Cloud Boy

by Marcia Williams

  Mum took me home then, because we were all exhausted. But I get to see Harry and Cirrus every day after school, and Grandma and I are going to finish the quilt extra specially quickly so that Harry has lots of happy memories to keep him well.

  12TH OCTOBER,

  CLOUD DREAMS

  Dearest Diary,

  Last night I lay in bed and imagined I was on a cloud with Harry and Cirrus. It was a cumulus cloud, soft and as strong as a herd of elephants. Puppy Cirrus kept tumbling up and down its slopes. As I closed my eyes Harry became part of the cloud, pale and wispy. He was there but only just – then I fell asleep.

  20TH OCTOBER,

  HARRY AND CIRRUS

  CLOUDS: Nimbostratus – pouring with rain

  Dearest Diary,

  A lot has happened in the last few days. Best of all, I have seen Harry and Cirrus every day! Some days Harry is up and we play with Cirrus in the garden, or watch the clouds through the kitchen window. Other days he has to stay in bed and then he lies very still and hardly talks. I sit beside him and hold his hand. He likes that – although he never says. Some days Mum or Grandma come and sit with me. When Grandma comes she brings the quilt and we stitch it together. It’s getting quite big now. We haven’t told Harry it’s for him – it’ll be a surprise.

  There are only three more Rosie letters left and Grandma says she is saving them for a special occasion, maybe when Harry is well enough to go up to Artcloud. I think one must be about finishing the Changi quilt, but Grandma won’t say!

  Grandma told us that because of the terrible conditions at Changi she’ll never make old bones, which makes Harry and me laugh because Grandma couldn’t be much older! She also told us that Grandpa Jimmy could only eat soup for years after they were rescued – his poor throat had closed up from lack of food. He was also plagued with skin cancer because of all that time he spent in the sun. I’d be really angry if I was Grandma, but she says anger is a waste of time. She does miss her Jimmy though. I hope I don’t ever have to miss Harry.

  Half term tomorrow, hooray!

  26TH OCTOBER,

  A RAINBOW DAY

  CLOUDS: Cumulus

  Dear Diary,

  You’ll never guess what – Harry and I saw a rainbow today. What’s special about that? Well, we saw a primary rainbow with a secondary bow that had all its colours in the reverse order. Not only that, but we also spotted “Alexander’s Dark Band” in between the two rainbows – I bet we’re the only cloud spotters to have noticed that.

  The truth is neither Harry nor I would have seen it if Grandma hadn’t pointed it out. Her Jimmy taught her how to spot the band when they were in Changi. She says a rainbow seemed like a symbol of good luck and a double rainbow, double good luck. I like the idea of double luck – with some luck for Harry and some for me, nothing can go wrong!

  Grandma says it was “rainbow luck” that brought her and Jimmy back together after they left Changi. The war in the Pacific didn’t end until September 1945, after the Americans had dropped two terrible atomic bombs on Japan. After that the Japanese surrendered and the prison guards handed Changi over to the Allied soldiers in the men’s camp. Grandma says there were rumours that the guards were going to kill everyone before they surrendered, but they didn’t. Anyway, eventually all the prisoners were put on hospital ships and sent to England or Australia. Grandma’s family went back to England and she lost touch with Jimmy. She thought she would never see him again.

  When Grandma’s family had recovered, Grandma’s father was sent back to Singapore. Grandma finished her schooling there and then started to train as a nurse. One rainy, rainbow day while she was a student nurse, who should she find on her ward but Jimmy! After that Grandma and Jimmy were never parted again. Grandma says she doesn’t think either of them could have married someone who hadn’t been in Changi, because it left them with so many awful memories as well as health problems.

  Jimmy told Grandma that before he left Changi he had gone to look for his telescope. He hardly dared believe he’d find it, but there it was still in its hiding place, along with Grandma’s letters to Rosie. So when Gertie was reunited with Jimmy, she was also reunited with her letters. After that the letters and the telescope always stayed together, just like Jimmy and Grandma.

