• ‘I want to tell you a story. No, this of mine is not a fairytale... no dragons, no knights in shining armor. This is a simple story about a simple, little girl. A simple little girl... and her magic umbrella.’

    Annie was a sweet little child who always helped around the house in any way she could, and was loved very much by her father. Unfortunately, her father had often to work long hours in order to give her the kind of life he wished for her to have, and so she never really saw much of him at home. She went to school like every other boy and girl that lived in her small neighborhood and was indeed happy with her life at the moment, so much that she used to think that nothing could possibly make it any better.
    That was the case, until she found a certain object in a most unexpected place.
    It all happened during a rainy and gloomy day, when everyone was gladly in their cozy houses having a wonderful time with their families. Annie was, like often happened, left to stare out the window of an almost deserted home while her father was at work as always.
    She dearly loved rain and she always enjoyed going out and hopping into puddles whenever she could; but she couldn't do such a thing when she was left alone in the house. Who would have looked after it? She didn't want to worry her father, moreover.
    She sighed a few times,deciding that she might as well do something while waiting for her dad to come back. So, leaving her lone seat by the window, she slowly headed over to a closet next to the front door where some of her toys lay.
    Before she could close the distance to it, though, a dull thud resounded from underneath the stairs nearby. She slightly jumped and got remembered that she was all alone; she somehow shook off the thought and leaned against the wall under the staircase, trying to find the source of that creepy noise.
    The wall on which she was leaning slid forward and she let out a little shriek, a mixture of fear and surprise, falling into a rather small, cramped space; where had she ended up? She had never known about the place at all.
    She got to her knees, brushing dust from her clothes and warily looked around: no need to describe how dusty the minuscule space was! But more than that, there was something innocently resting on the further back wall.
    She looked at the object for a minute or so, doubtful, before suddenly reaching out her arm and grabbing the object tightly.She then made her way out of the tiny room, crawling behind and the wall that had slid forward, making her discover that secret angle, closed itself back with a gentle wooden sound.
    Annie got to her feet, already examining the long and rather filthy item within her hands. Aging dust had collected just enough to cover the color, but still it was so strong that she could guess which colour it had used to be.
    Brushing the dust off of it distractedly, she was surrounded by its particles suddenly filling the air around her, as a grey cloud. As soon as it all settled down, she took another closer look at the thing, only to realize that it was a common-looking umbrella, of a light green shade that seemed to have somewhat suffered from sitting too long inside a tight, closed space.
    She opened the umbrella slowly, fearing it might broke apart, or that it already was. As soon as the hook near the top of it clicked, two streams of light flowed from its inside and started to wrap themselves softly around Annie, who was bewildered and couldn't utter a word. She kept staring at them wide-eyed while they changed her simple outfit in a brand-new ruby raincoat and boots and couldn't help but smile in the end.
    The front door of the house, as if responding a signal, swung open and the umbrella pulled Annie out and into the sky with a firm pull. Annie, yes, was a little scared, but not because the umbrella was flying; rather, because it was bringing her up so high! But even so, she just couldn't close her eyes: the landscape under her was simply too much beauty to not stare at it.
    The wind was rough and fierce, but the umbrella didn’t seem to have any trouble flying through it, to Annie's relief. Soon, as Annie noticed they were losing height, she also realised she knew exactly where the umbrella was taking her.
    City buildings started to appear below and she could hear the cars passing beneath her feet.
    The Umbrella started heading down more confidently towards the city's buildings and just as Annie was surrounded by them on both sides, the Umbrella started taking turns through the city blocks as if with a precise destination, until it landed onto the top of a building with a tall tower and a computer screen that continually showed advertisements of softwares and new technology.
    A man in his early mid-thirties walked up to Annie, with a rather puzzled smile. They looked at each other for a few moments.
    “Hey Ann, how have you been?” He asked in a somewhat pleasing tone, changing expression. Rubbing her head as he used to, he then spoke again.
    “How did you get on the top of the building?” He asked and Annie, promptly and innocently, pointed to the umbrella she had left against the nearest wall.
    “The umbrella, Mr. Davidson… It brought me here so I could see my dad.” She answered in a happy tone, nodding knowingly. Mr. Davidson opened his mouth to answer, but then shrugged and walked to an open door, motioning for her to follow. Annie grabbed the umbrella rapidly and walked inside with the man.
    Everyone inside the building was busily moving around, deep in paperwork and duties. Annie maybe saw one, or two people talking on their phones at their desks, but surely no one was goofing off. Mr. Davidson brought her into a rather undecorated room with three desks in it and had her sit at one of them.
    “This is your father's desk” He said as he handed her gently some paper and markers from inside one of the drawers “Why don't you sit here and draw while you wait for him? He'll be back in about ten minutes, I'm sure.”
    “Okay, thank you Mr. Davidson!” She said as he left the room after making sure she remained there. Annie sat there for a few moments, staring impatiently at the door. Swinging her legs back and forth, she then looked at the Umbrella leaning against the desk right next to her father's. “Thank you, Mr. Umbrella!” she said happily to it, which started to jump lightly in a kind of circle around her, but stopped abruptly when another man walked into the room and then back out, too busy to notice she was there. Annie giggled at the Umbrella.
    She was spinning in the chair when someone stopped her.
    “Now how did you get here?” The Man stood above her with a surprised smile on his lips, his voice glad but with a reproachful hint in it.
    “Daddy!” Annie said joyfully, holding her arms up to be picked up, hugging her beloved dad.
    “No really, how did you get here?” He asked again as Annie pointed to the green umbrella which was now on the ground.
    “Okay, well, I'm done with work here, so why don't you and I go have something to eat... that way you can explain it all to me?” He asked as he put her down and grabbed his coat. Annie took hold of the Umbrella and made her way out the door hand in hand with her father, smiling. They went out of the building into the car and drove off into the traffic.
    Annie sat for the whole time holding tight the Umbrella, a broad grin on her lips.