What the clouds did

Tiny boy Hugs wandered every day into his wild forest of peculiar creatures. He named it the Nap forest as it always showed up at nap time. Hugs would put on his pair of yellow socks and close his eyes.

In front of him, he’d see the splendid forest filled with two tail monkeys sitting on top of Banana elephants. Hugs named the elephants Banana as instead of where one would find its trunk was a huge banana. The monkeys found it amusing and all day long scooped banana pulps from the elephants. The elephants did not bother much about the monkeys as they helped shoo away dragonflies which seemed to annoy the elephants by blowing fire from their noses. Hugs found it amusing when he saw these dragonflies swarming the elephant herd. He would run behind them shouting and laughing until he reached Drool river. But still, he never forgot to stop by the mysterious pot that overflowed with rainbows.

The riverbank is where Hugs would spend most of his time in Nap forest. He saw tiny Firaffes playing in the water there. This was a beautiful sight since Hugs never saw these creatures in rivers back home. He named them Firaffes as they had fish-like tails and gills. He always filled his pajama pockets with rainbows from the mysterious pots. In case he saw the Firaffes, he would sprinkle the rainbows over the river. The tiny creatures would swarm in to chew the rainbow bits and would change into bright shiny ones. He would then eat some rainbow bits himself until he looked bright and shiny. He would laugh and laugh at the Firaffes until he slipped into a deep sleep only to be woken up by mom’s little song the next day.

Today like every day was nothing different. Hugs knew he had to eat his dinner soon to go to Nap forest. But what if today mom could come with him. He could show her the Firaffes and Banana elephants. He asked, “Mom, will you come with me tonight to Nap forest?”. Mom was confused. But she assumed it was something from his imaginations. Nevertheless, she did not want to disappoint her baby. She replied, “Sure baby”. Hugs was excited. He asked mom to wear yellow socks and lay beside him. Mom obeyed. 

Hugs was in Nap forest. He turned to see his mom beside him, but to his disappointment mom wasn’t there. He assumed that mom must have already reached the Drool river. He started walking. As he looked up, he saw Dark Clouds gathering together for a meeting. This wasn’t a usual scene. The Cloud Queen was calling all her family members. Even the coddlers, the cloud toddlers. Hugs decided o wait and listen. But all he could hear were whispers. He knew he had to climb the trees to hear them speak. He looked around to find a tall tree with pink steps all around its trunk. One by one, Hugs climbed them and finally reached the top. Here, everything the clouds were whispering was clear. 

The cloud Queen spoke. “My dear Dark clouds and coddlers, Nap forest has been our home for years now. But there have been rumours of impending danger to Nap forest. The beavers from the neighbouring forest are planning to build a dam against the Drool river. This is dangerous because if a dam was built, the river could flood the whole of Nap forest. The forest isn’t capable of handling the flood. All animals and trees would perish. This means we will never get resources to run our cloud family. We will have no other choice other than to move to another land. Do you want such a fate?”. All the Dark clouds started shouting and wailing. They didn’t want to leave the forest. They had become friends with the trees of Nap and the Firaffes of the Drool. They thanked Nap with rainbow bits every day. Nap never let the Dark clouds down. It has become a stronger bond over the years. 

Hugs felt bad for Nap and the Dark clouds. He wanted to help them but he had to find his mom first. She can help him solve their problem. He ran to the riverbank in search. He walked and walked until his legs hurt. Tired and sad, Hugs laid down.

When mom woke him up his first thoughts were about Nap. He asked, “Mom, why didn’t you come with me yesterday?”. Mom replied. “Baby, apparently only kids like you can go there. I tried, but couldn’t.” Disappointed and sad Hugs decided to go sit near his tiny window and look at the clouds. Mom felt bad to have made Hugs sad. She asked, “Baby, can I help you somehow? I don’t want my baby boy to feel sad.” Hugs narrated the whole story to mom. Confused and amazed at the same time, mom decided to help. She just didn’t know how to. 

She thought for a while and came up with an idea. She asked Hugs to take a letter with him today when he visited Nap forest. Then she sat down and started writing on a piece of paper.

She wrote, “Respected Cloud Queen, my son told me about the issue in Nap forest. I have come up with a plan to solve the problem. The neighboring forest has decided to build a dam against Drool only because it has not had enough water for its survival. Do you realize that the trees and animals there don’t have their own Dark clouds to provide them with water? Their only source of water is the river. And as the need for water has increased, they have decided to save the water by building a dam. You can prevent them from doing this by sending some of your cloud members to their forest to rain down on them. Knowing that they no longer need more water they will most certainly stop any further ideas of building the dam. With love and respect, Hugs’ mom.”

Mom then asked Hugs to hand over the letter to the Cloud queen. When Hugs reached the forest that night, he climbed the tree to hand over the letter to the queen. First curious and confused, the Cloud queen finally accepted the letter from Hugs. Once she read it, a visible smile appeared all over her fluffy cloud face. She immediately called all her cloud members for a gathering and told them the idea. As half of the clouds cheered and laughed, a slow whispering spread through the crowd. A coddler finally shouted “I don’t like to leave Nap forest. I love it here with all my tree pals and Firaffes. I don’t want my mom leaving too.” Slowly every cloud realized some of their members had to leave Nap forest to prevent the whole family from leaving. This wasn’t completely acceptable. The Cloud queen was silent. After a few minutes, she said, “Let’s not send our members forever to the neighboring forest. Let’s go there in shifts. New members will be sent every week. So, everyone can live in peace”. The family applauded and cheered the Queen. The plan was executed and the Cloud queen was happy. She thanked Hugs with rainbows for helping her and her family stay with their friend Nap and Drool for the ages to come. Hugs merrily accepted the rainbows and returned home. He told mom all that happened and she was happy too. 

And that is why, to this day, when the time is right and the rain has ended, the Cloud queen shows her gratitude to Hugs and his mom with a beautiful rainbow.