part 5

Do you know that it is sometimes very unpleasant to be Cloudboy’s friend? I’m going to tell you why.
I was reading my newspaper when suddenly the phone rang. It was my friend Merru.” Hey” she shouted.” What are you up to today?” “umm” I thought” I guess nothing”” ohh that is really good then. Will you come to party with me then!?” She asked happily.” Well I don’t know” I said slowly, but then I started to laugh:” sure I’ll come. I’ll see you in the evening.”
I finished the call and thought of what I should do. I needed pretty clothes and needed to make myself pretty also. So I grabbed my jacket to get to the clothes store.
I had just gone out the gate when Cloudboy was standing next to me. “And where are you going?” I asked him. “There where you are going” I got for an answer. “Oh no you won’t go there” “oh yes I will” he started to argue. What else could I do then but take him with me. Already in the first shop he embarrassed me. As he was walking behind me he kept pulling clothes down all the time. So I had to put them back up. When he started to pull curtains from the dressing room, I had enough. I grabbed him with his shirt and took him out of the shop. In the next shops it was the same. I started to feel like shopping with a naughty kid. Luckily I found a shirt and a skirt. I swore that I never would go to shops again with Cloudboy. Then I decided to go to the beauty parlour. That is a house where aunts and uncles make other people look nice. I sat on a chair and they started to give me a nice hairdo. I sat in peace and quiet and totally forgot Cloudboy who I had left behind the door. As he got bored, he came after me. Cause he is curious, he had to try every single thing that he found on the desks. Looking at what women around him where doing with them, he tried them all on himself also. I almost burst out into laughter when I saw how he looked. Well he didn’t know what those things were for, and that most of the things weren’t for him at all. I didn’t look at what he did there all the time (I could see him from big mirror in front of me) in the end, I didn’t know how, but he managed to colour his hair also. When he washed his face the colours didn’t came off so easily. So I though that it was a good punishment for him. Luckily we got home soon, because I was so tired of him.
So in the evening I went to the party. I meet Merru there. I blenched when I found out that he had followed me. I didn’t have much to do then beside just ignoring him. As soon as he saw Merru he shouted loudly: oh, who is that beautiful girl over there.” I was glad that the music was loud and nobody could hear him. Or otherwise there would have been a lot of questions. While dancing he was always there where most of the people were and made them to clomp. All the time he knocked off somebody’s glass and made a lot of mess. I had to check all the time what he was doing. Finally he got out of my sight and I could enjoy the party. Until I heard a noise. It was so loud that we could hear it above the music. So we went to see what was going on. Cloudboy had gotten a dog somewhere and let him into the house. So it was now barking and running around the house and the security man was running after him. At first I started to laugh but then got angry. I apologized to Merru and told her that I was going home. So I took Cloudboy with me and left. All the way back home I didn’t speak to him. When we reached home then he apologized very nicely for his behaviour. I accepted it cause how could I be angry with him when I have to see him every day. Then he left and finally I got my peace.

