Little Red Boat

Little Anna had a boat.
And this was her boat.
It was a dinghy.
A little boat.
Little and red.
With a seat in the middle.
And her boat was called Sinky.

Which was a good name. Because it sank a lot. That's what it did.

Put on the water, Sinky would sit, for a while, held by the thin nylon string connected to the little pink hand, and then, after thinking a little, would sink.
And be pulled, happily, around the boating lake, making a noise like this;
chhhhhhhhhh-rchhhchchchch -kkkkkkkkkkchchchchchhrrrrrrrch
as she crunched along the gravel toward the edge of the pond.

And damn I loved that boat.
I wouldn't accept another boat but Sinky.

No matter how often it sank, no matter how predictably, I refused to stop putting my little red boat out on the water.

Float or not, she was mine. And I loved her. And the putting her on the water was the fun of it.

And that was enough.


by Anna Pickard
From www.littleredboat.co.uk