  I will be so sad when Jimmy sends a cloud for his Gertie, but I can feel that she longs to be with him again. Just not quite yet – please, Grandma.

  No Grandma, we need you here and you haven’t read all the Rosie letters yet.

  Hey, who said you could write in my diary?

  Cirrus!

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  NOVEMBER

  COLD, RAINY AND BLEAK

  ------------------

  1ST NOVEMBER

  CLOUDS: Nimbostratus

  I haven’t done much jotting recently on account of Harry. He’s not been very lively so I’ve been keeping him company and looking after Cirrus. Harry doesn’t talk much at the moment, he just lies on his beanbag listening to my bad jokes. Even when his head hurts really badly, which it sometimes does, I can make him smile. It’s lucky my dad is such a clown, or I wouldn’t know so many rubbish jokes!

  Harry’s baby brother or sister is due in two and a half weeks – what will it be? Harry wants a little sister. I think it would be nice if it was a little boy for Solo to play with – but then, as you may have noticed, I quite like boys!

  LATER – EMERGENCY!

  Would you believe it, I had just written the above when Lilly was rushed into hospital to have the baby, ten days early!

  It’s a girl called Fleur, which is French for flower. Harry chose the name after seeing the flowers on the Changi quilt! Grandma was dead chuffed and says we will now have to put the same flowers on Harry’s quilt which, by the way, is still growing.

  Lilly has to stay in hospital for a bit, because Fleur was early, so I am going to stay with Harry, Cirrus and Joe, just to keep them company. A funny, bubbly nurse comes to make sure Harry has the right medicine, because Joe is a bit rubbish at that sort of thing. But he is an ace artist. He drew a picture of baby Fleur for us, because we are not going to see her until she comes home, which might not be for a few days. Joe and I also drew lots of pictures of dogs and cloud nymphs and stuck them all over the walls for Harry to look at.

  FACT: It’s going to be fun staying with Harry and Joe. I don’t even mind when Harry is cross with me, because it’s only when his head hurts. Joe lets us eat crisps and watch as much telly as we want. Actually, it’s wicked nobody ever says no to Harry now, so we get to eat and drink whatever we want. If I feel like a fizzy drink and a bowl of sweets, I just say Harry wants them and hey presto – they appear like magic!

  CANINE FACT: Cirrus never leaves Harry’s beanbag, except to eat or have a run in the garden with me. Even then he rushes back to Harry, licks his face and snuggles under the blanket beside him. I think Cirrus is trying to help Harry get better by giving him lots and lots of love and magic licking.

  SECRET: They’ll be snuggling under Harry’s quilt soon, because we’re going to give it to him for Christmas. And unlike those Changi Girl Guides, we will get our quilt finished in time!

  2ND NOVEMBER,

  ANOTHER LETTER

  CLOUDS: Altocumulus

  Grandma and Mum came over this evening and we all had supper together. Grandma said the birth of Fleur yesterday made it a special enough day to read another letter. As there are only three left we are eking them out and hoping the quilt gets finished before the letters!

  Harry and I felt so proud of Grandma and the other Guides. They just never gave up, however dangerous it was. I think my great-great-grandma was pretty amazing too – imagine tricking the guards like that!

  I can’t wait to hear the rest of the letters.

  3RD NOVEMBER,

  A CREPUSCULAR BABY FLEUR DAY!

  CLOUDS: Cirrostratus

  I got to have the day off school to celebrate the birth of Fleur! She came home today and Harry, Joe and I
got all dressed up to welcome her. Harry dressed as the cloud dog Cirrus, but was then sick all down the clouds and had to become a boy on a beanbag. I was Nephele the cloud nymph. Cirrus WAS Cirrus, but with a blue bow, and Joe wore a pirate’s outfit without the eye patch, because we thought that might scare Fleur! We made Fleur and Lilly a cake covered in pink icing. I tried to write Fleur’s name on it, but it went sort of wonky.

