Jennie and Stevie’s Wet Day

Stevie stood by the window watching the rain. The garden looked sad and soggy. As the wind blew, the big tree at the bottom seemed to nod, “yes”, as if it agreed with Stevie’s gloomy thoughts. “Look, Jennie,” Stevie said, “the window is crying.”

“Where does all that rain come from?” asked Jennie, who always wanted to know everything. “I don’t know,” replied Stevie, “I expect it just comes.”

“Ahem!” said a voice at that moment. “Ahem!” It seemed to come from somewhere behind the children. “What was that?” asked Jennie. “Ahem!” There it was again.

The children spun round. Facing them on the wall were bookshelves from floor to ceiling. Each shelf was crammed with books: big books, little books, fat books, thin books, red, green, brown, blue books. There were books standing up, books lying down, and books leaning against each other. “Ahem!! ” It came from the bookshelves.

“Look!” said Jennie, pointing. On the third shelf up a blue, middling-sized book was bobbing about. It reminded Stevie of school when someone wanted Miss to see them. As the children stared it bobbed more and more. Then, quite distinctly, it spoke, “If you take me down,” it said, “I will show you where all that rain comes from.”

Stevie looked at Jennie and Jennie looked at Stevie – whoever heard of a book that talked? They glanced round to see if Mum and Dad had heard anything, but they were watching TV at the other end of the room. Cat hadn’t heard anything, either; he was fast asleep on Mum’s lap. The voice spoke again, “Go on, Young People! Don’t be afraid! Take me down from this shelf!” Slowly, Stevie began to raise his arm. Then, he made up his mind all at once and lifted the book down.

Instantly, everything was different. The children found themselves on a sandy beach. It was a beautiful summer’s day with the sun shining in a clear, blue sky. It was really warm, too, and Jennie and Stevie were amazed to discover that they were wearing swimsuits. Lots of other people were enjoying themselves in the water and on the soft, warm sand. “Yes,” said Book who was standing beside the children, “it is a lovely day, isn’t it?’ Let’s have fun.” He started to run and the two children raced him into the sea. “Ooh!” squealed Jennie as her toes touched water. “It’s warm!” Stevie started to splash Jennie. The drops of water glittered and twinkled like a shower of fairy lights. Jennie splashed Stevie back and Book joined in. The sun climbed higher into the sky and as it climbed it grew hotter and hotter.

All at once Stevie stood stock still, wide-eyed in astonishment. “You’re shrinking!” he shouted at Jennie. “I’m not!” Jennie was most indignant. “Yes you are!” Stevie was quite sure. “You’re smaller than Book and getting smaller!” Jennie turned. Book was now above her head. She looked back to Stevie. “You are too!” she shrieked. “Quick!” said Book suddenly. “Take my hands.” Stevie and Jennie made a wild grab.

They were just in time. Slowly and surely they were rising from the sea into the air. “What’s happening?” gasped Jennie. “Where are we going?” “Don’t worry.” said Book calmly. “We’re going for a ride.”

Like balloons the children rose gently higher and higher. On the beach the people began to look like small dots. “Look at those houses,” giggled Jennie as they began to float high enough to see a nearby town. “How can real people live in such tiny houses?” Just then some seagulls appeared. “Watch out!” yelled Stevie. The huge birds wheeled past them, screaming. “Phew! That was close!” Stevie breathed again as he saw the gulls dive down on to the sea far below them. “Did you see how big they were up here?” Book said nothing, he was smiling.

In a short while, Stevie, Jennie and Book were drifting effortlessly over the sea. One or two ships among the waves seemed almost lost in all that water. “What a long way they’ve got to go,” remarked Jennie. Soon some fluffy, white clouds came along. The children and Book found themselves mixed up in one of them. You couldn’t exactly say that they were riding on it. It felt rather damp, but it wasn’t cold. Jennie tried to make a “cloud-ball” to throw at Stevie, but it wasn’t much good. Well, have you ever tried to make a ball out of mist? Clouds are only made of mist, after all.

Gradually the cloud grew bigger. It also grew darker. Looking down the children saw they were back over land again. They could see fields with minute cows in them, and more tiny houses. Book said, “Look, we’re coming to some hills.” By straining their eyes a little the children could just make out a few bumps on the land. The bumps became larger. “We’re going up again,” said Jennie suddenly. “I’m cold.” Stevie’s teeth were starting to chatter. The cloud around them was getting blacker and wetter.

Then something very strange happened; Stevie and Jennie and Book each found themselves shut up in a bubble of water. They could see each other and speak to each other, but they couldn’t touch one another. “What’s all this?” shouted Stevie, alarmed. “I know,” Jennie called. “We’re in glass lifts like the one in the shopping centre.” Book was amused. “You’re nearly right.” he said. “We’re inside raindrops.” “Inside raindrops?” said Jennie and Stevie together. They couldn’t understand anything.

“It’s like this,” said Book, “When we were on the beach in the water we all got hotter and hotter. We were mixed up with the water, so the sun turned us into mist with some of the seawater. It’s a little bit like the steam that comes out of the kettle when it boils, only you can’t see it as easily. Mist, or vapour, is very light so we went up into the air like balloons. Then the breeze blew us out across the sea till we came over this land. Now we’ve been trying to get up over the hills, but there’s a lot of water in the clouds and it’s heavy so it can’t go quite high enough, and… whoops… !” Book stopped abruptly. The three of them were starting to go down in their raindrops.

At first they went slowly, but before long they were rushing down. “Yippee!” shouted the children racing towards the ground. Soon they were past the hill-tops and heading for a house in the valley. All about them were millions of other raindrops, but there were certainly no other children in them.

“We’re raining!” shouted Stevie happily. With a rush and a plop they were down.

Stevie and Jennie blinked and rubbed their eyes. They felt fine, not even the tiniest bit bumped, and where do you think they were? Yes, you’ve guessed; they were back at home. Mum and Dad were watching TV as if nothing had happened. Cat was still asleep on Mum’s lap; in fact he was just beginning to stretch himself in the way cats do. Stevie and Jennie looked at each other. After a minute Stevie went to the window. It was still raining.

“You know,” said Stevie thoughtfully, “I think I can tell you now where all that rain comes from.” “So can I,” said Jennie. “But I wonder what happens to it next?” “Do you think Book will show us? asked Stevie. He and Jennie turned to look at the bookshelves. Their eyes wandered questioningly over the quiet rows of books. They were quite sure that a blue, middling-sized one on the third shelf winked at them.