The windows were wide open. It was pouring outside; it had been pouring for two days. By now the faded and stained yellow carpet had become so soaked that it could not contain any more water. Small puddles formed in the deep grooves of the floor.

Jamie wasn’t very happy with the state of his room. He was very lucky that the climate was warm. Otherwise he’d have put an end to this madness before the rain even started.

“So I think that we’ll just wait a few more days. They say it’s going to rain all week, you know.”

Jamie half-listened to his blonde friend ramble on, drawing out the plan for their new adventure.

Their new adventure had been going on since the downpour, but it hadn’t had a plan until now.

“And I think when the rain stops the entire house will be flooded, or just the first floor. At least this room will become our ocean!”

The plan consisted of three steps, each one fragilely formulated. It went something like this:

Step One: Flood the entire house, or at the very least, Jamie’s room.

Step Two: Convert all couches, tables and beds into ships. Preferably pirate ships.

Step Three: Pillage the cushions and blankets from all ships and conquer the ocean.

Kari’s plan wasn’t up to par with masterminds who invented such great inventions as the light bulb, but with a little bit of imagination it was foolproof. All Jamie had to remember was that he was a pirate, and that a cushion could certainly substitute for booty.

“I can feel it now! The roaring waves! The howling of the wind! The clockwork crocodiles!”

Jamie began to rub his chin at this statement. Kari’s creativity was one thing, her ideas another. Now he had to decipher what she was saying.

“Clockwork crocodiles?” he finally asked.

The girl had been positioned at the window, receiving the rain full blast. She was almost as drenched as the floor, but there wasn’t anything that could damper Kari’s mood.

Except for Jamie.

Kari spun around, giving a one-eyed glare towards her friend. Normally it would have been a two-eyed glare, but an eye patch covered her left eye. It had been involved in Kari’s previous Halloween costume.

She shook a coat hanger at Jamie angrily, holding the plastic wires in one hand, allowing the hook of the hanger to jut out between her index and middle finger. She couldn’t have pulled off being a pirate without a hooked hand.

“Clockwork crocodiles? You’re asking me what a clockwork crocodile is? Pay attention to literature, damn it! Brush up your Shakespeare!”

The green-eyed boy stared at her blankly, arms crossed, waiting for an answer.

Kari hesitated. She racked her brain for the right words, and quickly resumed her rant.

“Peter Pan! The crocodile! The Captain! It was all ‘tick tock, tick tock’! But Hook turned his back, and itatehim!”

There was silence on Jamie’s behalf.

“Well?” the blonde asked hopefully.

Jamie cleared his throat professionally. He stood up upon his bed, moving his hands to a proud position upon his hips. “I think,” he said slowly, eyes wandering towards the open window, “that we shall get ready to set sail.”

Kari grinned ear to ear. She sprung up to her friend’s side, pointing towards his bedroom door. “A vast ye scallywags! It be to thar stairs, and off to yonder living room!”

At this point in time, half an inch of water stretched across the carpeting of Jamie’s room. It did not get very far, however, because the rest of the carpeting absorbed each drop of water that trickled over dry floor. If Jamie’s room had been quite a bit smaller, or if the rain had been more intense, the makeshift ocean would have been more than a dismal puddle.

None of this really matters. A few seconds after that point in time, the rain stopped.

It took several minutes for this to process through Kari’s head. Jamie understood it in an instant.

“Well, that certainly was entertaining,” he said.

Kari shrieked. “Egads! The captain is drowning! Lower thar anchors ye scurvy sea dogs!”

Jamie rolled his eyes.

“Captain! Captain! Hold on! We shall get ye from these murky depths! No clockwork crocs shall eat ye! Just a moment and…” Kari paused, and then continued without an ounce of energy in her voice, “It stopped raining, hasn’t it?”

Jamie nodded.

Kari hopped down to the soaked floor, tossing her coat hanger aside. “I figured we were going to far. Come on, let’s watch a movie.”

“Sounds good. I think I could use a good western.”

“A western, ‘eh?” Kari smiled, ripping off the eye patch, “You know what? I think I was a cowgirl for Halloween once…”