Crabby goes to Buckingham Palace
London was hot and sticky. It's way too hot to be outside, thought Crabby, peering out from Sofia's ponytail as she joined the crowd gathering outside Buckingham Palace's tall black gates. Sofia was buzzing with excitement, pointing up at the gold tipped railings, the red brick facade, and the flag snapping in the wind. But Crabby only had eyes for one thing: the guards. Enormous men in bright red coats and towering black furry hats, standing so still they barely seemed to be breathing.
Impressive, Crabby thought, sizing them up from his hiding spot. But I can be stiller. Watch this! This, of course, was a terrible idea, but Crabby did it anyway. While Sofia was busy taking photos, Crabby slipped down from the ponytail, scuttled across the pavement and positioned himself directly behind the nearest guard's polished black boot, holding himself as rigid as a statue.
The guard, trained to ignore pigeons, tourists and the occasional dropped ice-cream, fortunately did not glance down at the small red crab. Crabby held his position proudly for almost thirty whole seconds, before a gust of wind sent a chip packet tumbling past. Instinct took over and he lunged for it. The chip packet, as it turned out, was still half full, and exploded in a small salty shower directly onto the guard's boot. The guard's eye twitched. Just once.
Time to retreat, Crabby decided, and bolted back across the pavement, dodging a pigeon, a pram wheel, and Sofia's foot, before diving back into the ponytail. Sofia asked if they could see inside the palace, but they couldn't on that day. They could, however, walk to the edge of the gardens, and Sofia pressed her face to the railings to peer at the palace windows, wondering if the king was home.
Later, in the gift shop, disaster nearly struck again. A display of small toy corgis, the Queen's famous dogs, sat in a great pyramid near the till. Crabby, catching sight of them from Sofia's shoulder, was convinced one of them had moved. I must investigate, he thought. He was one claw away from launching himself at the pyramid when Sofia reached up to adjust her ponytail. Crabby had to freeze completely still, clinging on for dear life, while the corgis remained exactly as they'd always been. Just toys. Not moving at all. “Fine”, he grumbled silently. I'll stay put in Sofia's ponytail, thinking that another adventure could end in disaster.
By the time they left the palace behind, Sofia was full of stories to tell about the guards, the gold gates, the gardens, and had no idea that her ponytail had its own small collection of adventures to match, salty chip crumbs and all.
The End