“I feel so special,” said Leah.

“You should, you are our special guest.” Amanda gave her friend’s arm a squeeze. “I’m so glad you came for a visit. We’ll have so much fun.”

Just then a loud BOOM sounded the start of the parade. Amanda and Leah sat spellbound as marching bands in smart uniforms, fancy baton twirlers, cowboys and cowgirls wearing colourful sequinned shirts riding on decorated horses, funny floats and First Nations people wearing traditional feather headdresses passed by.

A clown stopped in front of the girls to hand out candies. He wasn’t laughing though. In fact, Amanda thought he looked quite sad. His eyes glanced into the crowd as if searching for someone. He hitched up his baggy pants and an object fell on the ground.

Suddenly, the clown turned around and ran down the street in his oversized shoes. The children laughed as he almost tripped over his feet.

Amanda shouted after him, “Hey, you dropped something.” But he was too far away to hear.

She picked up the stone object, put it in her pocket and continued to watch the parade as a bagpipe band came by.

“I can’t believe you have bagpipes over here too. My dad would be impressed. He loves them and used to play in a pipe band,” said Leah.

“I love them too,” said Amanda. “When they play Amazing Grace, I always cry.”

“Oh, you definitely would have cried when you heard my dad play. He was awful.”

Both girls giggled.

A beaming stampede princess wearing a tiara waved at them from her snow white horse.

O O O

Amanda remembered the stone later that night before she went to bed. She took the smooth flat rock out of her jeans pocket and rolled it over in her hand. It was a dark grey colour, about the size of a loonie. She noticed a faint mark on the stone in the shape of a V.

“I wonder what that means,” she mumbled.

She placed the rock on her book shelf and crawled into bed beside a jet-lagged Leah already asleep. Happy that her BFF was there with her, she soon fell asleep too.