  LATER

  I am back home now. You can have too much of all that baby mush. Even sane adults and boys cry, gurgle and coo when they see a new baby. Harry let Fleur lie beside him and Cirrus on the beanbag and they all fell asleep together. Lilly thought it was “so sweet” – I thought it was soppy. You would never know they are brother and sister – Harry is very pale and his hair is still blond with curly wisps, while Fleur is very pink and has loads of dark straight hair. I’m much more like Harry than Fleur is.

  I wonder if Fleur and Solo will be best friends like Harry and me.

  5TH NOVEMBER

  CLOUDS: A cumulonimbus thundercloud day

  Dear Diary,

  Everything is rubbish: school is rubbish, home is rubbish, Artcloud is rubbish, clouds are rubbish and even drawing is rubbish. I can’t write what’s wrong, because it is worse than rubbish and there aren’t words for it. It’s Harry’s and my very best day of the year. We always have a firework party and watch the rockets light up the night clouds. We could have watched them from Artcloud this year – except we didn’t. I don’t understand why because even if you’re not well you can still enjoy watching the sky light up.

  I hate everyone and everything and I don’t ever want to see Harry again. I should never, ever have been friends with him. I knew I shouldn’t have been, he’s a boy, a stupid, stupid, stupid boy.

  15TH NOVEMBER,

  MY BESTEST FRIEND EVER, EVER, EVER!

  I don’t know what to write and I don’t do cloud spotting any more.

  Harry has given up the beanbag and taken to his mum and dad’s bed. He is like a little pale prince, lying in a white fairytale bed. He is my bestest, bestest friend and I know I am his. Sometimes he makes everyone go away except his mum, Cirrus and me. He always smiles at me and we mostly just hold hands. Sometimes, he wants to watch me draw clouds, and I sit beside him on the bed and draw little clouds with funny faces. Other times I just lie on the bed beside him and tell him about the clouds I pretend to see on the ceiling, what shapes they make and their names, because Harry’s eyes are too blurry to see many clouds any more. It’s like we’re in Artcloud together, except we aren’t. I can’t do jokes any more, I can’t seem to remember them.

  When the nurse comes she tries to send me away, but that makes Harry cross and his head hurt.

  Sometimes Harry likes Fleur to lie beside him too. Lilly and Joe don’t have family close by so Mum and Grandma are trying to help by cooking for them and looking after little Fleur.

  25TH NOVEMBER,

  ONE MONTH UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

  Only one month until Christmas – I’d forgotten about it until today. I rushed around and banged on Harry’s door. Amazingly, he was downstairs watching telly, so I reminded him of his promise. Even though he can’t talk at the moment, he PROMISED to be well for Christmas, he really did and you NEVER, NEVER break a promise. Harry held my hand really tight and pretended to pull a cracker. He will be better – I know he will.

  I told Lilly about the promise and she told Harry about the Christmas cake she’s planning to make. It’s going to be blue with white clouds floating around it, and hidden in the clouds will be Christmas robins with flowers in their beaks for Fleur and drawing pens for me.

  Lilly said everyone would sing “I Wish I Were a Christmas Cloud” as well as “Happy Christmas”, and she’d heard that Father Christmas had a whole extra sack of presents loaded onto his sleigh just for Harry and me! Not that Harry and I believe in Father Christmas, but we carry on pretending for our parents.

  Anyway, it will be the best Christmas ever, I know it will. I’ve made Harry and me a chart so we can cross off the days until then.

  Grandma and I were having a blitz on Harry’s quilt, but then Grandma said that she thought it was a time to make memories and not to save them, so why didn’t we just spend a bit of time doing special things and visiting Harry. Well, it is a busy time so she may have a point, but I do, do, do want to finish the quilt by Christmas.

  ------------------

  DECEMBER

  CHRISTMAS IS COMING!

  ------------------

  15TH DECEMBER,

  END OF TERM

  The last day of term today, hooray! When I got home I changed and went straight over to Harry’s. He did seem a lot better. When I whispered that it was only ten more days to Christmas, he wiggled a finger and Cirrus wagged his tail.

  I sat and held Harry’s hand. I didn’t move because I think it hurts his head if I wriggle. Lilly says that Harry can hear us, even if he doesn’t answer. I wish he would answer – just a hedgehog snuffle would do. Then Mum came over to return Fleur and get me for supper. I didn’t want to leave.

