Clouds

'Hello Tommy. Come over here. Lie down with me on the blanket.
There, that's it. Yes, it is hot. You can thank the sun for that.
Pardon me? The sun. No, not the nun. The sun, s s s s sun. It's that
big orange ball in the sky up there. See it? Now, watch that enormous
ball of cotton wool, that's a cloud and it's going to cover to sun.
Clouds make rain. What's rain? Rain is water that falls from the sky
and makes us wet. You want to get wet? Well, I don't think that's a
very sensible idea just before bed, do you? Idea? An idea is a thought.
A thought is what goes on in your head. You just thought that you want
to get wet, didn't you? Yes, well that was your idea but I've had
another one. I'll tell you a story from the magical, mystical shapes of
the clouds.

There is Puff, the biggest cloud in the sky. He is very old now. Not
long ago Puff was very very sad. He had been crying for ages. You see
Tommy, he'd seen it happen. It had never happened before in the history
of clouds and Puff had been the only witness. All the other clouds
positively refused to believe what he told them. They called Puff nasty
names and wouldn't talk to him. It was a terribly awfully horribly sad
time in poor Puff's life. And remember, clouds are over two thousand
years old.
Still Puff cried and cried for days and days. His endless stream of
tears caused ponds, rivers lakes and oceans to overflow wherever the
wind blew him. His distress took his misery to places he'd never been
near before. The Sahara desert was shrouded in cloud. The Caribbean
experienced London fog and it snowed for six months in Australia all
because of Puff's extreme unhappiness. Oh boy Tommy, had Puff been in
wrong place at the wrong time that day when he saw it happen, or
what?
Mind you if the truth be told, dear Puff would not have been anywhere
else that day.
You see he had been babysitting Piff. Piff was hyperactive, an
excitable kind of a cloud and a bit of a devil. He would not keep still
long enough for his moisture to collect and supply necessary sustenance
to his body, like food does to our bodies. Yet for one so apparently
delicate Piff packed a solid punch. So when Puff suggested that Piff
learn the art of thunderclaps, Piff was off Puffs lap as quick as
lightning.
Puff taught well. He was mega experienced. Some nine hundred years
older than Piff, Puff explained tactics and strategies with graphic
precision. Piff was a keen student eager to learn. He understood
quickly how to duck and parry or attack really fiercely. Also Piff was
clever enough in battle to remember to keep the extra energy essential
for a swift get away.
Within a short time Piff's thunderclaps resounded magnificently both
night and day across the skies. Thunderous applause from admiring
clouds added to the crescendo. Clouds grouped together to listen and
learn from Piff. Piff released a sound far too loud for his size. Word
still has it that Piff's thunderclaps really frightened the human world
below.
Piff became a hero in Cloudland.
Stunned by Piff's show of physical maturity, the rowdy partying that
day hailed an unprecedented event when voluntarily, forked lightning
preceded thunder before they united in a frenzied dance. After an
exquisite roll of thunder from Piff a beautiful array of colored
streaks like rocket fire lit up the clouds in close vicinity. Piff
could not remember ever feeling so happy.
So much so he lost all sense of time, plus awareness. Piff neither saw
nor felt the sun coming out and Tommy, the sun is clouds deadliest
enemy.
Suddenly, a fiery ray of sun blocked Piff's path. Showing off, he had
traveled too quickly you see and had screeched to a halt not a human's
hand distance away from the ray. Frantic, he quickly looked behind him,
another ray waited there, ready to pounce. He was cornered and had
uncharacteristically allowed himself no time for mistakes. An orange
flash of fire shot out like a mighty spear thrown. It blasted through
the thinnest, smallest of cracks in the other clouds. Scored a direct
hit. Piff was severed equally in two parts.
And helpless to help Piff, Puff had seen it all when standing guard at
The Cooler. To leave his post would bring certain dehydration; an
extremely agonizing and slow death for all clouds which had consorted
with, or known Puff in the last one thousand years!!

Piff was never the same cloud after the accident but because of it,
Paff was born.
Long passed his sell by date now Puff acknowledged how he had survived
longer than the odds for a cloud. Fifteen hundred years was average but
Puff sighed, smiling tenderly at Piff and Paff as Paff quietly told a
story to Piff. Puff always called them his twins. Which they were, but
realistically they weren't Puff's at all.
On a day when the weather did not know what it wanted to do, Puff and
Paff had spent most of the day fighting off the enemy. Why? Because
Tommy, clouds cannot compete with sunshine. So whenever the sun does
put his hat on to, that's right, to come out to play, the clouds have
to fight like mad to protect themselves. They make the noisiest of loud
thunder to get rid of the sun. Do you understand? Yes, clouds hide the
sun. The thicker the cloud cover the harder the sun has to work to come
out.
So that morning they had punched kicked crashed and banged against each
other to keep the sun covered for most of the morning. Then the hot
rays from the nasty stubborn sun eventually got the better of them.
When close for comfort Piff Paff and Puff moved away and joined the
many other clouds seeking shelter in The Cooler.
Now, the Cooler is a place. Like a house, a village or a country is a
place. The simplest way for me to describe The Cooler so as you'd
understand Tommy, is to liken it to a cr?che for Clouds. Yes you've got
it. We call it a nursery. The Cooler is where the clouds go to when
they are unable to perform cloud jobs. When referring to The Cooler the
clouds call it the CC for short. Why? Because both words, clouds and
cooler begin with the letter C. The CC is unique in the universe and
inside it is pure white. A brighter whiter white than you've ever seen.
Whiter than the whitest fall of fresh snow.
The CC is located at the very back of the sun and forever invisible to
us. Its entrance is by the door that was Puffs job to guard the day of
Piffs accident. Cloudland doors are like our doors except they're all
the same colour, cloud. They are bound to be really as they are made
from dead cloud. That doesn't sound very nice, does it, dead cloud?
Dead clouds are rather like statues in our world. They are tributes to
those once alive who deserve to be remembered for an appropriate
reason.
Anyway, the particular door Puff guarded Tommy, is big but not as you
would say, gynormous. It opens into a huge tube that every cloud no
matter how big or small has to pass through. You'd think it should be
gynormous to fit them all in wouldn't you? But you'll see that it
really doesn't need to be bigger than big because when out of a certain
temperature a cloud shrivels until it resembles an average size ball of
knitting wool. Imagine hundreds of thousands of balls of wool lined up
together Tommy. Balls all the same colour don't forget. What do you
think happens to them when they all try to get in to the same place at
the same time with only one entrance? That's quite right. They get
squashed and that's exactly what happens to the clouds until they are
flatter than the flattest of pancakes. There, they stay very still and
quiet to rejuvenate. That means to get their energy back until they are
strong enough again to go back into the sky where they puff themselves
up to do whatever it is that clouds do.
Oh listen, that's your Mummy calling for you. It's your bedtime.
Pardon? Well let's see. What is the time? Yes, it is the clouds
bedtime. At this very moment the CC is full of clouds from the day
shift. You see Tommy, if the clouds don't rest they'll be too tired to
fight if the sun shines tomorrow. When, if you like, I'll tell you lots
more about the clouds in Cloudland..
Goodnight, sleep well my little friend, sleep well.