‘I see you.’

Rose had been late. The station was closing when her train pulled in. Shadows were drawing across the mall, and Rose took the main road home instead.

Which brought her over the river. To see eight purple thorned Tombernunckles trickling their way out from underneath the bridge. They shook with nervous excitement as she approached.

‘I see you’, she said.

  • It was two decades since Rose last saw the Octophant. 
  • They used to be friends. 
  • And always played together.

The Octophant slombened its wobbly ompterior out from under the bridge and slonked next to Rose

‘How did you find me?’

‘I saw your Tombernunckles, some things never change.’

Hide and seek was their favourite game. They played for hours. The Octophant would never get bored.

‘You were ages, I was beginning to think you’d forgotten about me.’

‘I had’, admitted Rose.

She had. There had been no time left for games after her mother died. The Octophant was left to hide alone, and play the long game.

‘Your mother misses you.’

‘I know.’

Rose stared at the Octophant, night had fallen and the streetlights threw a misty glow across its hedular plumage.

‘Tell her I miss her too. That I’m doing well. I’ve met someone, he’s kind.’

‘I will.’

The Octophant grinned, sIx lombed stonds descended from its frontular gromk.

‘Tell dad I miss him.’

‘I will -wanna play another game?’

Rose nodded, ‘this time I’ll hide.’

The Octophant gathered its eyes, and secreted them behind the lombed stonds.

‘One…’, it said.

Rose jogged to the council car park. She picked a hiding spot. It wasn’t a good one.

Rose smiled as she stepped back under some branches, her shape only partly hidden from a bright streetlight.

The Octophant had never been good at hide and seek.