Cloud Boy
Page 2
It has been totally perfect, except for Harry’s head which seems to ache a lot. We think it may be craning his neck to see the clouds, so we have put cloud cushions on the floor. Now we can lie on our backs and look up at the sky, which is loads more comfortable. I like lying down to draw so it suits me.
Grandma Gertie says that if we are really careful she will think about lending us Grandpa Jimmy’s very special and amazingly old marine telescope so that we can have a closer look at the clouds and the night sky. Grandma met Grandpa Jimmy when they were both little kids in Changi Prison and Grandpa had the telescope with him then. It was very precious to Grandpa as it had been given to him by his grandfather, which means it must be truly ancient! Harry is beside himself with excitement, but Grandma can take ages thinking things over so I’m not holding my breath – well, maybe just a little. I think it must be the telescope that Grandma has hidden in her secret box. What do you think, Harry?
I told you, it’s a dead rat and a mangled finger! –H
Oh, go away you idiot!
LATER
Harry has donated his favourite stuffed owl to Artcloud – stuffed with sweets that he steals from his mum’s so-called “secret” store.
I told you not to share my secrets with your diary! Besides, they are usually sweets bought with my own money that Mum has hidden away, so it’s not exactly stealing!
I’ve told you before – keep out of my diary!
Anyway, the owl is looking pretty skinny now because we have spent the afternoon gorging ourselves! Harry was charting different clouds and I was drawing them so we needed the sugar energy.
I turned the clouds into animals. The first was a very rare cirrus cloud called a Kelvin-Helmholtz wave cloud – I’ve never actually seen one, but Harry says it looks like curling waves. I think it is formed by winds moving in different directions, like sea currents. I drew Harry and me, plus our imaginary dog, riding the waves in our cloud ship!
The second one I drew was my favourite cloud: cumulus. It comes in magical shapes and can be as heavy as a herd of elephants! Cumulus clouds are like shape-shifters – this one went from a giant, to a dog, to a lion, to a bear and then a fish. After that it just floated away as if to say, “That’s it, your entertainment is over now and I’m going home for a rest!”
Harry is going to write about clouds, with my permission this time. Here he is – say hello, Harry.
Hello, Harry and hello, Angie’s Diary, This is the sweet stealer and cloud spotter extraordinaire, Harry Christmas! My worst cloud this half term has been nimbostratus. It is thick and black and covers the whole sky like a mist in your head. Nimbostratus won’t go away until it’s all rained out, which can take ages. The only good thing about nimbostratus is that it makes Angie and me feel that Artcloud is the cosiest and driest place in the world!
And now back to you, Angie.
Thank you, Harry, and good night – it’s time for hot chocolate with marshmallows. Yes, more sweets, but don’t tell anyone!
3RD JUNE,
STAR OF RADIO AND TV, GERTRUDE OLIVE MOON!
CLOUDS: Cumulus fractus
Dear Diary,
This has been a seriously great day. Grandma Gertie visited Artcloud, bringing the admission price of two ice creams and her treasure box!
Grandma doesn’t like being in small spaces – it reminds her of when she was in Changi Prison. Poor Grandma. The Japanese stuffed over 2,000 prisoners into a little jail meant for only a few hundred people, so it was very, very crowded and claustrophobic. Now small spaces frighten Grandma, which is not surprising! Harry and I felt very honoured by her visit.
We hauled the ice creams and treasure box up in the pulley, while Grandma bravely mounted the ladder to our little cloud land. After we’d eaten the ice creams and shown her around, which took all of two minutes, she opened the box and brought out my Grandpa Jimmy’s marine telescope! It is made of green leather and shiny brass. It is tiny when it’s folded up, but it looks very impressive when you pull it out – like something from a pirate film.
Grandma said we could borrow it for cloud spotting. Yes, she really, really did. Since Grandpa Jimmy died, it has been her most treasured possession so I am gobsmacked and Harry is double gobsmacked! Grandpa Jimmy managed to keep his telescope hidden from the prison guards all through the war. He also helped Grandma hide the letters she wrote to her kitten, Rosie!
