For children: One rainy day, Latisha refuses to see anyone, not even her best friend Rekha. Why?

New day, new rain holiday.

It rained all night, like squirrels were dancing to drumbeats on the windows, and in the morning, our road had a thin layer of water on it, the tree was still blocking up the road, and the cobbler and the tea shops had huge blue plastic roofs over them. Now there’s a bird-screeching and rain-windy sound all over, the background noise of the rain.

I have to meet Latisha today. We need to follow our usual tradition: we sit inside and watch the rain and draw Mighty and sometimes we pretend we are crime fighters (nothing violent, we are experimenting with pacifism) and we usually eat popcorn or Maggi cakes (you make Maggi, put it in the fridge, then cut it up into little pieces) and hot chocolate. We look at the sea (sometimes it looks blue, mostly it looks grey and dark) from the huge windows in her room. Sometimes we act out scenes with Mighty, like Mighty in a hospital (he doesn’t fit in most ambulances) or Mighty getting a passport (it’s tough for him because he doesn’t have parents). Time passes so fast when we get into our zone. Now, it clunks around and...

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