The Cloud Farmer
James and I were looking at interesting things out of the window on a long car journey. First we saw a strange farm machine on a trailer, then lots of clouds.
Once upon a time, a brother and sister were walking home from the summer fair with their mum. The children each had a balloon, the sort that floats up by itself. The balloons were a bit giddy and not being very careful – they were bouncing around all over the place. Suddenly, they bounced too hard and floated out of the children’s hands and up into the sky.
The children were very upset as they watched their balloons float away until they were tiny dots, but their mum said, “Never mind, we can get some more at next year's fair. I'm sure the balloons will keep an eye on you from up in the sky and find other ways to make you happy.”
Meanwhile, the balloons floated up and up. They floated a long way from the fair and it started to get cloudy. First they floated through rain clouds and got all wet. Then a strong wind blew them dry, and also blew them a long way away.
Then they floated through some thunder clouds, where they were very nearly struck by lightning. They were very frightened.
Then they floated through clouds full of hail stones, which pitter-pattered all over them like someone playing a drum. They were being hit so much they were afraid they would burst, but they kept on floating and before long came out of the hail clouds.
They found themselves in a warm sky with long white clouds raked in to neat rows. They were feeling relieved, when suddenly – pop! A big round sharp pronged thing came from nowhere and bashed into one of the balloons, bursting it. Its friend watched in shock as the bits of rubber fell down and down until they were too small to see.
It cried out in sadness, which sounded like a rubbery squeak, but someone, or something, heard it.
“What's all this then?” said a voice.
The balloon looked round to see who it was. The voice belonged to a very strange person who appeared to be made out of clouds. He had been pulling the big round sharp pronged thing along on a rope. The balloon was startled, but eventually managed to explain.
“It's that thing you're towing, it bashed into my friend and burst him!”
“Oh dear, I am very sorry,” said the cloud person. “I'm a cloud farmer, and this is the plough I use to make all the clouds up here neat and tidy. I'm afraid there's nothing I can do to help your friend.”
“Then what am I going to do?” asked the balloon, starting to cry again. “I've been blowing around for ages, I'll never be able to find the children I belong to again, and it's too dangerous for balloons up here anyway, and...”
But the cloud farmer interrupted him. “There, there, now, maybe there is something I can do to help you. I've been looking for a helper for a while now, but no one ever seems to come up here. I'm getting old, and there just doesn't seem to be time to get down to the villages and towns and look after the clouds down there. I hardly have time to grow all the snowflakes up at the North Pole for the snow clouds. Maybe you could lend me a hand.”
“But how? I'm just a balloon!”
“Well, I know I'm getting old, but I think I still have a little bit of weather magic left.”
He reached behind his ear and pulled off some of the cloudiness he was made from. He carefully wrapped it round the balloon and patted it down.
“Now, this may hurt a little bit, but don't worry!” He pulled out a pin from nowhere, stuck it through the cloudiness and popped the balloon.
“Ouch!” said the balloon, but to its surprise, it was still a balloon, but now it was made of the same cloudiness as the cloud farmer.
“Wow! I'm a cloudalloon!” it said, “But what do I do now?”
“Go down to the low levels and see what you can do about those clouds. You won't be able to tidy them all up, but see what you can do to help. Sometimes people need rain, to make their crops grow and keep the rivers and lakes full, sometimes people like it to be dry, so they can go out and play.”
So the cloudalloon floated down. It did its best to make sure that the rain fell where it was most wanted, and not where it was not wanted. Sometimes it would make a special effort to clear the clouds away when there was a summer fair or school sports day.
Once, after it had been a cloudalloon for a year and a day, it happened to be working in the village where it had first floated away from the children. It was clearing away the clouds ready for the summer fair. To its surprise, down there were the same children. They were on the way to the fair with their mum. They both just happened to look up into the sky, and saw a funny balloon-shaped cloud, which seemed to shape itself into a face and then wink at them, before floating away. The children smiled, and this year they made sure they held onto their new balloons very tightly.