The Comet, The Cloud and The Rainbow by Raissa Rivera-Falgui

A boy sits on the roof of the orphanage where he lives. His name is Julian. He is hiding from the big boys in the orphanage who bully him.

A comet flashes across the night sky.

Below him, Julian hears feet pounding up the stairs. His eye falls on a coil of rope. He looks from the rope to the comet, which seems so large and close. He picks up the rope, makes a loop on the end and….

He has captured the comet’s tail!

He climbs on the tail and holds on tight as the comet continues its flight.

He looks down as they fly over the city.

In one apartment, a spoiled little girl is finally sitting down to dinner after deciding to end her tantrum. She complains to her mother and father, “The soup is cold. The steak is cold. So are the mashed potatoes.”

But after the comet passes, she can no longer complain anything is cold. Not even her ice cream.

“Wow!” says Julian. “What else can we do?”

On the roof of a tall building, a grumpy hundred-year-old man is having his birthday party. He has a hundred guests. He has a hundred balloons. He has a hundred presents. Still, he looks unhappy.

His cake is on a table. It has a hundred candles on it, not yet lighted.

“Let’s swoop down there,” Julian tells the comet.

They light all hundred candles on the cake at once! The old man breaks out in a toothless grin.
Julian sweeps past the window of a very busy restaurant. He hears the customers complaining loudly. “Where are our orders?” everyone is saying.

“Where’s the kitchen?” Julian asks. The comet goes around the building, and there they are.

In the kitchen, the cooks are frantic. They have so many orders of pizza, lasagna, and chicken waiting to be put in the oven. They don’t have enough space in the oven for all the food.

But after the comet passes, they don’t need the ovens. They call the waiters to bring all the orders to the people waiting.

They fly past a bridge. Under the bridge, a mother and two children are huddled under damp blankets.

Julian guides the comet down to a pile of driftwood nearby. And then there is a fire to keep the mother and her children warm.

In the park, there is a fireworks display. The comet dances with the fireworks, making the show brighter and wilder. Julian gets quite dizzy with its loop-de-loops. But the crowd is delighted. Their cheers make Julian smile.

Then they fly out to the country.

It is dark with no streetlights. The woods below look so gloomy. Julian is frightened. “Oh Comet, I wish you would light up these dark woods.”

And suddenly a tree is aflame. Then another, and then still another. It is not long before the whole forest is on fire!

Julian screams. The comet is startled and leaps up, flying wild. Julian holds onto the tail for dear life, as they zoom higher and higher into the sky. They fly above the clouds.

Clouds!

Julian lets go of the comet and lands on a fluffy cloud. He guides the cloud above the forest. “Rain, Cloud, rain!” he cries.

The cloud lets out a thundershower. Slowly, the fire fizzles out. Julian sighs with relief.

Tired, Julian flops down on the soft cloud. “Will you take me home, Cloud?” he pleads. The cloud goes in the direction he points. They drift slowly back to the orphanage, watering gardens and washing the streets as they go.

Julian spots a naughty dog that is running away from a girl who was giving him a bath. He orders the cloud to douse him with water.

The dog runs back home, washed clean. His tail is drooping. He rushes into the arms of the little girl, who wraps him in a large towel.

They float over the park. A little boy is trying to build a sandcastle in the sandbox. He has already dug a moat, but the walls keep crumbling. He starts to cry.

Julian squeezes out a sprinkle of rain from the cloud, enough to dampen the sand and fill the moat. The little boy returns to his project with excitement.

They pass by the spoiled girl’s apartment again. The window is open. They hear her whining about her breakfast. “The orange juice is too sweet,” she says.

“Then don’t drink it. Just eat your oatmeal,” says her father.

“It’s too hot!” she complains.

Rain comes in through the window. The cold shower makes the orange juice watery and cools the oatmeal. And the little girl is stunned into silence.

Then Julian hears a shout of “Stop, thief!” He sees a man running down the sidewalk. A woman’s handbag is under his arm.

“Quick, Cloud!” Julian orders the cloud to rain on the sidewalk.

The thief is surprised by the sudden shower. He slips on the wet sidewalk, landing flat on his back. A policeman reaches him before he can get back on his feet. The woman is so overjoyed to have her handbag back, she does not mind that the rain has drenched her too.

By the time they reach the orphanage, it is morning. “How will I get down?” Julian wonders as the cloud hovers above the building.

In answer, the cloud makes a rainbow for Julian to slide down on. He sits on the rainbow and slides down onto the roof. Because the rainbow is freshly made, its colors are still wet. His hands, pants, and shoes get smeared with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and indigo. But he doesn’t mind.

He waves goodbye to the cloud, then runs down to get his breakfast. He leaves a trail of color behind him. But his many-colored footprints are soon trodden on by the other children rushing to the dining room and nobody notices them.

In the dining room he sees the boys who chased him last night. But they pay no attention to him now. Nobody looks at him. Nobody asks where he had gone. Everybody is staring outside.

“Look at that beautiful rainbow!” a girl squeals.

Julian just smiles and sits down at the table. He finishes his breakfast quickly, then he rushes out in a blur of color.

Soon after he leaves, the children notice their plain cereal is now colored. Their old faded clothes are bright. The plain white walls now have rainbow stripes.

Julian is down in his classroom. He fills all his classmates’ empty paintboxes. Then with his color-streaked hands he paints a picture.

It shows the comet, the cloud, and the rainbow.