Looking across at the orchard outside, Kip saw the branches laden with fruit.
‘Can I have an apple, please?’ he asked, suddenly remembering his hunger.
‘Of course, help yourself,’ said the hermit, gesturing towards the trees.
Kip chose the largest, reddest apple of all, and when he took a bite, it was sweet and juicy, the best apple he’d ever eaten in his life.
‘Do you live here alone?’ Scruggs asked.
‘Just me and my dogs,’ said the hermit.
‘Don’t you get lonely?’ Juniper said.
‘Not really,’ the hermit answered. ‘I’ve got my music to keep me company, and there’s so much to do in a garden, you never get bored. The dogs are my best friends, and from time to time, visitors like you drop in.’
‘How far is the nearest town?’ Kip asked.
‘About a three-hour drive in that direction.’ He pointed downhill. Through the clouds, Kip could just make out a winding road circling down a ridge. The hermit added, ‘It would take you another six hours to get back to school.’
Kip and his friends looked at each other in alarm.
‘Which school?’ asked Scruggs.
‘Paramount, of course,’ the hermit said. ‘That’s where you’ve come from, isn’t it? I recognized your uniforms.’
Kip glanced down at the patch on his blazer pocket with the embroidered motto, Verum Libertas.
The hermit laughed. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t send you back. I was a student there, years ago, and I would have run away too if I could have.’
‘You studied at Paramount?’ asked Meghna, tossing the core of her apple on to a compost heap.
‘I did, but that was a long time ago, before you were even born,’ the hermit replied.
‘Was Brother Lazarus there?’ Kip asked.
‘Of course,’ said the hermit. ‘Is he still teaching you how to make poisons?’
Juniper nodded.
‘I didn’t learn much at school. Everything practical, I taught myself,’ said the hermit. ‘How to dig up the ground, what nutrients need to be added to the soil, when to plant a seed and how much water it needs. If you learn all that, you’ll never be hungry or bored.’
‘When you were in school, did you ever get sent to Quarantine?’ Ameel asked.
The hermit grinned. ‘All the time,’ he said. ‘I was a troublemaker, that’s for sure. Now, come along, I know you’re all hungry. It’s time for lunch.’
Sixteen
The hermit lived in a small cottage at the lower edge of the orchard, where he had planted fields of potatoes and other vegetables, as well as some wheat and corn. When the five children sat down to lunch, there was barely enough room for them to fit around the table. He had made a huge pot of soup, using all of the vegetables from his garden. Along with this were a couple of loaves of bread, still warm from the oven. Everything tasted fresh and flavourful, unlike the meals at Paramount, which always seemed to have come out of a tin, a bottle or a box. Kip ate three bowls of soup and four thick slices of bread, so that by the end of lunch, he didn’t think he would ever feel hungry again.
‘Now, where are you headed?’ the hermit asked.
‘We’re planning to go north, as far as we can, and try to cross over the snow peaks to get to the other side,’ Juniper explained.
‘That’s a long way from here,’ said the hermit with a serious look. ‘It’s about a two-day journey by bus because the road winds up and goes over the mountains and down into the valleys.’
The five of them looked at each other, not sure what to say. Then Kip saw Juniper and Scruggs exchanging a furtive glance.
‘Well, actually, we’re taking a different route,’ said Scruggs. ‘We’ll be walking across the clouds.’
Before looking up, the hermit swallowed a spoonful of soup, and Kip wondered how he would react, but then he saw a cautious smile appear on his face.
‘I see,’ he said slowly, wiping his beard with the back of his hand. ‘I thought you might be Cloudfarers.’
Juniper nodded.
‘I’ve heard about you,’ the hermit said. ‘Some of the old men and women around here like to tell stories about people who walk on the clouds, even if nobody believes them.’
‘Most people are scared of us,’ said Scruggs.
‘I know,’ said the hermit. ‘For some strange reason, we’re always afraid of things we don’t understand, or anyone who’s even a little bit different from us.’
‘Kip isn’t a Cloudfarer,’ said Juniper. ‘But he’s picked it up quickly, even if we almost lost him a couple of times.’