The letters that haven’t vanished or rotted away now live in the box with the telescope and a couple of old newspaper clippings that Grandpa Jimmy must have stuffed in there just before the war. The paper the letters are written on is very, very fragile and might just crumble away so Grandma wouldn’t let us touch them, but she said she’d ask Dad to get them copied and then she might read them to us. In the meantime, she suggested we make a patchwork quilt for Artcloud, full of our memories, like the one she made in Changi. I thought it was a crepuscular idea, but Harry wasn’t so sure – I don’t think he knows what sewing needles are for!
Yes I do, they’re for pricking annoying girls with!
4TH JUNE,
THE FIRST ROSIE
LETTER
CLOUDS: Cumulus humilis
Dear Diary,
I hate to over-indulge you with too many entries, but the truth is life is so exciting I’ve just got to tell you about it! Dad copied Grandma’s Rosie letters last night and today Harry and I persuaded her to read us the first one. It is truly incredible and luckily Dad made two copies so that I can stick one into your pages.
When Grandma starts on the letters she seems to remember every moment of that time as if it was yesterday. She says the first letter was written just after the island of Singapore had surrendered to the Japanese. Nobody had expected the invasion and nobody knew what was going to happen, least of all poor Grandma. Grandma’s dad had left their house two days earlier to try to get the family passage on a ship back to England. He didn’t return and Grandma and her mum were frightened he’d been captured or killed – how scary that must have been.
This is my copy of the first letter. The actual, actual letter is all smudged with age and a bit torn.
Isn’t that incredible? It’s like a story in a book. We had to beg Grandma to read the next letter, because she was all choked up, but after a little pause she was off again!
Don’t you think my grandma was brave, hiding her paper and pencil under her hat? I’m not sure I’d be brave enough to hide you under my hat, Diary!
Harry and I wanted to read more but Grandma wanted to go and help with Solo. I think she found reading about such a sad time really difficult. I do love my grandma – she’s historic! I think we should definitely get her to help us make a patchwork quilt for Artcloud. Hold on – Harry’s got the writing bug!
I think Gertie was fantastically brave too. She’s altogether pretty cool for an ancient – a bit of a crepuscular ray! As for borrowing the telescope – that is totally awesome and I am lost for words! Apart from seeing clouds and stars better, we can spy on our neighbours. I might even agree to help make a patchwork quilt, as long as it has lots of clouds on it and I only have to cut the hexagons and advise.
Grandma said Artcloud felt really cosy and not a bit like Changi. She intends to be a regular visitor, if we agree – which we might for the sake of the letters, help with quilt-making and lots of ice cream treats!
5TH JUNE,
MY MISSING FRIEND
Dear Diary,
Don’t ask me about the clouds today, because I don’t care. Clouds are a Harry thing and I’m off all Harry things. We were supposed to go back to school together after half term, but when I knocked for Harry there was no answer. I thought maybe he’d forgotten and gone on without me, but here I am in the playground with no Harry, just my diary! All those grunge girls tease me when Harry’s not about. “Lost your twin?” “Don’t your boyfriend love you no more?” I’ll kill him when I get home, I truly will.
LATER – IN ARTCLOUD
I came straight out here
after school and rang the bell three times, meaning “Come quick, I need you urgently,” but the lazy hedgehog didn’t come. I’m really, really cross. Yes I flipping am, really, really cross. Poor Grandma Gertie, she’ll regret lending us the telescope if Harry has lost interest in it already!
Just finished my homework and rung the bell again – still no Harry. He must be at home now, because I can see his mum in the kitchen. What’s the matter with him? Mum’s calling, so I’ll have to go.
