Ndleleni

Likita’s Pink Hat changed her life. Likita was not the kind of girl who had pink hats, or any clothes that were pink at all.

Likita’s clothes were all brown. Her mom said they wouldn’t look dirty because they were brown.

So she had a brown school dress, brown shoes, brown socks, brown dungarees and shorts and t-shirts, and a special brown dress for Sundays. She also had a small brown backpack.

When Likita saw all the other children in their colourful clothes, she wanted to cry.

One day, on the way home from school, she saw something shiny in the corner of her eye. Next to the scrapyard fence, under a big drum, was a pink winking glinting thing.

She looked around. There was no-one in the scrapyard, and no-one close by on the street.

She reached under the fence and grabbed the pink thing in her fingers. It was fabric covered with sequins. Maybe a jacket or a toy. But it wouldn’t budge.

So Likita looked around again, and looked at her brown school dress, and lay down flat on the ground so she could push her arm all the way through the fence. She got her hand under the drum, and took as much of the shiny pink stuff as her hand could grab. She pulled, it wouldn’t budge. She pulled again, it still wouldn’t budge. She closed her eyes, and wished with all her might to have the shiny pink thing, and then she pulled again. It started to move! The drum was heavy and it hurt her hand but she pulled and pulled until…

It came out!

A pink, shiny HAT.

Likita had never seen anything so cool in her life.