The hermit looked around the table and shook his head. ‘I’ve always wondered,’ he said. ‘Whenever I look out at the clouds . . . somehow it can’t be so hard to take that first step and then keep on going.’
‘You’re welcome to come with us,’ said Scruggs.
‘Thank you,’ the hermit replied. ‘If I were younger, I might have taken you up on the offer, but I can’t leave my garden, not even for a day. Once you start growing things, it’s a lifetime’s commitment.’
When Kip looked out the window, he noticed the sun was shining brightly and there was no mist.
‘Look!’ he said. ‘The clouds are gone.’
For a moment, everyone stared anxiously out the window, even the three dogs, who seemed to think the monkeys had come back, but the hermit shook his head and laughed.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘They’ve just settled a little lower, that’s all.’
After everyone had picked up their plates and bowls to clear the table, they went outside, and Kip could see where the dense white blanket stretched across the valley, from the lower edge of the fields. Much more of the hill was exposed, and he could see a driveway leading down to a gate in the wall that enclosed the garden.
‘It’s like the tide in an ocean,’ said the hermit. ‘At night, when it gets colder, the clouds descend, and then the next morning, as the air grows warmer, they rise up a couple of hundred feet. Now, in the afternoon, they start going down again.’
‘We should be moving along ourselves,’ said Scruggs.
‘You’ve still got a long way to go, even as the crow flies,’ said the hermit. He urged them all to help themselves to more apples and led them down to the gate, which stood at the edge of the clouds. The dogs bounded ahead, barking with excitement. Next to the gate was a ladder leaning against the wall. It was just the right height for them to step into the clouds.
‘The principal and the warden from Paramount might come looking for us,’ said Scruggs.
‘Don’t worry, I won’t say a word,’ the hermit assured them.
‘Thank you for lunch,’ Kip said. ‘It was the best soup I’ve ever eaten.’
They all shook hands with the hermit and, one by one, they climbed the ladder and set off across the clouds. When he looked back, Kip could see the hermit still waving, and he wondered if the old man wished he could go with them.
By now, the clouds were perfectly calm, with barely a ripple on their surface. Meghna and Ameel led the way, and Kip followed with Juniper and Scruggs. It seemed as if nothing could stop them now.
‘We should reach the snow peaks by tomorrow,’ said Scruggs, ‘As long as we keep walking tonight, for at least two or three hours after sunset.’
Having eaten such a huge lunch, Kip felt he could walk forever. He thought about the hermit and how he didn’t have to travel at all because everything he needed grew inside the walls of his garden. It was like living on an island in the middle of the forest and clouds. Even if the monkeys raided his crops now and then, there was still plenty left over. For someone like Kip, who had grown up in a city, it would be a lonely sort of life, but the hermit seemed contented, and he certainly wasn’t afraid of people who were different from him. Nobody in a city would have invited five strangers to lunch, and if they confessed that they were Cloudfarers, somebody would have probably called the police. But out here, in the middle of nowhere, it didn
’t seem to matter who you were or where you came from.
After the sun went down, the moon came up. It was larger than the night before and brighter, so they could easily see the snow mountains in the distance. Finally, around midnight, Scruggs called a halt, and they all lay down to get some sleep. It was so quiet, there was no need for anyone to stay awake and keep watch. Within a few minutes, Kip closed his eyes and felt himself drifting off. He thought about what the hermit had said, how the clouds rose and fell like the tide, but within a minute or two, his mind went blank in a deep, dreamless sleep.
Much later, he awoke when the moon was almost touching the horizon. The air was completely still and colder now. Kip heard a sound that made him sit up. The others were all asleep. As he looked around, he heard it again. For a moment, it seemed as if someone was snoring, but as Kip listened, he could tell Scruggs was laughing, just as he’d done in their dorm. Now, Meghna and Ameel also began to chuckle. As the moon lit up their faces, Kip saw that all of his friends were smiling, though their eyes were closed. For the first time since Kip had met them, the serious expressions were gone. Even Juniper was laughing, softly at first but then louder and louder, as if she and the others had all remembered the same joke. Kip had no idea what they were laughing about, but as he lay back in the clouds, he couldn’t help joining in.
