Milk-White Ripples

Sunny Willow Park glows: willow bends, ponds shine, nooks wait for picnics. Lumen Luna Cat pads along, her fur a soft moonlight.

“Hello, water,” she purrs.

A red rubber boot sits on a lily pad, rocking all by itself.

“Boot, are you floating?”

The boot tips. Tiny bubbles pop like giggles.

Chapter 2— The Quiet Round Sound

Lumen Luna Cat leaned close. The pond sat smooth as glass. No plop. No splash.

“Say ‘splash,’ Pond,” she said softly.

The pond did nothing.

A bubble rose and wrote, in wiggly letters: “NER-VOUS.”

“Oh,” Lumen Luna whispered. “That is a real word.”

She nodded at the red rubber boot. “If it says ‘jump in,’ you jump in.”

The boot tried to hop. It only spun.