  If Harry could still write, he might write: Good night, stinky Knickers!

  23RD DECEMBER,

  CIRRUS WALKING

  Dear Diary,

  I took Cirrus for a long walk in the park with Dad, Mum and Solo. Mum tried to talk to me about Harry not getting better, but I ran away with Cirrus. There’s things you know inside but don’t want to hear, and that’s one of them.

  Besides, I have other things on my mind: it’s nearly Christmas and I’ve got a plan for Harry’s second present, since Grandma thinks we might not finish the quilt.

  It is going to be wicked. It looks like a cloud on a stick, but when you push the stick up the cloud dog Cirrus appears – it’s sure to make Harry laugh.

  Dad is going to find me the bits so I can make it tomorrow and Grandma is muttering about reading us the last two Rosie letters as a pre-Christmas treat.

  Maybe she’ll even finish Harry’s quilt – although I can hear her saying “There’s a time for being and a time for doing”!

  CHRISTMAS EVE

  Lilly and Joe had friends and family round so I didn’t visit Harry in the day. Then in the evening Joe came to say Harry was asking for me. I went over to tell Harry that I was busy making his Christmas present, so I hoped he had something important to say – not that he can talk any more, but his mum can understand him and I can too sometimes.

  Anyway, he wants me to have his stuffed owl for a Christmas present, and everything else of his in Artcloud. Stupid hedgehog boy – what will I do with his daft owl? It hasn’t even got any sweets left in it. And as for his books on clouds, his cloud blanket, cloud cushion and crazy cloud notebooks – he’s gone flipping bonkers if he thinks I want them.

  Harry held on to my hand, but I had to go and finish his present. At least it’s new and not some idiot boy’s leftovers. This is going to be the worst Christmas ever.

  It’s really late now. I’ve finished and wrapped Harry’s present. Mum has hung my stocking up for Father Christmas. I didn’t do it, because I don’t feel ready for Christmas. It should be next week or even next year, but not tomorrow. Besides, Grandma and I haven’t finished Harry’s quilt yet.

  I don’t even want to know what happens next ’cos it’s a rubbish Christmas already.

  CHRISTMAS DAY

  CLOUDS: Altostratus – it could snow!

  Well, I did have the best Christmas ever, ever, ever!

  I had a ginormous stocking full of everything I could possibly ever want for painting, drawing, scribbling, sticking, sewing and writing. My mum is the best “Father” Christmas and Dad cooks the best Christmas breakfast of waffles with lashings of maple syrup. Grandma had such a big present for me she couldn’t carry it downstairs – she had to put it on a tray and slide it down! When I opened it there was nothing in it – ho ho ho! Then tucked in the bottom I found the box with Grandpa Jimmy’s telescope. The card with it said: To Angie and H
arry, the bestest of friends. I was bursting to tell Harry that we could keep the telescope for ever and ever.

  At lunchtime we all went over and knocked on Harry’s door and Joe answered it with Harry on his back – just like old times! Harry was dressed in his favourite Cirrus the cloud dog onesie, with slippers like dog paws and sunglasses. We had a picnic Christmas lunch on beanbags and little picnic tables. It was the biggest, most nutty, sprouty, crackery, joke-filled lunch ever. For pudding we had Lilly’s Christmas cake with ice cream. The cake was brilliant and it was covered with candles which Harry and I blew out together – except I did most of the blowing. Everyone sang cloud songs, told cloud jokes, pulled cloud crackers and ate more cake, more ice cream, more chocolates and more sweets. Cirrus barked, Fleur cried, Solo clapped and everyone had fun, especially Harry and me.

  Then, just as we had collapsed around the Christmas tree, there was a knock at the door. “Ho, ho, ho!” It was Joe dressed up as Father Christmas and Lilly and Fleur dressed as his elf helpers! They handed out the presents and I’m certain that Harry liked my cloud on a stick best. I’m sure it reminded him of all our jumping up and down on beds, cloud spotting and dog loving!