Seventeen
‘Can I ask you a question?’ Kip blurted out after they’d been walking for half an hour. The five of them had woken up before dawn, and the sun was just about to come up over the hills to the east.
‘Sure,’ said Meghna.
‘Why were all of you laughing in your sleep last night?’
Scruggs and Juniper both stopped and looked around, studying Kip with sombre expressions.
‘You heard us?’ Juniper asked.
Kip nodded, thinking they might be offended by his question.
‘It was a dream story,’ said Scruggs, ‘and a really funny one too!’
Ameel added, ‘It was the best dream story I’ve heard in a long time.’
‘You mean, you all had the same dream?’ said Kip.
‘Yes,’ Meghna explained, ‘it’s one of those things that make us different. Every night, when we’re asleep, all of us share the same story in our minds.’
‘Everyone?’
‘It doesn’t matter where you are,’ said Ameel. ‘Every Cloudfarer has the same dream.’
‘But when we wake up,’ said Juniper, ‘none of us can remember the story.’
‘It’s one of the best things about sleeping,’ Meghna added. ‘Every night, I can’t wait to shut my eyes.’
‘How do you know it’s the same dream if you can’t remember it?’ Kip asked.
‘We just know . . .’ said Meghna, ‘because the stories connect us in our sleep, as if we’re travelling together on the same train or reading the same comic strip in the newspaper every day.’
‘But you don’t laugh or smile when you’re awake,’ said Kip. ‘How come you laugh in your sleep?’
‘I’m not sure. I guess our dreams are so much funnier than real life,’ said Scruggs. ‘Of course, you know we’re not as serious as we look, but when we listen to a funny dream story, none of us can control ourselves. It’s hilarious, like watching a cartoon or listening to a silly joke.’
‘Who tells the story?’ Kip asked.
‘We don’t really know,’ said Juniper, ‘but it’s always the same voice. Sometimes the stories carry on, from one night to the next.’
‘But if you don’t have any memory of the story, how do you know what came before?’ Kip asked, completely puzzled.
‘While you’re dreaming, it all comes back, and you can remember everything, the names and places. It’s just there in your head, but only when you’re asleep,’ Juniper said. ‘It’s hard to explain, but it’s like stepping through a door into another side of yourself.’
‘What kind of voice is it?’ Kip asked.
‘It’s a woman’s voice, for sure,’ said Scruggs, ‘and sometimes she laughs too, though nobody knows who she is.’
‘We call her the Oracle,’ said Ameel, ‘but she doesn’t have a name, and we never actually see the storyteller in our dreams. At least, not that I can remember . . . It’s only her voice.’
‘But are the stories always funny?’
‘No, not always.’ Juniper shrugged and shook her head. ‘I wish you could hear a dream story sometime, Kip, you’d understand what we mean. But it’s not like something we can describe, because there’s nothing else like it.’
‘Are all the stories about Cloudfarers?’
‘Mostly, I think,’ said Scruggs. ‘Sometimes, right after I wake up, there’s a little bit that remains, like the tail end of a sentence, just a word or two, or the name of an animal, person or place. Then it’s gone as soon as I try to remember it.’
‘What if you wake up in the middle of a dream story?’ said Kip. ‘Does it just keep on going for everyone else?’
‘I think so,’ said Meghna, ‘because if you fall back asleep, the voice is still there, as if it never stopped.’
They began walking again as the sun slid into view, casting a yellow light over the clouds. In front of them, the blue snow peaks stretched upwards against the sky, like frozen shadows. It was so beautiful that for a moment, Kip wondered if all of this might be a dream. He then started to laugh, partly because it seemed so crazy but also because he remembered how his friends had been laughing the night before, though they looked so serious now.
‘Hey! Look over there!’ said Scruggs with excitement.
He ran forward, where the sun was hitting the clouds, and Kip saw a bright glint of light.
