Forty

 

In the village, the old balloon-maker and his wife had a strange dream. They could hear the little girl call out to all of them to join in the battle against The Serpent. Was it all true then, they wondered.

The next morning, the whole village turned up at their doorstep. ‘We had a dream!’ they said excitedly. ‘It was the little girl on the balloon. She needs us!’

‘We had the same dream,’ said the old couple. ‘There must be something to it.’

‘Dreams are important,’ said the principal, ‘especially if so many have the same dream at the same time!’

‘But none of us has the faintest clue as to where she went!’ said the baker’s wife.

‘The balloon-maker is a teacher of geography,’ the principal said sternly, ‘he will give us directions. Something simple about latitude and longitude.’

‘But then, the moot point is how do we find a mode of transport to cover such large distances and not lose our way?’ said the principal wisely.

‘Ask the old balloon-maker to think quickly!’ snapped the policeman because, as we all know, policemen are used to snapping and giving orders.

‘Perhaps we should get all the other balloons together,’ said the postman, ‘maybe build a kind of raft and tie it to the balloons. A raft in the sky made of balloons!’ He looked at the sky dreamily and marvelled at his wonderful idea.

The other villagers looked at the postman disbelievingly.

‘Absurd,’ said one.

‘Silly,’ said another.

‘Can’t possibly work,’ replied the physics teacher authoritatively.

‘Think outside the box,’ responded another.

The balloons looked all excited. Since the little girl had left with Balloon, they had remained neglected and ignored. The villagers had gone into a kind of shell, never forgetting how bitter and cruel they had been at the picnic and how they had hurt the old couple. They were remorseful and wanted to, or rather needed to, make amends.

‘Can’t harm to try,’ said the postman, ‘unless someone has a better suggestion.’

The bicycle man nodded and collected a group of villagers to dust and wash the balloons till they were shining and as good as new. They pumped air into them all. There was excitement all around as Banana Balloon and Fruit Balloon and Maths Balloon and Good Manners Balloon and Geography Balloon and Literature Balloon and Dictionary Balloon and History Lessons Parts I–V Balloon, not to forget the majestic Star Balloon, and all the other balloons, small and big in size, bent and stretched and exercised and readied themselves for their important flight.

‘Deep breathing, deep breathing,’ snapped the policeman, as he instructed the balloons, ‘is the key to good health. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale…keep doing it one hundred times.’

The old balloon-maker and his wife were quite puzzled by all of this and stood silently, watching the activity.

The postman had by now collected a large group who brought along beds and other pieces of flat furniture from their homes. They worked through the day and through the night and built an enormous raft. To this, they tied the balloons, and found the raft gracefully lifting in the air.

‘Good,’ said the postman, ‘we tie up the raft and collect what we need for the flight. Take only what is essential. And then, we go to the little child.’

The villagers nodded.

The old balloon-maker and his wife wept in joy, for they saw the villagers awash with a sense of humility, decency and goodness. ‘We will join you, dear child,’ they whispered, ‘and it will not just be us but the entire village!’

In his castle, The Serpent scowled. Things were simply not going according to the plan.