part 4

Yesterday I came from the shop. And what did I see? Above my house were two clouds, in stead of one. So I was standing in the middle of the road and blinked my eyes, just to be sure I saw it right. I didn’t really want to go to see myself what was going on and there was no need for it also, because Cloudboy was in my room soon. He jumped in from the window like he always does.” Come and look who came to visit me!” he was hopping from one leg to another. So I didn’t have any other option than climbing onto the roof. Not to mention that I was really curious.
“Let me introduce you” Cloudboy started very ceremonial. ‘…to my Grandmother.” And from the new cloud the most real grandmother I have ever seen climbed down quickly. I looked at her with my mouth and eyes wide open; because lately I was very sure that Cloudboy didn’t have any grandmother. Granny was wearing a colorful dress with flowers on it, on her head she had a red wimple, her cheeks were wrinkled and she had a big good-natured smile. She wasn’t much shorter than Cloudboy.
“Hello honey” said Grandmother, taking a big red apple from her pocket and giving it to me.” Ohh thank you!” I shouted. Apples are my favorite fruit. Cloudboy brought a ladder from somewhere and we all climbed to Grandmothers cloud. This was my first time on a cloud so it was a little frightening. When I stepped onto the cloud, at first I thought I was going fall through the cloud. But to my surprise I saw that it was possible to walk on it. Maybe rebound a little. Cloudboy told me that all clouds in the Cloud Kingdom are just like it. From outside they look like fairy and fluffy, but it is possible to walk on them. So I walked around the cloud a little, being a little bit afraid to fall over the edge. In the meantime Grandmother had gone to her house. The house was sparkling blue, with some golden spots, which looked very good on it.” Come to eat children!” she shouted from the door. I had to bow a little to get inside the house. So I took a big step and I was inside the house. From the inside the house looked much bigger than from the outside. The kitchen where she led us to was a cozy little room. In one corner there was a big cooking stove, on which was a big plate with a bunch of pancakes on it. Next to it was a teapot. We sit around a table that already was set with plates, cups and milk. Granny put some pancakes on the table. Poured her a cup of tea and sat to a rocking chair which was on the other side of the table. “Eat, eat children “she encouraged us while she took some knitting needles and yarn from a basket that was under the table, and started to knit. So I and Cloudboy started to eat. Granny rocked herself back and forward and started to tell me about life in the Cloud Kingdom. Cloudboy didn’t care about it a lot, but I was interested.
So Granny talked:
“The Cloud kingdom is far from here. It contains a big cloud and a bunch of little clouds around it. In the Cloud kingdom there live cloud people. They are always happy and friendly. Sometimes they are moody and tease each other but it happens so rare that it isn’t worth mentioning it.” I looked at Cloudboy who is famous for his ability to tease people. He pretended like he didn’t notice me, put his mouth full of cake and munched loudly. Granny didn’t notice it and kept talking:” On the biggest cloud is Cloudcity. In the middle of the town, there is a castle where the Cloudking and queen live. The Castle is made of crystal and it has the wonderful quality that it accumulates the sunlight, so it can light the town at night. The houses of Cloudtown are very colorful because the people use rainbow colors. Every year they go to the Rainbow to ask her some colors which she gladly gives. Also the clothes of the cloud people are colorful. Cloudpeople love nature very much. That is why several gardens and rangelands lay around the town. On the lands are living little fluffy cloudsheep. They are overlooked by a Shepard whose job is to make sure that the sheep won’t fall over the edges of the cloud and won’t get lost. Probably she does a good job, because we haven’t heard if some of the sheeps have got lost.
Around the big cloud are smaller clouds. Just like mine and Cloudboy’s. Usually they are there at one place or move a little. I moved because I wanted to come to look if this brat is alright. It is very nice that he has found a friend here. I blushed. Then I looked at the clock and noticed with surprise that it had moved forward a lot and it was time to go home.Granny agreed with my idea, she also needed to start moving to get back to town before dark. So we climbed down from the cloud with Cloudboy and Granny whistled Windboy there, so he could get her cloud back to town. “Goodbye then Children” she said” it was nice to meet you.” she looked at me and nodded. To Cloudboy she said” you behave boy!” “Yes sure” he nodded. Then the cloud started to move and we waved to her until we didn’t see her anymore.

part 3

One morning I woke up because the sun was shining straight into my eyes so brightly. First I opened one eye and saw sun bunnies hopping on the wall. Quickly I closed the eye and opened the other one. With that one I saw exactly the same thing.

I jumped out from bed and ran to the window and I pulled the curtains away. The sun was shining high in the sky and made everything glow in bright colours. I looked up. What do you think I hoped to find there? Well I didn’t need much hope. I knew exactly that there would be Cloudboy’s cloud, which today was shining so bright. Sometimes I suspect that somebody comes and paints his cloud over when I’m not looking. But who knows, maybe he has some secret arrangement with the sun that gives his cloud exactly the colour that is need. Also Cloudboy’s house was shining in the sunrays and his flowers smelled so good.

