Cloud Fishing

An English Fairy Tale

- Zach Falcon

BAREFOOT JEAN AND her brown dog, Barley, ran to the top of the green, grassy hill. The sun shone down as she looked up into the deep sea-blue sky.

Above her sailed billowing cloud ships with tall sails unfurled. Nimbus whales breached, blocking the sun, while wisps of cirrus clouds rippled like seaweed. Jean watched as a lazy school of cloud fish drifted by, carried along the sky’s gentle currents.

Jean scratched her nose, squinted her eyes, and said to herself, “I want to catch a fish.”

Barley barked excitedly as they ran down the hill, through the woods, and back to the house for supplies.

Jean found her sturdy green-and-gold kite in the closet. “If you’re going to catch a cloud fish,” Jean instructed Barley, “you’ve got to have good bait.”

From a sewing basket, she selected colorful bits of yarn and ribbon and tied them to the kite’s long tail for the bait. She found a kite string and tied it to the kite with an extra-strong knot.

With a burlap bag in one hand and her kite in the other, Jean marched purposefully, with Barley at her heels, back to the hill.

Standing at the top, Jean cast her hook into the sky. The wind lifted it higher and higher, until most of the line had been let out.

Ducking and pulling in the wind, the gold kite flashed in the sun, while the baited tail jigged invitingly. Jean scanned the sky for her prey. Not a cloud fish in sight. She tightened the slack in her line and waited.

Suddenly, a shadow fell over the hill. Directly above was the most enormous cloud fish Jean had ever seen. Its white scales glistened in the sun, and its strong tail seemed to move the wind.