The Umbrella We Shared
The Vignette Gazette Writer’s Prompt #258 — umbrella
The rain started just as Ella stepped off the bus, and she immediately regretted pretending she could make it home without an umbrella. She was already wondering how much dignity she could lose by running through the rain when a blue umbrella appeared above her head.
“Going somewhere?” a familiar voice asked.
She looked up and found Jack standing beside her, smiling as though he had been waiting there all along.
“You followed me?”
“I prefer the word rescued you.”
They walked together, arguing about whose fault it was that she had forgotten her umbrella again. At the next corner, they met Ella’s younger sister, who immediately stole the umbrella from them because she had forgotten hers too. She ran off laughing, leaving the two of them standing in the rain.
Jack looked at Ella, then at the disappearing umbrella.
“So,” he said, “I suppose we’re walking without it.”
Ella smiled. “Unless you have another one hidden somewhere.”
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“I do.”
He pulled a tiny folded umbrella from his bag.
She stared at him. “You carry two umbrellas?”
“I carry one for me,” he said, opening it above her head. “And one for the girl who always forgets hers.”
By the time they reached her house, the rain had stopped completely.
Ella looked at the umbrella, then at him.
“You know, you could have just told me you liked me.”
Jack smiled. “Where would be the fun in that?”
She laughed and took his hand.
Behind them, her sister was watching from the window, already planning how many times she could tease them about the umbrella.
