Pip and the Peek-a-Boo Problem

Tess was carrying a basket of bread along Reading Lane when a cloud popped out from behind a chimney.

“Peek-a-boo!”

Tess stopped. The cloud was no bigger than a bathtub, with two bright eyes and a curl on top.

“Hello,” she said.

It vanished behind the chimney, then sprang out wearing a long, cloudy moustache.

“Peek-a-boo!”

Tess laughed so hard that a bread roll jumped from her basket.

The cloud caught it on a puff of air and dropped it gently into the cabbages outside Mr. Moss’s shop.

“A bread cabbage!” Mr. Moss cried. “At last!”

The cloud shook with giggles.

“What’s your name?” Tess asked.

“Pip.”

“Do you live here?”

“Only since breakfast. The big clouds went over the hill.”

Pip glanced toward the empty blue sky. Then he bounced behind a tree.

“Peek-a-boo!”

Soon everyone along Reading Lane was looking up. Pip peeped around rooftops. He folded himself into a woolly sheep. He hid behind a taller cloud and came out with a fluffy hat.

Even the baker waved a floury hand.

Tess went home for lunch. Pip heard a wonderful sound.

More laughter.

He decided that bigger surprises must mean bigger games.

First he stretched across Mrs. Bell’s washing line. His shadow covered her clean sheets.

“Rain!” she cried, scooping them into a basket.

Pip popped out beside the sun.

“Peek-a-boo!”

“Oh!” Mrs. Bell spread the sheets out again.

Pip hid the sun once more.

Mrs. Bell grabbed the basket.

By the fourth surprise, she was wearing a pillowcase like a hat.

Next, Pip made himself a cloud curtain over the baker’s outdoor tables.

“Time to bring in the buns!” called the baker, seeing the sudden shade.

Pip whisked away.

“Time to take out the buns!”

In. Out. In again.

A sticky bun ended up in the baker’s apron pocket.

Pip giggled. Surely this was a splendid game.

Then he bounced behind the little hill and rose up shaped like an enormous goose.

Mr. Moss hurried to collect his cabbages.

“No nibbling!” he shouted.

The goose sneezed itself into a rabbit.

By the time Tess returned, Reading Lane looked very strange.

Mrs. Bell had tied her sheets into a bundle. The baker was counting buns on his fingers. Mr. Moss stood over his cabbages with an open umbrella.

“Pip,” Tess called, “could you come down a little?”

Pip popped out behind a roof.

“PEEK-A-BOO!”

Nobody laughed.

Pip’s fluffy edges sagged.

“I can do an elephant,” he offered quietly.

“We need to finish our work,” said the baker. “We can’t keep guessing what happens next.”

Pip shrank until his moustache disappeared.

Tess remembered him looking toward the big clouds.

“Are you waiting for us to surprise you back?” she asked.

Pip nodded.

“I kept hiding. But nobody came to find me.”

One small drop landed on Tess’s nose.

She sat on a low garden wall.

“When you hid the sunshine, people thought they had jobs to do. They didn’t know they were playing.”

“Oh,” said Pip.

Tess knew that lonely playground feeling.

“We need a game everyone can join,” she said.

Tess fetched her yellow scarf and asked the neighbours for five minutes after their work was done.

“I’ll wave this when we’re ready,” she told Pip. “Until then, keep the sunshine clear.”

Pip hovered hopefully beside a chimney.

“Can I practise my elephant?”

“Over the hill. Quietly.”

A small trunk curled into view.

Tess smiled. “That’s a very good trunk.”

She helped Mrs. Bell hang the last sheet, carried the baker’s tray, and rescued a cabbage from under Mr. Moss’s umbrella.

At last, she waved the scarf.

The neighbours gathered beside Tess’s garden wall.

“Pip hides,” Tess explained. “We close our eyes and count to ten. Then we find him. After that, it’s our turn.”

“Can clouds close their eyes?” asked Mr. Moss.

Pip squeezed his shut. His whole face disappeared.

“Apparently,” said the baker.

They counted. Pip tucked himself behind the tree.

Unfortunately, his curly top stuck out.

“I see a cloud haircut!” Tess called.

“Peek-a-boo!” cried Pip.

This time everyone laughed, and Pip knew exactly why.

Now Pip closed his eyes.

Tess led everyone behind Mrs. Bell’s hanging sheets.

“Ten!” said Pip.

He looked over the wall. He peered around the tree. He bent himself into a question mark.

“Where did everybody go?”

Tess almost giggled too soon.

A breeze lifted a sheet. She held its corner.

Then Pip drifted close enough.

Tess raised her hand. Everyone jumped out together.

“PEEK-A-BOO!”

Pip puffed into a startled ball.

“You found a surprise for ME!”

He laughed until his curl wobbled.

They played again. Pip became a teapot, but forgot to hide his spout. Mr. Moss hid behind the tree, but his umbrella poked out.

At last, the baker said, “One more round. My buns need me.”

Pip looked at Tess.

“Could it be a very big surprise?”

Tess considered the sheets, the cabbages, and the trays.

“Over the hill,” she said. “We’ll all face that way. And wait until we finish counting.”

Pip nodded carefully.

This time he waited for every number.

At ten, an enormous cloudy face rose above the hill.

It had Mr. Moss’s umbrella for a hat, Mrs. Bell’s pillowcase ears, and a curly moustache shaped like two sticky buns.

Everyone stared.

Then the baker snorted.

Mrs. Bell squeaked.

Mr. Moss laughed so hard his umbrella turned upside down.

Tess folded over the wall, giggling.

Pip’s face broke into soft, laughing puffs.

“Tomorrow?” he asked when he could speak.

“After the work,” Tess said.

“I’ll watch for the yellow scarf.”

The neighbours returned to their jobs, still chuckling.

Pip floated beside Tess as she carried the empty bread basket home.

“Was that my biggest surprise?” he asked.

“Nearly,” said Tess.

“What was bigger?”

She smiled up at him.

“Finding people who wanted to play.”

Pip turned a gentle pink in the evening light.

Above the garden wall, he made one tiny bread cabbage.

Tess giggled.

Then he let it melt away, leaving the sunshine exactly where it belonged.