Suddenly I got an idea. Quickly I dressed up and climbed to the roof. “Cloudboy! Uuu

where are you!!” I shouted up to the cloud. “He is not here! I got as an answer. ““Umm it’s clear then, but whom am I talking to then?” I continued my question. “Of course it is clear. Do you see any other clouds in the sky except this one here? And you are talking to Cloudboy’s grandmother,” said the voice. “Nonsense” I said then that I was sure that Cloudboy was just in his teasing mood, and I have never heard that he has some kind of grandmother. So I shouted up” okay you can pout over there. I am going alone to the sea then. Right away Cloudboy jumped out from his house:” Sea, what is that???” he was confused and a little exited because it seemed like a chance to go on an adventure. (Because Cloudboy usually doesn’t go much anywhere, he is really adventurous. Every time when I am going somewhere he tries to come with me. Once he followed me to a birthday party. What a mess he made there.)

To the sea. Sea it is. I stopped for a moment to think how to explain it to him. Sea. It is a place where there is a of lot water.” Cloudboy didn’t understand:” is it like a rain cloud?” “No, no” “I shook my head and started to laugh.” “Rain clouds can be as big as the sea, but in the sea there is a lot more water and it lies on the ground. “Ohh” Cloudboy started to understand a little:” so this is like a big mud puddle. (Mud puddles he has seen often on the street in front of my house, after it has rained a lot. After snowing he hasn’t seen them there) “okay they are a little similar, so you can compare them, if we are there then you’ll see what the sea is. Cloudboy ran to his house and I started to climb down from the roof. One uncle had already stopped on the street and looked at what I was doing, so I pretended I was interested in the TV antenna and quickly climbed down. Uncle stood there a little while and then moved along, talking to himself, saying something angrily. I packed my things and went outside where Cloudboy already stood next to a gate. ‘We walked along some streets to the bus stop. Cloudboy hasn’t been there yet. That is why when the bus came, he ran behind me and looked at the bus with big eyes. “act nicely now” I was a little mad at him, but then the bus had already left.” What was that?" he asked me innocently. “This is a regular bus. Like a car, but a little bigger. “I answered. “But why does it makes such a noise” he asked. “In the bus, there is a motor which moves it. And it makes such noise.” I explained, and he agreed to come with me on the next bus. Then we rode a little with one bus and a little with another bus, and soon he liked to ride so much that he didn’t want to come off the bus. Because of that we rode a whole stop to far, where we should come off, and we had to walk back a little. Cloudboy was so clumsy all the time, and almost fell over the tree roots, because he was busy doing anything but watching in front of his feet. And then we saw the sea. When Cloudboy saw it he fell down to the ground. “” well this doesn’t really look like a mud puddle or a cloud.” He said after a little break. Then he stood up and went to have a closer look. We went into the water and his red socks got wet. I raised my shoulders, changed my clothes and went to sunbathe. I had been doing that there for a little while, when I jump up screaming. Something cold and wet was on my stomach. Cloudboy had taken some alga from the sea and had put it on my sun warm stomach. “Don’t do it again.” I chided him. Suddenly I saw something moving between the algae. “Fish!” he shouted. “How do you know that it is a fish?" Do you think I don’t know how a fish looks like?” Said Cloudboy with offence,” I have seen it in a book!” “Okay okay” I didn’t want to talk about it. Anyway we must put it back to water or it will die.” I said and started to catch a fish. It was a little harder than I thought, because it is slippery and wet. Finally we had a chance to catch it. Fish was so happy to get back to the water. Then I thought to go back to my sunbathing, but the sun went behind the clouds and so I couldn’t do it anymore. Soon the sky was all covered with clouds and we had to go back home. We got back home at the right time. Cloudboy’s cloud had turned dark, and after I had closed my door the first raindrops fell. This was my first trip to the sea with Cloudboy.