‘What is it?’ Meghna asked, as Scruggs leaned down and picked something up. It was so small, he held it between his fingers.
‘A cloud crystal!’ he cried, placing it in his palm and holding it out for the others to see.
Kip leaned closer and saw what looked like a tiny piece of glass, or a diamond that glittered so brightly, it seemed alive.
‘Is it ice?’ he asked, wondering if it was a hailstone.
‘No,’ said Scruggs. ‘It forms out of minerals in the clouds, but it’s very rare. I’ve never seen one before.’
‘There’s an old folk tale in which they say it’s the seed of a rainbow,’ said Juniper, picking it up and holding it against the light of the rising sun.
Kip could barely see the crystal until, suddenly, a ray of sunlight shone through it like a prism. The refracted light was projected in dazzling bands of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. It was brighter than anything Kip had ever seen before, as if all of the morning’s light had been distilled into a single beam.
‘It’s supposed to bring good luck,’ said Ameel.
Juniper handed the crystal to Kip, and he held it in his cupped hand, afraid that he might drop it. It seemed to have no weight at all, as if it were made only of light. He then gave it back to Scruggs, who carefully put it inside his pocket.
Suddenly, Kip felt the clouds begin to shift under their feet. It was nothing but a slight tremor at first, and Kip thought it might have been the wind, but then the sensation grew stronger, as if the clouds were swelling up, like a rolling wave lifting him slowly but steadily higher. Looking around to see what was happening, Kip saw the panic on his friends’ faces. The placid white surface remained as it was, except where they were standing. The clouds mushroomed up beneath them like a great white toadstool.
‘Watch out!’ Scruggs yelled, but it was too late. They were already 30 feet up, and it was too high to jump.
‘What is it?’ Meghna shouted, grabbing Ameel’s arm.
‘A balloon!’ cried Kip.
Eighteen
This time, instead of using a helicopter, Captain Lovelock and his crew had commandeered a hot-air balloon. As it lifted out of the clouds, Kip and the others were stranded on top. The smooth dome of synthetic fabric curved down on all sides, and there was nothing to hold on to
. Their feet sank in a few inches, but it was slippery, and Kip had trouble keeping his balance.
‘Everyone, grab hands!’ Juniper yelled, ‘And lie flat.’
Just as Kip felt himself beginning to slide off the balloon, Ameel and Scruggs caught hold of his hands and threw themselves on their stomachs, so that they were stretched out in a circle like a team of acrobats or skydivers. By now, the balloon was 50 feet above the clouds, drifting away from the mountains.
‘All right! We’ve got you now!’ bellowed Lovelock’s voice from below. ‘You have no choice but to surrender!’
From on top of the balloon, they couldn’t see the principal, but in his mind, Kip pictured Lovelock in the gondola below.
‘Come down right now!’ the warden shouted.
‘We can’t!’ yelled Juniper. She was lying across from Kip, holding on to Scruggs’ and Meghna’s hands. ‘If any of us move, we’ll fall!’
Then, lowering her voice, she whispered to the others: ‘They know they can’t climb up and we can’t get down. As long as we stay here, we’re okay.’
‘But how long can we do this?’ Kip whispered back. The sun was already warming his back, and the balloon itself was uncomfortably hot. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the snow-covered mountains retreating behind him.
‘What if we jump?’ said Ameel. ‘The clouds are soft enough.’
‘But they won’t hold us,’ said Scruggs. ‘It’s one thing to walk on them but if you drop from this height, you’ll go straight through.’
‘We’ve got to get down somehow,’ said Ameel.
Once again the principal shouted from below: ‘Listen up! If you return to school, you won’t be punished, I promise!’
‘Why should we believe you?’ Scruggs yelled back.
‘I give you my word, everything will be forgiven,’ said Lovelock, though his voice didn’t sound convincing. ‘No Quarantine. No Crypt.’
Meanwhile, Juniper was watching where they were headed.
‘I think they’re going to try to land over there,’ she whispered. ‘On that hill sticking out of the clouds. There’s a flat open space at the top.’
The Cloudfarers Page 8