Red Hat Adventures

ANASTASIYA ALYOSHICHEVA

T

ncredib I e h le nture e v d s A of

Red Hat and Her

ANASTASIYA ALYOSHICHEVA

r c edible n I e h T ntures e v d A of

Red Hat and Her Friends Illustrated by Maxim Dolinnyi

Kharkiv

2016

How nice it is to be a hat! A warm wool hat with a big red pom-pom… Thanks to this pom-pom, to be honest, I’m the favorite of kids all around town. They come to visit my little girl, Nancy, just to touch my pom-pom. I love it — so much attention… If Nancy likes it or not, I don’t know, because she’s a rather quiet girl, and she doesn’t like to talk to strangers too much. But I love guests! Usually, all the hats gather in the entryway, on the closet shelf, and that’s when the stories begin…

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Not long ago, my friend En, Natalie’s hat, was telling us about how she was taken on vacation to a skiing resort. En was very happy with everything, the conditions were great, but one day she was left alone on a bench near the lift. Poor girl completely froze, and her already quiet voice nearly disappeared. En tried to call for help, but everyone just walked right by her, casting a pitying look her way, shrugging their shoulders. Covered in snow, she lay on the freezing bench and longingly thought of her lovely dresser back home, who had just confessed his love to her‌ The forgotten hat completely fell into despair, when she suddenly heard:

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«There it is!»

It was Natalie.

«I’m so happy that I found my hat, and I won’t have to buy a new one!»

En was carried somewhere warm, heated up and laid down to rest. Seems like everything ended well, but En harbored a disdain for her owner, and didn’t warm her head like she used to. She didn’t like that Natalie could just get a new hat and forget about her.

«You think that’s bad?» shrugged her off the furry headphones, «Lying on a bench for a couple of hours! You just listen — we’re going on vacation this spring! They’re taking us to the beach!»

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«Brother, you don’t, by chance, remember what beach we were promised?» one headphone asked the other.

«Hawaii… or the Bahamas… who knows?» harrumphed the other headphone.

«The main thing is beautiful views and high temperatures.» All the present hats were listening to what the headphones were saying, holding our breaths.

And I won’t lie —it wasn’t because they were going to the beach. The headphones were wanted boys, and every hat secretly wished to marry one of them.

But the fuzzy brothers were inseparable, so no one had a chance to meet with them one-on-one.

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In the spring, rumors spread through town that the brothers did not like their beach trip. The thing is, that as soon as they got to their hotel, someone shoved them in a suitcase, and that’s where they spent the remainder of their trip, mad at the rest of the world, and fighting with each other‌ After the brothers returned, we, of course, tried to get the details, but the headphones were strangely quiet.

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After that, we make fun of them sometimes, but not too much, because we still love them.

Overall, we, hats, are very friendly. Only once did we get into a huge fight, because a certain mademoiselle Kiko, a hat made from mink, joined us. Elin and Emma were the first to dislike her, because they protect animal rights. They scolded Kiko, and tried to grab onto her hair, which earned them a scolding from their owners, the Pigletty twins. After their scolding, the hats were put on a different shelf than the rest of us, so we had to write them notes. To pass them, we all had to stand on tippy-toes and climb on top of each other.

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But we liked the girls, and we couldn’t stop talking to them. It was Elin and Emma, who defended Bars after he tore up some of us… Oh, how much crying we had then.

Well, anyhow, that’s not what we’re talking about now.

Kiko… Overall, I can’t really say anything bad about her, but because of her upbringing, the mademoiselle acted posh and snobby. How could it be any different, if so many innocent minks had been killed for her? Kiko, unlike the rest of us, had her own room, and she often talked about how nice it was to have some alone time in the evenings. She read a lot and even wrote poems: Oh, I’m a fancy hat You’ll love me just like that And in the winter months — I know I’ll keep you safe from ice and snow.

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After a while, when we had all gotten used to her, and even looked forward to the days when she would show up at our meetings, the mademoiselle moved. When she left, we all waved our pom-poms (not everyone has them, by the way, only the chosen ones), earflaps… The mittens jumped up and down, and the scarves rolled themselves up… Only the headphones stayed quiet. But when the taxi containing charming Kiko had driven away, I saw tears in their eyes.

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‘‘Just between us, they both fell in love with Kiko, can you believe it?» En whispered in my ear «They even tried to disconnect, but they just tore the stitches, and they had to secretly run to the shop to get them fixed.»

«Wow…that’s… just wow,» I said, shaking my pom-pom. I always do that when I’m surprised. Later, of course, the surprise wore off, but the pom-pom just kept moving. Nancy even wanted to stitch it tighter, but I stopped my pom-pom just in time.

Who ever heard of stitching on a living hat?

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Oh, you know what I just remembered? I just remembered what fun we had a little while ago…

Last week, we all got to go out of town. There was a real pond, it smelled like grilled meat, we could feel the fresh air blowing around, and, most importantly, we had full freedom to do whatever we wanted. Our owners left us in a clearing, and then went to… Well, I don’t know what they were doing, honestly — does that matter? At first, we played tag, but no matter how many times we played, the earflap hat always won. Her long ears allowed her to run faster than any of us, and no matter how we tried; we could never catch up to her.

