Small Wonders · complete story

The Yellow Footprints

Tedray · Teamwork & curiosity

Ceres’s gathering workshop smelled of warm wood and lemon biscuits. Families were making paper suns for a celebration. Yellow lanterns usually shone above the tables. Today, ordinary ceiling lights did the job.

At the door, a big sun shape and the words GATHERING ROOM still pointed the way. A worker waved them inside.

Ivo stopped so suddenly that his little feet squeaked.

Across the cream floor ran a trail of yellow marks.

“I have left my feet everywhere,” he said.

Pip knelt to look without touching. Each mark had little points around its edge. They crossed the room, curved past a table and vanished behind a cupboard.

Ivo unfolded a small cleaning pad. “Emergency tidiness commencing.”

“Wait,” Noor said gently. “Let’s compare before we clean.”

“People will think I made a mess.”

Dandy sat on a bench beside him. His dark mane fell straight along the back of his ivory coat. “A mark is a clue, Ivo. We have not learned whose clue it is.”

Zuri drew one yellow mark. Pip counted its points.

“One, two, three, four, five, six…” He paused. “Seven!”

Ivo lifted a foot, then another. “I stop at six.”

Noor laid a clean sheet of paper down. Ivo stepped on it. His six small footprints made two neat rows. The yellow floor mark was one wheel with seven spokes.

“Different shapes,” said Zuri. “Different trail.”

Ivo folded his cleaning pad away. “I have been cleared by mathematics.”

They followed the marks with a workshop worker. Behind the cupboard sat an old transfer trolley. It had a rounded handle and wheels stamped with seven spokes. A little yellow chalk had caught in one wheel.

“That makes the prints!” Pip said.

The worker, Sana, checked the trolley’s record. “It moved decorative lantern boxes this morning. We stopped using this old trolley last year. Someone’s transfer program has sent it out again.”

Noor checked the workshop lantern connection. It led toward the same storage route as the red, blue and orange lights.

“Can we send the right address again?” asked Zuri.

“We can,” said Noor. “And Sana will record that this trolley needs a proper check.”

The children drew a sun and the workshop’s name. While the adults restored the light’s return path, they made paper suns with the families.

Pip’s sun had a moustache. Zuri’s had tiny boots. Ivo’s had exactly six feet.

Yellow lanterns brightened above them. The workshop gave a happy cheer.

“Now may I clean?” Ivo asked.

“We have recorded the trail,” said Sana. “Yes, thank you.”

Ivo polished the floor until it looked like butter. Then Pip spotted something tucked beneath the trolley’s seat.

It was a purple umbrella, tied with ribbon bearing the unknown flower stamp.

“Why does a trolley need an umbrella indoors?” Zuri wondered.

Mira loosened the ribbon. A little paper tag swung free.

It read: FOR THE PARADE THAT MUST GO ON.