Today I listened to a short story about Japanese river monsters called Kappa (“A Cup of Salt Tears” by Isabel Yap). Some Kappas are evil and try to pull little kids into the river if they stand near the edge, to drown them. Other are good and will rescue you if you are drowning. But you can protect yourself from the bad Kappas if you carve your name into a cucumber and throw it into a river.
I told the story to Elliot driving him home from school. Then we looked at pictures of the Kappa on Google Images. We went and bought a cucumber, carved his name, and tomorrow we’ll throw it into the little stream by the Garden Preschool parking lot.
UPDATE: Friday, November 11, 2022. Oh my god, Darek Shapiro found the cucumber in the stream the next day. He was clearing out brush and cattails from the grounds. He plucked it out of the stream and gave it back to Elliot in school! Rebecca picked Elliot up from school and she called me (FaceTime). Elliot held up the cucumber in a plastic bag and said, “The Donald Duck man found it!” Rebecca said Elliot wanted to throw it back into the steam and asked if it was ok? She had 3 or 4 kids with her. They probably all took part in this, without knowing anything about Kappa or whatever Elliot could relate to them… So FUNNY!