LATER STILL – IN BED
Dearest Diary,
I wish I could rub all my crossness out but it’s written in ink so it’s there to stay. Harry is not being mean, he’s ill. I think he may be very ill, but there is just a lot of whispering and nobody is quite saying. His mum took him to the doctor this morning because of his headaches and being sick. It turns out it’s not craning his neck or eating too many sausages. The doctor sent them straight to the hospital where Harry had loads of tests. He’s at home asleep now. Lilly says I can go and see him before school tomorrow. I’m going to wake up really early and study the clouds so that I can tell him all about them.
6TH JUNE,
A NOT GOOD DAY
I don’t know what’s going on. I went to see Harry before school, but his dad wouldn’t let me in. When I gave him the cloud card I’d drawn for Harry he gave me a big hug, which was weird as hugging is not a Joe thing.
LATER
Harry’s gone back to hospital. I’m freaked out, people die in hospitals!
9TH JUNE,
A VERY NOT GOOD DAY
Dear and very special Diary,
Suddenly, I am really glad to have you to talk to. Now I see why people keep a diary and it’s not to report on the day, it’s to give your true heart and feelings a place to explode. Well, here’s my explosion, which is made up of little crystals of sadness and fear: boom, crash, smash and splinter! I’m like a cumulonimbus thundercloud, or maybe like the Japanese god of thunder and lightning, Raiden. He looks like a red devil, has sharp claws and likes eating human belly buttons – gross.
The last days have been like a terrible dream. I want to cry all the time, which is really dumb and selfish because I’m the lucky one. It’s not me that’s ill, it’s Harry, and he is very ill. Mum says that doctors are clever people and they’ll make him better, but that feels slippery to me. I keep imagining this terrible space opening up where Harry should be, but isn’t. A bit like when you’re drawing a cloud and it vanishes before you’ve finished – just the empty sky remains. I am so scared, I can’t imagine life without Harry. He’s always been there, always, always.
Now I know why Grandma likes to be at home with Grandpa Jimmy’s things, because I just want to wrap myself in Artcloud among Harry’s things. I hid up there after school, but Grandma found me. She clambered up the ladder with a pocket full of hexagons. She says that she’ll help me do the sewing, but I have to design the quilt myself because I’m the artist in the family. She says to pack it full of jokes and memories to surprise Harry with. I’ve started drawing ideas already. It makes me feel better to be doing something for Harry. I wonder if Grandma writes about making the Changi quilt in her letters to Rosie, and if making the quilt made her feel better. Grandma’s going to read us some more letters when Harry comes home so maybe I’ll find out.
10TH JUNE,
THE HOSPITAL
I haven’t seen Harry since half term, but I am going to the hospital today. I feel nervous, but bursting to see him. I need to tell him that he’s got to get better. He can be so flicking lazy, he might just do a hedgehog hibernation and not bother if I don’t nag him. I’m going to draw him another cloud card now.
LATER
I thought Harry might have changed into some horrible hospital monster – but he was still Harry, only maybe a bit smaller and whiter. He is in a room on his own with an extra bed for his mum. He was in bed when we got there, but quite chatty. Mum took Lilly for a cup of tea so Harry and I had a chance to talk. I told him he had to work at getting better, but he didn’t answer. He wants me to bring in some sweets tomorrow, and also his cloud notebook and some more of Grandma Gertie’s Rosie letters, but I don’t think she’ll like that. Then a nurse came to take some blood, so I had to go. Well, I didn’t have to go, but needles make me feel funny.
SECRET: I have just snuck out to Artcloud and emptied our owl store of sweets. They’re hidden in my backpack now, along with Harry’s latest cloud-spotting notebook. I hope I don’t get caught, because I don’t think you’re allowed sweets in hospital. I didn’t dare ask Grandma about the letters. I’ll wait a bit.
11TH JUNE,
ANOTHER HOSPITAL VISIT
Grandma took me to hospital today as Mum was busy with Solo and cooking for Harry’s dad. It was boiling hot but Grandma was wearing at least three scarves – she’s daft! She bought me a doughnut with sprinkles for a snack and no cucumber sticks – what would Mum say!
