The Flower-Crown Surprise

Avi stood beside the closed blue door with something hidden behind his back. Gul sat on the warm courtyard stones. His ears pointed straight up. His blue scarf was tied, his paws were ready, and his tail swept the ground like a little broom.

‘What do you suppose I have?’ Avi asked.

Gul sniffed his empty hand. Then he went round to inspect the other one. Avi turned too. They made one slow circle before Avi laughed and showed him the red ball. Gul bounced onto all four paws. At last!

Before they began, Avi looked along the courtyard. A watering can stood near the step. He moved it against the wall. Beside a flowerpot waited a basket of marigolds, with one finished loop of flowers lying on top.

‘Past the pot, but not into the flowers,’ he told Gul, pointing to the clear stones.

Gul followed the pointing finger, then looked back at the ball. He understood the important part: it was still in Avi’s hand. Avi crouched low. Gul lowered his nose until it was almost level with the red curve.

Avi gave the ball a gentle push. It rolled between two pale stones, and Gul trotted after it. This was going to be an excellent game.

Then the ball met a raised edge. A tiny bump was enough. Instead of continuing along the clear stones, it turned beside the flowerpot and slipped through a gap beneath the basket’s loose flowers.

Gul stopped so suddenly that his tail swung past him. Where was the red? He looked behind the pot. Nothing. He looked at Avi. Avi was already coming over, wearing a puzzled face of his own.

‘It can’t have gone far,’ Avi said. He knelt and checked beneath the step. Gul peered into the same space from the other end. Their noses nearly met. Still no ball.

Avi sat back on his heels. ‘What did we actually see?’

He traced the journey with one finger: straight along the stones, a bump, then a turn by the pot. Gul walked the little route beside his hand. At the basket, he stopped. One marigold petal lay on the ground, and behind the flowers came the faintest little rustle.

Gul sniffed one side of the basket. Flowers. He sniffed the other side. More flowers. Right in the middle, beneath all that warm, peppery smell, was the familiar smell of his ball.

His ears leaned forward. Avi held the basket steady so it would not tip.

‘Slowly,’ he said. ‘We’re finding a ball, not digging a tunnel.’

Gul slipped his nose beneath the marigolds. The flowers rose a little. Avi saw a flash of red, then lost it again. Gul wriggled his whiskers and tried a smaller, more careful nudge.

The ball rolled against Gul’s front paw. Found! He lifted his head, ready to show Avi. But the flower loop had caught lightly around his ears, and it came up with him.

Avi pressed his lips together. His shoulders shook.

Gul stood very still. Had he done the finding wrong? The ball was right there, beneath his nose.

Then Avi bowed so low that his hair fell over his eyes. ‘Your Majesty,’ he said. ‘May I welcome the King of the Courtyard?’

Gul lifted his chin. That sounded rather more like it.

For a moment, Gul made a splendid king. He stood with his chest out and his tail held proudly behind him. The red ball waited at his paws like a very round royal visitor.

Avi put one hand over his heart. ‘And what is your first command?’

Gul looked from Avi to the ball. His first command was obvious. More rolling, please. But Avi was still smiling at the flowers.

Then a loose petal slipped from the crown. It landed on one whisker, just beside Gul’s nose. His important expression began to wobble.

Gul’s nose twitched once. Twice. He squeezed his eyes shut.

‘Ah—ah—CHOO!’

The petal flew away. His crown slipped sideways over one ear, and Avi’s careful bow turned into helpless laughter. Gul blinked, surprised by his own noise. Then his tail began to wag.

‘Bless you, Your Majesty,’ Avi said, kneeling beside him. He lifted the loose crown clear of both ears. A few flowers had tumbled onto the stones, but the loop was still whole. Gul nudged Avi’s wrist with his nose. Being an ordinary fox again felt much more comfortable.

Before another roll, there was a small job to do. Avi gathered the fallen flowers and put the loop back on top of the basket. Gul watched each moving hand. When one marigold hid behind his paw, he lifted the paw so Avi could reach it.

‘A very helpful king,’ Avi said.

He moved the basket farther from their playing space. This time the flowerpot would not steer the ball towards it. Gul sat beside the red ball and waited. Now he knew waiting sometimes meant a game was being made ready, not forgotten.

Avi held out the rescued ball. Gul lowered his front paws, left his tail in the air, and gave the smallest impatient hop.

‘Ready?’ Avi asked again.

This time he rolled towards the open middle of the courtyard. Gul followed, stopped the ball with a gentle nose, and brought it back across the warm stones. No flowers. No crown. No mysterious disappearance.

Avi sat down beside the blue door. Gul dropped the ball in front of his knees and waited, bright-eyed. One royal adventure was enough. There was still plenty of afternoon for a plain old game. The end.