out of the blue

Today's weather was unpredictable. The sunny afternoon was interspersed with furious hailstorms and pelting rain. After one such outburst died down, I started walking into town with the vague hope of getting to a bookstore before the next one began. I made it, but as I walked into the bookstore I could see another front of dark clouds moving inexorably across the city.

I was at the bookstore to purchase Odd and the Frost Giants. Neil Gaiman wrote this book for World Book Day, an event designed to magically transform stuffy little television-watching U.K. children into voracious-and-enlightened readers. It only cost me a pound, which made me feel something of a thief. After all, I'm already voracious and somewhat enlightened, and I'm no longer a child in any sense but the deepest.

Clutching the book beneath my jacket, I made my way towards The Tea House. I failed to reach it before the leading edge of the storm dumped hail in waves on the streets around me. It was exhilarating and harmless — I was wearing my rain jacket, which holds down a second job as a hail barrier.

Although I failed to dodge the hail, I did manage to avoid the heavy rain that followed it. While the rain darkened the polished Elm Street cobblestones and washed the colors from the buildings, I was inside enjoying a pot of free-trade Assam tea and breaking into Odd and the Frost Giants.

It's a simple book but a good one, filled with matter-of-fact magic and fabulous adventure. Odd is a cheerful and unlucky boy possessing no small amount of charm. He travels with his companions (a fox, an eagle and a bear) to Asgard, hall of the Norse Gods, in order to win the city back from the Frost Giants. Luckily, he's a special boy.

I finished the book and my tea and happily made my way homeward. Gaiman stories and quick-change weather make for incredible sky vistas. They took my breath away.