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Then the youngest hats — the bandana, baseball cap and beret — suggested that we play hide-and-go- seek.

I found a great hiding place — in the hole of a fat tree (I think humans call it a chestnut). I sat there for about thirty minutes, and was already preparing to go home a champion, when suddenly I heard: «Hey pom-pom, come out! We knew where you were from the very beginning!» yelled the hats together, laughing. The bandana was laughing the hardest — it’s hard to spot her not just in a tree, but anywhere.

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For a long time, I thought about why this happened. And then I realized — it’s all the stupid pom-pom. And as soon as I thought that, I decided that there was only one solution — getting rid of it. I started furiously shaking my head, hoping that it would fall off. But it refused to give up!

Then I asked the other hats to rip it off. They pulled and pulled, and it really hurt, but the pom-pom stayed put.

Then I found another way out — jumped in a puddle, the dirtiest puddle I could find. I thought that if the pom-pom was dirty, then it would be harder to see it.

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When Nancy saw me like this, she blanched. «I’m so careless!» she shouted, not realizing that it wasn’t her fault. I didn’t go home on her head, as usual, but in a weird plastic baggy.

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I was quite tight, but Nancy was steadfast. I realized, that she didn’t want to mess up her white gloves.

When we came home, Nancy grabbed me and brought to the bathroom... I had never been there before, so I was very surprised to see a huge number of jars on the shelf. It seemed like a beauty salon.

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I was already imagining opening up my own hat salon, when suddenly… what is this? What’s happening? My owner threw me in a tub with something very fragrant. There were lots of soap bubbles which kept getting in my eyes and mouth.

«Achoo! Achoo! Ah-choo!»

I sneezed, but Nancy didn’t pay any attention to me. She scrubbed me with soap and wrung me out with all her strength.

This torture seemed to last forever, and then Nancy carried me to the kitchen.

There, I could smell many unfamiliar scents — I think they were coming from big round things. Humans call them pots or pans or something.

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But the scariest thing was that I came face to face with the cat — Bars. And for me… well, there’s probably nothing scarier in this world than Bars looking at me. For a while now, the cat has been the main subject of my nightmares and worries (well if you don’t count the loud dogs by my window and the fear that I’ll be forgotten on a cold park bench like En).

When that horrible creature sees me, he always wants to knock me off my shelf with his paws. His paws have sharp claws, and dealing with him is nearly impossible. One time, Bars promised not to touch me if I introduced him to the other hats and brought him to our meeting. I agreed, even though I knew it was risky…

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When it was time, I called out to Bars from the shelf, and he listened, jumping up onto the shelf. But he didn’t jump far enough — got stuck and hung that way, until Nancy found the poor thing. Bars was very embarrassed about his failed jump, plus his owner scolded him for trying to go where he wasn’t supposed to. Since then, Bars considers it his job to throw me onto the floor every time he sees me.

Anyways, back in the kitchen, my angry owner put me on the table and left the room for a couple minutes. Bars looked at me, smirking, and already picked up his paw to strike me down onto the floor, when Nancy came back into the room holding some weird thing. She put the prongs of this weird thing into the socket and pressed the button. The object immediately whirred and started breathing hot air on me.

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It felt good, so good, that with that warmth and cleanness, I fell asleep right on the kitchen table. And nothing scared me anymore — not Bars, not another soapy bath, nor the freezing cold.

But I woke up in completely new surroundings. The walls weren’t pink, they were baby blue, the crystal chandelier turned into a regular old lamp, and the shelf itself became a lot narrower.

I looked around and saw so many things around me. There was gum, hair clips and many more objects that lived here…

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«Hey, hat! Welcome!» said a hair clip with cute yellow flowers. «Did you know that after washing you shrunk, and now you’re coming to live with us?»

«Me? That can’t be right!» I exclaimed, swinging my pom-pom in panic.

«Yes-yes! Now you get to live the most stylish girl on this street! When you shrunk, your owner — what’s her name? Nancy? — brought you here and gave you to Elika. You won’t even believe how much she was crying, but what can you do? It seems like she washed you herself!»

«Really? She really cried?»

«Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah. I saw it myself!» chattered the hairpin.

And I decided to act…

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…«Mom! Mom! My hat! She’s laying on the shelf again, can you believe it?» excitedly shouted Nancy, peering into the closet and seeing me in my usual spot.

«Are you sure you gave her to Eli?» asked her mom with disbelief.

«Probably not… I guess I forgot… Well, it’s okay, she can stay. I’ll look at her and remember all the great adventures we once had. Plus, she still has her beautiful pom-pom,» said Nancy and patted me on the head.

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I smiled. If only she knew what I went through last night to come back home. Instead, now I was a celebrity amongst hats that marveled at my bravery and love for my owner and home.

And even Bars nicely fixes my pom-pom when it slides off the shelf. I pretend that I’m sleeping, and then in the mornings I secretly pour his favorite milk in his kitty bowl…

Oh, how great it is to be a hat!

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Aquarelle Picture books Series A collection of deeply touching emotional stories with high quality original illustrations for little children is a lovely gift. These books will keep kids fascinated with a wonderful world throughout the reading.

A joy to read aloud and share.

ISBN 978-617-690-700-8