Eleven
By now, Balloon and Little Girl were actually quite high. It was long since they had left the other balloons far behind. Indeed, the other balloons did not know where to hide. They were ashamed that they had made fun of Balloon, who was not only bigger than all of them put together, but also much prettier.
Little Girl saw a crow flying nearby. ‘Hello, Crow,’ she said, ‘come and sit with me. I have many questions to ask you.’
Crow was a bit startled at how big Balloon was, but he liked Balloon’s colours and decided that Balloon must be a friendly sort of balloon.
‘I need the exercise,’ said Crow. ‘Got to keep flying around. Keeps the muscles in shape. Anyway, what do you want to know?’
Little Girl didn’t seem puzzled that Crow had spoken to her, or that she had understood what he had said. ‘How high do we need to go before we can see God?’ she asked.
‘Can’t say exactly,’ Crow said philosophically, ‘but I gather it is a somewhat long journey and quite ill-advised, if you ask me. God sees you when God wants to see you and not the other way around.’ He paused before he enquired, ‘In any case, why do you want to see God?’
‘Actually, I want to see my mother and my father who are with God and have become stars,’ said Little Girl.
‘Stars?’ asked Crow, somewhat shocked. ‘I think that’s pretty far. End of the sky, I’d say. Moreover, you have to travel only at night, otherwise, you will simply not be able to see the stars. And then, of course, you could lose your way. Something, I dare say, that is best avoided, especially when you are up there.’
What Crow said made sense. They would need to know where they were going or else they could quite easily get lost.
‘You thirsty?’ asked Crow.
‘Oh, I have some water. Do you want some?’ asked Little Girl, taking out the water bottle the old lady had so neatly packed in the bag.
‘Many thanks but I only drink the best,’ said Crow. ‘Watch this.’
Balloon had floated straight into a patch of a dark cloud. Crow opened his beak and bits of the cloud floated inside.
‘Mmm,’ he said, ‘lovely. Try some. It’s the purest and the best.’
Little Girl opened her mouth and the cloud flakes melted inside. It was indeed delicious.
In a nice sort of way, Crow was showing off and Little Girl was quite content having his company. He did seem knowledgeable and there was really no harm in humouring him. They kept floating in and out of the clouds in a lazy sort of way. Balloon had never enjoyed herself so much, nor indeed had Little Girl. She opened her bag and took out a sandwich and offered it to Crow.
‘Delighted,’ said Crow and sat on the arm of Little Girl’s chair. ‘It’s the dear old tum-tum,’ he said, patting his rather copious stomach, ‘needs nourishment now and then.’ He appeared to be lost in deep thought as he munched away happily on the sandwich. After a while he said, ‘Tell me Little Girl, have you ever been to the Land of the Blue Jasmine?’
‘No, never,’ said Little Girl excitedly. ‘I am supposed to go there. I mean…I need to go there to settle an old score. My father had told me that it was a secret, neither-here-northere sort of place, very difficult to find, but full of great magic and fraught with the most terrible danger. It really is most strange because before I left, Balloon Uncle told me that a flute player came to him in his dream and told him about the place. He also told me that many were waiting anxiously for my arrival. Quite frankly, I always thought that it was only some kind of story that my father had made up for me. He was such a good storyteller!’
‘No story,’ said Crow authoritatively. ‘It exists. I was told about it by the elders in the pack.’ He cleared his throat as he added, ‘Now, if you are interested in directions, you have to go straight as the crow flies, if you pardon the expression, and then turn left at the big tree down there, go on till the road bends to the right and then turn left again. And then, beside the river that you can’t see but which is on the other side of the mountain, you turn left.’ He raised his claw and scratched his cheek. ‘Or maybe right. Now, let’s see, could it be that you have to go straight?’
Crow was a bit confused with all this right and left and straight. ‘Anyway,’ he said finally, ‘there’s no problem. All we have to do is to fly straight on and we ought to be able to see it from up here, if we look for a neither-here-nor-there sort of place, as your father put it, remembering of course, that it’s a secret place and so, very, very difficult to find. Camouflaged and all that, if you know what I mean.’
Having given what he considered were extremely clear directions, Crow returned to his sandwich. ‘Great stuff, this is,’ he said, ‘ham, lettuce and mayonnaise. Wonderful!’ He munched away in silent satisfaction.
Balloon had kept quiet all this time because she was enjoying sailing in the sky. It was what she had always wanted to do and the experience was invigorating. She found that she could manage to navigate herself quite well. She did a little tilt and went eastwards. Then, she saw a mountain to the north and turned towards it. Once in a while, she would float into a cluster of clouds. It was all so amusing.
She heard Crow tell Little Girl about some mysterious place and wondered if it was far. ‘Look for a neither-here-northere sort of place that is difficult to find,’ Crow had said.
I wonder, thought Balloon, how I should know what to look for, if it’s neither here nor there. And worse, if it’s all a closely guarded secret!
‘Crow,’ said Balloon, ‘do give me a clue.’
Crow was ever so startled. He almost fell off Little Girl’s shoulder, where he was comfortably perched. He had never heard a balloon talk before.
‘A talking balloon,’ he said. ‘Well! Well! What’s next, I wonder. Are you sure, Little Girl, that this balloon is not from that secret place? I mean, whoever heard of a balloon that talks?’
Balloon smiled and said, ‘Don’t be silly, Crow. Whoever heard of a talking crow? Now, do tell me what I am supposed to look for.’
Crow sighed, ‘Never too late to see the world,’ he muttered. ‘No one will ever believe me back home when I tell them that I flew around on a little girl’s shoulder in a talking balloon.’ He kept silent for a while and then said, ‘Look for blue grass.’
‘Blue grass!’ both Little Girl and Balloon exclaimed. ‘But how on earth can grass be blue?’
‘Precisely,’ said Crow triumphantly, as if he had clinched an argument, ‘that is why, my dears, it is called the Land of the Blue Jasmine. The jasmine flowers, the grass, the leaves—they are all blue. And that’s not the only thing mysterious about the place.’
‘I remember,’ said Little Girl clapping her hands, ‘my father told me that in this place, funny things happen.’
‘That’s right, dear girl!’ said Crow, agreeing wholeheartedly, though he too had never been to the place before.
Balloon decided not to say anything. As she floated through the blue cloud-filled sky, she wondered what she was supposed to actually look for. She had hoped for some sensible clues from Crow to help her find her way. But blue grass where funny things happen was indeed most unhelpful. ‘Could such a place really exist,’ she wondered. ‘But what if it did? It could be such fun. Little Girl had said that there would be danger.’ Balloon shuddered, but it was all part of the excitement.