Cloudboy part 2

One day when I was standing and watching out of the window I heard sobbing. As I knew that I couldn’t be wrong, I climbed to the roof. There I found Cloudboy, who was sitting on the edge of his cloud and was sobbing badly. „ What’s wrong? “ I asked him. Without saying anything he extended a hand in which was a little ladybug. Confused I watched him and the ladybug. Finally he started to talk. “Little ladybug is here by herself. I found her at a leaf of my flower. She is definitely lost and can’t find a way home.” It was hard to understand the end of the sentence, because he was crying too badly. I sighed. No matter how well you think you know him, he can always surprise you. Then I said, “Ok take your stuff. Let’s go and find the ladybug’s family.” “ Are we really going on an adventure” he asked glad and hopefully. I answered roughly: ”No! No adventures. We are just going to take Ladybug home and come back home.” But he didn’t listen to the last things I said. He was already hopping to his house. I sighed and climbed down from the roof. I only was in the house for 5 minutes, when Cloudboy was already behind me. At first sight I almost burst out into laughter. He was wearing the biggest backpack I have ever seen. It was almost twice his size. “Where are you going like this? Are you planning to move somewhere?” I grinned. Cloudboy took offence: ” Those things are needed for everything that might happen.” “If you say so.” I raised my shoulders.

So we left. Couldboy looked at everything with big eyes. From his cloud he could see far, but he didn’t know life on Earth very well. With astonishment he looked at the colourful flowers, which were very different from the flowers on his cloud. He was surprised about the size of everything. From his cloud everything seemed to be so small, but now no so small anymore. So he had lots of things to look at and to remember. Suddenly a little bird jumped in front of us. Cloudboy stopped squat down in front of the bird with his eyes wide open. “Who are you?” he asked. The bird answered” I am Parus” “you have such a beautiful yellow coat.” Parus went fluffy of pride.” Sure I have a beautiful coat. Mine is the most beautiful of all.” He kept hopping in front of Cloudboy, suddenly he stopped:” who are you anyway? I know her. She is one of the Big People. But you are of weird. Look a little bit like a dwarf.. You don’t look similar to her nor the Children” Cloudboy took offence:” I am no dwarf. I am Cloudboy and we are on the way to find Ladybug’s family.” And he stretched his arm and hand in which was an unhappy ladybug.” A ladybug. No I don’t know anything about ladybugs. I don’t eat them. But if I should see one, I’ll let you know.” Said Parus, waved his wings and flied away.

Cloudboy sighed and rose up as good and as bad as his backpack allowed him and we moved on. Soon we reached the end of the lane. In front of us there were fields of grass. Cloudboy didn’t say a word while walking. Suddenly we saw a great cloud of dust coming towards us. As we got scared, we stood in the middle of the road. The cloud of dust came closer and closer until it was in front of us. From inside the cloud appeared a Big Truck. He said: “Go away from the road, it isn’t a place for playing.” “We are sorry” said Cloudboy, “We are searching for ladybug’s family. Maybe you could tell us where to find them?” asked Cloudboy with hope in his voice. “Ladybug?” asked Truck surprised. If he would have had eyebrows, then he would have raised them but he didn’t had them. “What is it?” he continued his question. Cloudboy started to explain: Ladybug is a beautiful little insect who has small black spots on her back. Big Truck fell into his mind. After a while he started to speak: “I know roads that lead to different ways, I know fields and towns, but I have never heard about a ladybug. Cloudboy sighed and Big Truck continued his journey.

Finally we reached the big forest and stood there thinking where we should go next. Cloudboy was really unhappy by that time. He was really worried about Ladybug. He sat on a big rock and opened his hand. Ladybug who was tired of always being there straightened her wings and flied away. Cloudboy couldn't react quickly enough, but then he jumped up and shouted: “Where are you going, you will get more lost!” Do you think she listened to him? Of course not. So what else could we do than going back home. We had quietly walked a little while when Cloudboy shouted:” Look!” He sneaked to the side of the road, squat down and started to clap his hands happily. So I thought that I had to go to see what was there. I bowed down and saw two Ladybugs crawling there. Cloudboy whispered: “This is the same Ladybug. And look she has found her mother!” “Sure I guess that’s the same” I told him. Because actually I wanted to get back home already. I was surprised that he could recognize mother and daughter in those two. To be honest I don’t know how to recognize which is male and which is female. But it didn’t matter. What matters was that Couldboy was so happy now. On that day I saw that he could be so caring. The whole way home he was hopping. I even needed sunglasses, because his smile was so bright.

