden table against the far wall. Then, at the back of the shop, there was a set of grimy shelves. They covered the entire wall, full of bottles and small tins and cardboard boxes with the lids bent and piles of old books and newspapers and someone’s hat. A big light bulb on a long black cord hung down from the middle of the ceiling. It was covered with those spots that flies leave.
Nothing was moving. Poppy said, “This shop’s not being used.” And Jack thought so too. He said, “It’s old, Poppy. And a bit, like, you know … spooky.” His sister straight away said it wasn’t spooky or scary to her, but agreed that certainly the place wasn’t being used.
Then Jack gave a little surprised cry. “Poppy. Look.” She squinted hard and there, far away in the back corner, there was a long black rolled up thing. “An umbrella!” she said, and a big grin spread across her face. “Jack,” she said. “We could borrow it and get home dry!”
Jack frowned and said there were two things. “First thing, it isn’t ours. And second, the shop’s shut. How could we get it anyway?”
Poppy told Jack she’d only said ‘borrow the umbrella’. So that wasn’t a problem. But yes, the shop was shut. “We can see it, Jack. It’s so close,! But how to get it?”
Jack was looking across to the back wall of the shop. He said, “He, Poppy. There’s a fireplace. We could lower a rope down the fireplace and hook the umbrella up the chimney.” Poppy was looking now. Jack went on, “Snatch it like a fish on a hook.” But Poppy shook her head. “No, Jack. How’s that going to work? Think about it.” Jack said he was thinking about it, but then Poppy said, “Jack. If we climb up onto the roof to lower a rope down we’re going to …” Jack’ s face went sad. He said, “You’re right. We’d be soaking wet.”
They pressed against the window again and looked and thought and wondered and tried to think of something. Jack wondered if they could break down the door. “Smash it open and just walk in,” he said. Poppy didn’t even bother to speak a reply. She just shook her head. Next, Jack suggested they could smash a window. His eyes glinted and a happy smile spread over his face. “We could throw a rope, hook the umbrella and pull it back out here through the broken glass.” Poppy felt she didn’t need to say anything about Jack’s new brilliant idea. She just pressed her lips together and screwed up her face.
They were stuck. The umbrella was right there. Just inside the window. But it might as well be 100 miles away. And the rain was getting even harder.
Probably because they were so busy thinking about the umbrella they didn’t hear a car pull up. It was their car! Dad stepped out!
“Hello, you two,” he said in a big cheery voice. “Trying to make your noses turn black by pressing them against the window?”
They all laughed and Jack told dad about his leaking raincoat and the umbrella. Poppy said they’d just run out of ideas. Dad said mum had looked at the rain and sent him to find Jack and Poppy and give them a ride home in the car.
Jack said, “That’s the best idea for getting home dry, Dad.” Poppy said she wanted to sit in the front seat. And as they piled in and wrestled their wet raincoats and school bags into the back Jack said it would have been fun to lower a hook down the chimney and get the umbrella.
Poppy said it would never have worked. Although, she added, something like it did happen once. Jack asked, “Oh?” Poppy said, “Remember? In our bedtime Bible reading? There was a sick man who got lowered through a roof to Jesus.” Jack remembered. “Right,” he said.
And now they were pulling into their place and Poppy could see her mum in the kitchen. It looked like she was taking a tray of something out of the oven. Jack thought he could almost smell something …