by Angie Doria -
Once upon a time, there was a happy cloud family that loved each other very much.
Father cloud was big and billowy with a fluffy mustache. He loved to play catch the lightning bolt and thunder tag with his children.
Mother cloud had long, velvety, fluffy hair and a sweet loving smile. She wore an apron with cotton candy, sour lightning rocks and kwispy cloud puff balls hidden in the pockets.
Sister cloud kept her hair in braids and loved listening to the latest thunder rock tunes.
Brother cloud wore suspenders to hold up his pants.
One day brother put a lightning bolt under sister. Just before it went “BOOM,” sister floated up, and father stepped on it. Whoosh! His mustache went flying right off!
“It will take me a whole month to grow that back,” Father rumbled.
Buddy cloud was the favorite of the family. He was very small and carried his fluffy, fleecy baby blanket under his arm. Buddy loved it when Father threw him high up in the air and let him fall back down.
“Stop it Daddee,” Buddy giggled. “You’re making me drizzle.”
One day Brother hid Buddy’s blanket behind his back. Mother did not think this was funny.
“Blankie,” Buddy cried. “Give me blankie.”
“Buddy can't sleep without his blankie,” Mother chided.
“Oh fine,” Brother said. He gave Buddy his blanket.
Sister loved reading to Buddy cloud. She read him stories like “Super Cloud,” “Little Red Riding Cloud” and “The Three Little Clouds and the Big Bad Wind.”
“Sisser,” Buddy said, “me ‘fraid of bad wind.”
“Me too,” Sister said, “but remember the good wind always helps in the end.”
Mother cloud sang a soft, soothing lullaby and rocked Buddy to sleep.
The next day, Mother cloud taught her children about the three kinds of rain.
“When you rain tears of sadness, plants will not grow,” Mother said.
“Yeah and when you rain tears of anger, they don’t grow either,” Brother said with a smirk. “Remember when father got mad and flooded that lady’s garden? Those plants were swimming for days,” Brother chuckled.
“AHEM, listen to your mother,” Father thundered.
“When we rain tears of happiness, the plants do best,” Mother said. “Now concentrate hard and rain on those three flower beds down there.”
Brother cloud tried first...
