1The rain came down in thin, straight lines, tapping the pavement like a hundred tiny fingers. Theo stepped off the front porch of number four, his small red umbrella popped open above his head. It was just wide enough to keep his shoulders dry and not one inch more.
2At the corner, Mrs. Papadopoulos stood pressing a newspaper flat against her hair. Her shopping bags sagged, heavy and dark with rain. Theo sidled close and tilted his umbrella so the dry edge hung over her silver curls. She laughed — a short, surprised sound — and tucked her newspaper under her arm.
3"Hold these a moment, would you?" she asked, and passed him two bags while she fished her keys from her coat pocket. Theo held them steady. His sleeve got wet. He didn't mind.
4A little further along, where the oak tree grew through the sidewalk, a boy named Darius stood stranded on one side of a wide, glassy puddle. It went right across the path, curb to curb, dark and deep. Theo stepped around it carefully, dragging one bag with him. "Don't go straight across," Theo called back to Darius. "Go by the lamppost — it's only shallow there."
5Darius hopped along the edge and landed safe on the dry strip of pavement. He grinned, shook the rain from his hood, and kept running.
6Mrs. Papadopoulos had reached her door at number eleven. She took back her bags, then pressed a small paper bag into Theo's hand — warm, smelling of cinnamon. "For walking with me," she said.
7Theo tucked the bag inside his jacket and went on. At the red postbox, Darius was holding the door of the flower shop open for a woman pushing a stroller. He caught Theo's eye and raised one hand, the way people do when they're saying I saw what you did back there.
8The rain thinned to a mist.
9Theo folded his umbrella just before his own gate, shaking it once so the drops flew in a bright arc across the hedge. His shoes were damp. One knee of his trousers had a splash of mud. The cinnamon bag was still warm against his ribs.
10Down the street, someone else had opened a bright yellow umbrella, and two people were already walking underneath it.
