I was stirring the soup with a branch.
My brother Roberto, from time to time, would put a finger into the top hat and taste it.
The delicious scent of lovely oats soup with milk was starting to rise up towards the sky, with just a hint of toasted top hat…
The smell was so delicious that a whole load of busybodies came over, my Auntie Clodomira among others. Everyone wanted to try it.
Everyone was sniffing at it so hard, inhaling so deeply, that we had to get rid of them.
“On you go, on you go, get out of here, at this rate you won’t leave the tiniest drop of soup smell left for Dailan Kifki,” we said.
Since they didn’t go, I had to ask the Superintendent for help, and using his whistle, his truncheon and his white gloves he managed to move the busybodies away and get them to stand over by the wire fence.
Every once in a while, still stirring the soup, I glanced up at the sky.
Dailan Kifki and the Fireman were still fluttering about, but soon the aroma of soup got stronger and I noticed Dailan Kifki looking down and stretching out his trunk to smell it better.
“Prepare the kites!” commanded Granddad.
Everyone started flying their kites, and gathered them close to one another right by the voyagers.
My brother Roberto was blowing on the fire and his face was getting covered in soot and smoke.
I stirred more and more excitedly and blew the steam up towards the sky.
It really was a great idea: Dailan Kifki just could not resist.
He started to fly in circles around the paddock, at a very low altitude.
Finally some people were able to tangle him in their kites.
You wouldn’t believe how much we cheered and applauded.
Nice and slowly, they began to lower the kites, and with them Dailan Kifki and the Fireman, who still had their eyes fixed on the soup.
They came gliding down, down, down…
Finally Dailan Kifki came to a gentle landing, sweetly, like marmalade, like a little feather, like a piece of fluff, like a dandelion abandoned by the breeze on a sandy beach…
And yes—it just so happened that Dailan Kifki came down to earth right beside the lovely oats soup.
The crowd fell into an incredible silence…
Then, majestically, Dailan Kifki approached the top hat, plunged in his trunk and drank up all the soup without stopping to take a breath.
I was so overwhelmed that I had to stifle a little cough in my collar.