Jennifer meets the Clerk of the weather part 1

One beautiful sunny morning, Jennifer Jane was out in the garden playing at Hop, Skip and Jump with her shadow. Although she was watching ever so carefully, she never quite managed to make a longer hop, skip or jump than her shadow. Although the shadow seemed to be trying just as hard as she was, it never seemed to be able to jump any further than she could.

They were both having a lovely time trying to hop, skip and jump further than one another and always ending up in exactly the same spot, when suddenly the sun disappeared behind a cloud. Of course, her shadow disappeared as well.

Now, although she knew that her shadow always went away when the sun went in, she had been having such fun playing with it that morning, that she thought she'd try and find it, so that they could go on with their game. But where should she look first? She'd no idea where a shadow might go when the sun went behind a cloud.

Then she had one of her bright ideas. She could go and see the goblins who lived in the wood at the end of her garden. They were part of the fairy folk and if anyone knew where shadows went, then they ought to. She hurried off and quickly arrived at the goblin village, where she went straight to Mr. Kernell’s house and tapped politely on the door.

She heard footsteps coming up the stairs, then the door opened and Mr. Kernell looked out.

"Hello Jennifer Jane, how nice to see you again", he said.

"Please Mr. Kernell, can you tell me where my shadow goes when the sun goes behind a cloud?"

Mr. Kernell thought for a moment and then shook his head. "No, I'm afraid I can't. None of the fairy folk who live in the forest have shadows, even when the sun does shine. Only humans like yourself have them".

"Can you think of any one who might be able to tell me?"

"I’m not sure, but I think the Clerk of the Weather might know, because after all, he arranges for the clouds to hide the sun and that's when your shadow goes away."

"Well then, perhaps you can tell me how I can go and ask him?" she asked.
"I'm afraid I don't know that either," said poor Mr. Kernell sadly. He was beginning to get quite tearful because he wasn’t able to answer her questions. Then he brightened up.

"Of course you can see him. You can wish to go and see him next time you wear your red shoes!"

"That’s a smashing idea," said Jennifer Jane. "I'll go and see him as soon as I can get home and change." And off she ran home as fast as she could.

As soon as she had finished her meal, she changed into her red shoes and asked her mother if she could go and play in the wood for the whole afternoon.

"Yes dear," said Mary, "but you'd better take your umbrella with you, because it looks like rain".

So Jennifer Jane got her umbrella, which was bright red and matched the colour of her shoes, then went off with a hop, skip and a jump, to try and find the Clerk of the Weather.

When she reached the clearing in the forest, she asked out loud, "I wish I could go and see the Clerk of the Weather." Almost immediately, it started to rain.

Now this wasn't at all what she had expected. Surely somebody should come and collect her or, at least, tell her how to get to the place where the Clerk of the Weather worked. However, she couldn't just stand there and get wet, so she put up her umbrella and started back for home, just a little bit disappointed and wondering why her magic shoes hadn't granted her wish.

She was exactly half way across the wishing clearing, when she heard a rustling noise in the treetops and a tremendous gust of wind caught her umbrella.

It lifted her with it and carried her away, right over the trees and up on to a cloud waiting just above her. When she got her breath back and closed her umbrella, because naturally, it wasn't raining up there, she looked around the cloud, to see what would happen next.