We got a bus straight to the hospital, but when we arrived Harry wasn’t in his room. The nurse said he was having tests, so we waited. When he came back he was in a wheelchair and wouldn’t talk to us. I think he was embarrassed.
Grandma went to the cafe with Lilly while I stayed with Harry. He cheered up a bit when he saw the sweets and his notebook. He took all the red sweets and hid them under his pillow. Then he wrote this note on the pad by his bed:
With that he turned to the wall and fell asleep – so rude! But cumulonimbus is a really bad storm cloud, which means that Harry was not feeling at all good.
I didn’t know what to do, so I sat in silence and drew a picture of a cumulonimbus cloud – well, how I think it looks. If Harry was awake he would have said it’s the King of Clouds and can grow to ten miles high. It is often the shape of an anvil, which mine was – sort of!
Lilly and Grandma came back and we were just about to leave when Harry opened his eyes and asked Grandma if she was going to read a Rosie letter or not. He was so rude, he didn’t even say please. I thought she’d be really cross, but she just took a letter out of her bag and started reading. Good old Grandma!
Just imagine, Diary – if that had been me I wouldn’t have been able to write in you without risking my life! That is a truly fearful thought.
I wanted to talk to Harry about it, but he had fallen asleep and so had Lilly. Grandma and I crept out. I hate not being able to talk about every single little thing with Harry, it’s just something I’ve always, always done. I cried a smidgen when we left and Grandma hugged me close. She told me that when she was in Changi Prison she had at least eight really bad attacks of malaria. Once she was so ill the carpenter made her a coffin. There was no medicine and the doctor could do nothing but drip water into her mouth. They were sure Gertie would die. Well, she didn’t. She surprised everyone by recovering, and the coffin went to waste!
“And the moral of that tale,” said Grandma Gertie, “is never give up on someone!”
I asked her if we could read Harry some more Rosie letters next time we visit, because he really loves listening to them. She said we could. I won’t ever give up on Harry and nor will Grandma. She’s going to ask Mum if she can stay until he’s better – I hope she can. Grandma’s also going to ask Mum for some cotton scraps for our quilt – great!
LATER
I didn’t feel like visiting Artcloud this evening. It doesn’t seem the same without Harry – it’s spidery and lonesome. Anyway, Solo was crying so Mum gave him to me to jiggle. I must have the knack, because he was soon asleep. I suppose he’s quite sweet really. He wouldn’t let go of my finger so we watched telly together until Mum sent me up to bed. Good night, Harry, get better soon. I’ll visit you again tomorrow.
INNERMOST SECRET THOUGHT: Grandma wouldn’t have said she’d stay until Harry’s better if she didn’t believe he will get better…Would she?
Question: Did I remember to feed Edith today?
Answer: Glug, bubble, glug! (In case you were wondering, that’s fish for “Not finning enough!”)
P.S. Drawing usually cheers me up, but today I’ve been too sad to draw anything, even Edith.
12TH JUNE,
A NOTHING, NO HARRY DAY
I am writing this under my bed with various dirty socks, pants, fluff balls and books. Grandma knocked on my door to ask if she could show me some of the cotton for our quilt, but I don’t want to talk to anyone – not Mum, not Dad, not Grandma and definitely not Solo.
I wasn’t allowed to visit Harry today. Mum said he needed to rest. What was almost worse was that nobody teased me at school. I guess everyone has been told that Harry is really, really ill. They’ve given some kid called Peter Maudle his part in the play. I bet he doesn’t sing as well as Harry. I haven’t got a part at all, but I don’t care because I’m going to be looking out for Harry.
13TH JUNE,
THIRTEEN IS NOT AN UNLUCKY NUMBER
CLOUDS: On cloud nine - which means I am very happy and sitting on a cumulonimbus cloud after the storm has passed. It is the tallest of all cloud types and was numbered nine in the first ever International Cloud Atlas published in 1896— oh shut up, Angie, before you become as nerdy about clouds as Harry!