Puddles

Puddles
By Scott Wilson
Word Count:721

Timmy Henderson walked home from Lyndon State Primary School dressed in his thick yellow raincoat and heavy black gum boots. He was in grade seven now and scared, but excited about being allowed to walk home by himself. His mother said she would wait on the front porch for him to comfort him a little.

It was only a five minute brisk stroll from the front gate of school to his front yard, maybe three minutes if he ran. And at the enlightened age of twelve, Timmy knew enough about stranger danger to look after himself, or so he thought. Don’t talk to strangers, don’t hope in anyone’s car if you don’t know them, walk straight home – no dawdling.

The rain eased up at lunch time to a slow drizzle, but there were still enough puddles to jump in on the walk home. He tried to think about the puddles to forget about his fear of being grabbed by a stranger passing by in a car.

Timmy grabbed his army surplus backpack and ran down the stairs from his classroom.

“See ya later, alligator,” Alice said as he ran past her.

“In awhile, crocodile,” Timmy yelled back.

“Timmy!” Alice said.

Timmy stopped in his tracks, almost sliding over on the wet bitumen. He turned around and saw Alice smiling at him. She was Timmy’s girlfriend, although they’d been going together for two months they had not even kissed or even held hands yet.

“You’re so grown up now. Walking home by yourself,” she said. “Mum is still going to pick me up when we go to High School next year. Can you imagine how embarrassing that is going to be?”

“Do you think we could walk home together?” Timmy said.

“No, she says it’s too dangerous these days. Not like when she went to school.”
The rain began to come down heavy again and Alice stepped back under the cover of the walkway.

“See you tomorrow, Timmy.”

Timmy smiled at Alice and thought that he’d try and build up the courage to give her a kiss tomorrow before school.

“Yeh, see ya.”

Once Timmy was out of the Alice’s view, he jumped in a big puddle on the footpath. He splashed a mother walking with her son beside Timmy.

“Watch what you’re doing young man,” she said gruffly. “You shouldn’t be jumping in puddles, splashing people.”

“Sorry lady,” Timmy said. “I didn’t see you there.”

“Just watch yourself in future,” she said.

Timmy nodded and then ran off, trying to put some distance between the lady and him so he could jump in some more puddles. He was excited now, thinking about kissing Alice tomorrow. Jumping in puddles seemed like as good a way as any to express his new mood.

“Don’t you jump in any more puddles?” Timmy heard the woman yell from the background.

The rain poured down heavily, drowning out the woman’s voice. Timmy ran as quickly as he could to get a huge run up for the massive puddle covering the entire footpath ahead. He ran so fast that he almost felt like he was flying. A couple of meters from the puddle he leapt into the air and curled both knees up tight into his chest like he was dive bombing the puddle.

“Yahoo!” he yelled, landing right in the middle of the giant puddle.

Timmy expected there to be a big splash then slip and slide on the footpath. The big splash happened alright, but he kept sinking down. He did not feel his feet touch the ground at all. In a panic, he waved his arms around, trying to grab hold of something to stop himself from sinking but there was nothing in reach.

“Help!” he yelled.

By the time he was up to his chest the lady and her son had caught up to him. Timmy waved wildly at them as he sank to his neck. Just before he went right under, he thought the mother and her son’s face change in appearance from normal people to lizard like heads.

“I told you not to jump in puddles,” the lizard woman hissed at Timmy, just before they both dived in after him.