Parade

[Sweetcherrie]

The parade was slowly progressing, and Fred was already wondering when the horses would finally come. He’d been waiting all morning with his dad. They’d seen clowns and acrobats, but all he wanted to see were the horses. The sun was burning hot on their heads, and it had been a good idea of his mom to get them caps for today.

 

“Or your brains will boil.” She’d said.

 

Fred had only laughed about this, but by now he actually started believing that she’d been right, his brains would certainly have boiled by now. Especially because he no longer had hair to filter out some of the sun’s heat. The operation had only been partly successful, but at least he now had this really cool scar to show to his friends at the centre. He’d celebrated his 28th birthday last Saturday, and as a gift his dad had promised to take him to the parade. His dad had arranged that they would watch from of the river, afraid that his son would cause trouble in the crowd. The boat was still lying very close to the shore, but this way they would have their privacy, and Fred would still be able to see everything.

 

The horses came in view, Fred adjusted his brand-new binoculars, another gift for his birthday, and he started bouncing excitedly and made the boat rock. The first horses were all black and their riders carried the flags that showed the colours of the city. After the black horses came a group of white horses, and Fred bounced even harder; he loved white horses and always dreamed of finding his princess on one of them. He sighed and leaned over the railing, the binoculars pressed against his eyes.

 

“Fred, don’t get too close to_”

 

With a loud splash Fred plunged into the water, and started yelping. Undecidedly his dad walks past the railing the ship was about 4 meters high; how would he ever get back on board when he dived after his son. Fred started sinking and he started to panic, when a lady from the shore saw what was happening. She threw down her bag on the floor and jumped into the water. Fred clung to the woman, and she swam him to the side where there were some stone steps to get out of the water. Fred’s father had started moving the boat closer to the shore, and jumped off the boat at about the same time the lady pulled Fred up the steps.

 

“Thank you so much lady, I…I didn’t know what to do.”

 

“No worries I work in such a centre, I’d say?”

 

She pointed to Fred.

 

“Fred.”

 

“Fred here, is mentally about 10, no?”

 

The adults kept talking, but Fred had wormed himself away. He was watching his horses, water still dripping from his clothes, and concluded that at least his brains wouldn't boil anymore.