|
|
|
|
|
-
THE LOST SOCK
by Marguerite Pigeon
 "Where is my favourite red sock?" said Claire, looking through her dresser drawer one morning. "I can't find it anywhere! I want to wear it with my new blue jumper with the big red apple on it."
"Check the clothes dryer in the basement," said her grandmother. So that's what Claire did.
"Look, Minou!" said Claire, staring into the empty dryer with her cat. "It's not here. You might not understand, because you're a cat, but I love my red sock and I wish I had it to match the apple on my jumper. But it's lost!"
"Wait! Maybe somebody stole my sock," said Claire, kneeling down at the laundry room floor. "Ants could have crawled off with it. And if they did, I'll dig right down into the ground and get it back!"
"I really wish I knew where it was," said Claire, running up to her look out at her bedroom window. "If a bird had swooped in and snatched it away to build its nest, I'd climb right up the tree and replace it with a piece of red ribbon while the bird wasn't looking."
Claire picked up her telescope and pointed it to the sky. "If aliens had come to earth to abduct my sock, I'd fly to outer space and abduct it right back!"
"If a frog hopped away with my sock," said Claire, hopping downstairs and outside into Grandmaman's backyard, "I'd dance him 'round until he got dizzy and let it go!"
And holding her kitty, she twirled until she herself was dizzy. "I would, Minou. I'd do it!"
"If a snail snuck off with my sock to the bottom of the sea, I would swim down and get it back," she said, standing over Grandmaman's bird feeder.
"If a scary dragon had taken my sock to warm its creepy hide," said Claire, going into the house to make faces in the bathroom mirror. "I'd confront him and demand it back -showing him that it matches the apple on my jumper. Even a dragon could see that!"
"Why, if a witch had collected my sock to make a spooky concoction, I wouldn't be afraid!" she said, standing in the kitchen waving Grandmaman's soup ladle. "I'd sneak up and ask for some too!"
"If a monkey had swung away with my sock on its tail, I wouldn't think twice. I'd trek to the jungle and fish my sock back."
"I'm telling the truth. Even if some kind of weird sock-eating giant plant tried to devour my sock, I'd stop that green beast cold with my trusty stick!"
"But the scariest plant around here is Grandmaman's geranium," said Claire, sitting in the big rocking chair beside her grandmother's prized plant, "and I'm pretty sure you didn't eat my red sock."
"Let me think," said Claire, rocking back and forth in the chair. "Aliens and giant plants and monkeys might like a sock like mine, and I could definitely outsmart them all, but maybe someone a little closer to home took my sock. Hey… wait a minute! Here Minou! Here Minou!"
 But Minou didn't come, so Claire went down to his favourite hiding place in the basement.
"Ah-ha! I knew I'd find you somewhere," she said. "Oh! Minou! You're wearing my red sock! And my lost striped sock from last week too. And my lost blue sock from last month. And my flowered sock from last year! Minou! You're wearing all my lost socks! How could you?"
"Oh, don't cry, Minou," said Claire, bending down to pet her cat. "I guess you're just like me after all. You just wanted a complete set of socks on your paws! But what will we do? I really want my sock back, or else I won't be able to wear my blue jumper with the red apple on it."
"I know! There's a solution. Follow me to the living room, and watch those steps going up! They can be slippery in socks!"
"Grandmaman? Remember how you said you'd knit me new socks?"
"Yes, Claire," said Grandmaman, looking up from her book. "Any kind you want."
"I want you to knit me four different socks -one striped, one blue, one with flowers and one bright red one."
"Well… It's a strange request, Claire, but I did say you could have any kind you want!"
"See, Minou! We can both get the socks we want! And no more lost socks for either of us!"
"I'm sure glad I solved this mystery," thought Claire, sitting down on the couch with her cat and Grandmaman. "But I know I could have found my sock no matter what."
Illustrations by Tami Thirlwell
|
|
|
Chameleon:
UBC's Journal of Children's Literature
Mail: Chameleon C/O UBC Creative Writing
Buchanan Room E462, 1866 Main Mall Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1
Email: Helen Kuk --
helenkuk@hotmail.com
|
|
|
|
