Alto the Little Rain Cloud by Martyn Kenneth

The Little Rain Cloud by Martyn Kenneth



Alto the Little Rain Cloud
By Martyn Kenneth


Once upon a time, there was a little rain cloud. And it was a very kind little rain cloud because it's big mommy and daddy, the fluffy white clouds and taught it that if it was ever going to rain, it should at least rain on some place that needs the water. Like a farmer's field after it had been sewed or hot swings in a playground so that the kids don't burn their legs when they get on.

But this rain cloud all the way up in the sky, floating around all by himself was feeling rather lonely. Now when I say little, as in little rain cloud, I mean, it was about as big as a kitchen table, or a piano, or maybe the size of two big TVs you might find in your living room, or maybe the size of your sofa. So it was a little bit big, but it was pretty small for a cloud. And when it was way, high in the sky, you could barely see it. So nobody took much notice of it.

The weather forecasts on the telly never picked it up however it was one of those clouds that on a hot sunny day with a clear blue sky would make you stand there, point and stare and say “Look at that little cloud in the sky”. And it made the blue sky look even more blue.

The little rain cloud liked that. He liked to be noticed. It didn't happen very often.
This little rain cloud was also a bit mischievous or cheeky or some might say even naughty. I think it was because he's mommy and daddy weren't around anymore so he liked to play around and because nobody could really see him he was able to get away with a lot of things.
Some of the things he did they weren’t really bad, because, let’s face it - how much damage could a little white cloud the size of your sofa actually do?
Well, one thing it liked to do was to rain in playgrounds and make just a little wet-patch-circle just before the children came out to play. They would tumble into the yard laughing and then stop and scratch their heads and then ask their teacher. Has it been raining, sir? Why is it we over here? What's happened?
Sometimes, he would like to rain on the car of the teacher that shouted at the child at school. The rain cloud was especially happy if it was a warm summer's day and the teacher had left the car windows open. Meaning the little cloud could get the car all wet.

And so a little rain cloud was floating around, raining here and raining there and feeling a bit sad. You see his brothers and his sisters and his mommy daddy had been blown away in a great big storm a long time ago.
The rain cloud wanted to find his mommy and daddy and kept searching and searching. But he couldn't find them.
One day, or, I should say one night, the little raincloud was floating around, and a big grey thunderstorm cloud came along and barged him right out of the way. The little rain cloud was blown aside and settled near the side of a mountaintop and landed just behind the tip of this mountain as he watched this wide and deep, angry and grey storm crowd growing and growing bigger and bigger and bigger. And then as he peeked past the tip of the mountain again the little rain cloud saw sparks of lightening flying out of the cloud and the bellowing thunder ringing all around. The thunder was deafening and the rain cloud was scared. Scared but very, very impressed. He watched the big storm blowing gusts of wind, moving the trees, bumping cars and even swaying buildings. “Mmm I'd like to be a storm cloud! I would like to be able to make lightning and thunder and blow a few cars around” thought Alto. “But I'm just a little rain cloud, how could I possibly do that?
And as the storm passed over. -And as he watched all the damage unfold as the light came from the sunpopped up from the horizon, the little rain cloud had second thoughts: “Do these big storm clouds do anything else apart from all this damage?” Look at those broken trees and look at that farmer. He is crying because all of his crops have been blown down.
“That's not very nice.

He had seen that big storm cloud, rained so much rain that it had made a new river flowing through this little village. So he knew, at least there was lots of water coming out of the storm cloud.

As the storm continued to chug by the little rain cloud tagged along and followed behind - just far enough, mind, that nobody would notice him, but close enough that he could hear and feel everything! The storm rumbled and grumbled and growled and kept marching along - Rolling over the ocean, picking up the waves, tossing the boats and the ships here and there like little ducks in your bathtub. Alto saw how a little boy and a white haired captain struggled to steer their mysterious ship towards a whale in calmer waters.
And as time went on the little rain cloud grew more and more impressed. He knew he shouldn't but it was hard not to admire something so powerful and impressive. And it wasn't long before Alto wanted to become a storm cloud himself..

Funnily enough, his wish came true when he got a little bit too close to the storm cloud on a very wet and windy day. Alto was tagging a bit too close behind his hero and as the behemoth slowed down to enjoy the sight of boats in a harbor crashing around like rice grains being poured into a sinkbowl, whoosh, Alto - he was sucked up into the tail of this storm cloud and couldn't get out. He was like a little fly stuck on a grand spider’s web. Or, you know, when you get your clothes caught on a wild bush.
He thought, “now I am part of a storm cloud. What am I going to do?
And he huffed and puffed, and with all his might he pulled himself and blew himself and pushed himself off the giant storm cloud. And now he was bigger than before about the size of a kitchen whereas before he was only the size of a kitchen table. Wow. He thought might try this again. And he did - he floated over, floated over back to the storm cloud and touched its tail again. got sucked in right away but as soon as he did, he huffed and puffed and he pushed and pulled and he snapped away from the tail of the storm. And again, he was bigger and stronger than before. He was about the size of a house now.
“Wow”, he said, feeling stronger. He could feel the power in the water and sensed the possibilities within his grasp -
“Anything.” “I could do anything I want!”
He tried going into the beast again. And again and again and again, in and out he went until after a while, Alto, this, once little and very kind raincloud stappod to look around. And to his surprise the huge stormcloud was nowhere to be seen.
But infront of him was a little rainclou. And he looked at himself. And he was the storm cloud. Now he taught, what games can we play? And he rumbled and he grumbled, and he crawled along, and he came to the shore. And he did some damage with his lightning bolts on his belly and from his nose He passed over this little town and didn't look back and he went to the next town and the next village and he passed over and growling and rumbling and lightning until there was nothing left a little island and he sat there as the sun was shining on his back and he was blocking out, shading the island, listening to the people crying, and the farmers roar roaring with anger. And he realised that he made a bad decision. He made a mistake and used his power for the wrong purpose. In a second Alto big storm cloud turned white, and became the cloud. The little rain cloud always wanted to be. And so rain clouds come fixed the things that they've done. They can always start from that day and make things better, or help other places. And so that's what this little rain planted. he floated around. Village by village, town by town, city by city, country, my country, continent by content and rained on all the places that needed the water, like farmer's fields are dry lakes and rivers and reservoirs, he rained on hot slides and swingsto cool little boys and girls legs, arms. And he also kept his cheeky streak and rained on little bad boys and girls or teachers just a little bit and it was very famous in all the forecast news forecasters, weather forecasters would see him on the telly and he would make shapes so that when the forecast as was saying, He is coming to you, they will know exactly who he was. And then after he found his mommy and daddy and his brothers and sisters, and they all lived happily ever after. In the sky floating about rainy people needed it and I'm still a little boy on my shoulder. sleep. Good night. Sweet dreams. The End