Niko and the Very Small Parade

Niko made a parade from things in the kitchen. A saucepan became a drum. A wooden spoon became a drumstick. His father said the colander could be a helmet if it came home before supper.

He drew invitations for every house in the street. PARAYD, they said, because he had not yet learned where all the letters belonged. Under the word he drew seven flags and a dog.

At three o’clock he stood outside with his saucepan. Nobody came.

The postwoman waved but had parcels to deliver. Mr Chen was repairing a window. The twins next door were visiting their grandmother. Even the dog was asleep.

Niko tapped his drum once. It made a very small sound in the empty street.

Then Mrs Bell came out carrying a shopping bag.

“Am I late?” she asked.

“No,” Niko said. “You’re everybody.”

She looked at his flags. “Then we had better begin.”

They marched past three houses. Niko beat the saucepan and Mrs Bell waved a blue flag. At the corner she stopped to catch her breath.

“Parades can rest,” Niko told her. He did not know whether this was true, but it seemed fair.

They sat on the low wall. Mrs Bell explained that she had sold her house and would move on Monday. Her daughter lived in another town. She was looking forward to the visit, though she had known this street for a very long time.

“Then this can be your parade,” Niko said.

He asked what she wanted to see. She chose the tall tree outside the school, where her son had once lost a shoe. Then she chose the house with the crooked chimney, because she liked how it leaned without falling.

At each place Niko gave a special drumroll. Mrs Bell told a story. The parade took much longer than he had planned.

When they returned, Mr Chen had finished the window. He brought two little paper flags. The postwoman was on her way back to the depot and marched with them to Mrs Bell’s gate. The dog woke up and followed, interested in the shopping bag.

Niko’s father took a photograph before reclaiming the colander.

On Monday, Niko gave Mrs Bell the picture. On the back he had written VERY SMALL PARAYD, VERY BIG GOODBYE.

She packed it in her handbag, where the important things went.

The next week a postcard arrived. It showed a park in another town. Beneath the photograph Mrs Bell had written, There is an excellent wall here for resting. Niko began making another flag.