When we got back home he went back straight to his cloud. I on the other hand didn’t even want to do anything so I lied down in front of the TV. It was quite dark outside already when Cloudboy suddenly was in front of me holding something behind him. “Look what I made” he said and he took a picture on which two Ladybugs were flying towards the sun. He gave it to me and left without saying anything. In his usual way, through the open window. One day I have to solve the mystery and ask how he can get from my window to his cloud. I stood up from the couch and went to the window. I saw a beautiful sight there. It was sunset, and I could almost see two Ladybugs flying.

“Yes” I said. It was a nice day.

part 1

Do you think it’s impossible to live on a cloud? If you say it is, then it’s the wrong answer, actually it is possible. In fact I know one person who lives there. I have one really good friend who lives on a cloud above my house. He likes being mysterious so usually he doesn’t show himself to other people (it’s more like other people don’t see him). I call him Cloudboy. I don’t know if he has any other names, at least he hasn’t told me them, also he likes me calling him like this. It would be also weird to call him “hey you there“.

Cloudboy likes to tease me sometimes. That is why he comes to talk with me while there are many people on the street. And while talking, he goes as far as he can so I have to speak with a very loud voice. People don’t find it normal if somebody is standing on the street, watching the sky and talking to a cloud. Well, of course they don’t see Cloudboy. This is how he likes to get me in trouble. Once when I was talking to him about some philosophical question, a lady who passed by me, got so very scared that she grabbed her phone and started to yell in it. Right a way came a car with blinkers, in which were sitting two men in blue clothes. They came to me and asked why I was scaring people here like this. I answered that I was just talking to my friend. As they didn’t see anybody they whispered a little and then told me that if I’ll be acting like this one more time, they are going to take me into a certain building where people wear white shirts. Then it was time for me to be scared so I promised not to act like this anymore. After that, the men left, but Cloudboy was sitting on his cloud and laughing. After that I’m always checking if the street is empty when I’m going to talk with Cloudboy.

Maybe I’ll tell you a little more about the cloud that Cloudboy is living on. His cloud is one part of big Cloudkingdom (luckily the whole kingdom isn’t above my house). Cloudboy’s cloud isn’t big or small. Exactly the right size for his house and a little garden. House in blue, mixed with a little grey and white, for people think that it’s a rain cloud. So you can imagine what it feels to live under a rain cloud all the time. Cloudboy’s house is very colourful at the inside. Most of all he likes to watch the sunrise and sunset so he has painted his rooms in different red, yellow and orange tints. Curtains he has just as the sun, so for people on the ground they seem like sunrays. (I haven’t been in his house, but this is how he once described it to me.) Around Cloudboy’s house is a small garden. Especially flowers he loves, they mainly grow on the sides of his cloud. That is why I have often gotten wet when he is watering them. Every other person would be mad at him but not me. His cloud flowers are just so beautiful. Many times he has brought them for me while visiting. Even right now one is in my vase, and it smells incredibly good. While watering he is always humming the same melody. One I asked him what song it is, but then he just smiled a mysterious smile and hop scotched away.
Maybe you are interested in how he looks. It’s really hard to describe him. I can only say that his eyes are sometimes brown, and sometimes green.. His hair is almost brown, but definitely not blond. He is wearing rainbow-coloured clothes. Not all the colours, but every day a different colour.
Cloudboy is always smiling. I haven’t ever seen him angry. Actually once he was. It happened when naughty Wind broke one of his flowers. Then I had a storm cloud over my head. He didn’t smile, until Wind brought him a different type of flower seeds. Then Cloudboy even hugged Wind. I know it because I happened to be outside at that moment.
Cloudboy is visiting me twice a week- on Tuesdays and on Fridays. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t visit me at other days. It is just on these days we watch the sunsets and drink tea together. On other days he is watching the sunsets by himself sitting on his cloud. Sometimes he doesn’t sit, but paints. He loves painting. Sometimes when he finishes his new painting, he brings it to show me, and he doesn’t care if it’s day or night. I have been woken up during the night because of that. Now I am going because it’s Friday and we are going to watch the sunset. I can already hear him, humming his mysterious melody.