The Powers of the Parka

By Ran Walker

The first time Gloria had become aware that her StarKat parka could shoot emoji pillows from her sleeves was when StarKat fired one of the projectiles at Jet. Gloria had not even introduced herself to him before StarKat picked up on her accelerated heart rate and fired heart-shaped pillows in his direction. That had been an embarrassing moment that took her a while to live down.

Now that Gloria had accepted that StarKat was prone to such things, she began to test the boundaries of this new ability. Thinking about Hotpaws and his amazing, flaming head, she aimed her sleeves at a nearby tree and projected fire-shaped pillows at the trunk. She then thought about Snooker, who looked like the robotic member of a barbershop quartet, with his floating toupee, and fired billiard-shaped balls with red and white stripes, mimicking a barber pole. She thought about Max, the precocious dog, and fired tennis ball-shaped pillows at the trunk.

“StarKat, I do believe we might be onto something here,” Gloria said.

“We most definitely are!” StarKat responded. “But I can do more than just pillows! I do glitter bombs, puffy boxing gloves, water balloons… You name it, I can shoot it!”

Gloria didn’t know when they would ever need to use this skill in a wondrous place like Sparkadia, where everyone was friendly and enjoyed interacting with each other, but at the very least, Gloria thought to herself, she wouldn’t hit Jet in the head with heart-shaped pillows again.