The Story of the Blue Planet (10 page)
“Can you hear the laughter, Brimir? Everyone’s so happy to see us safe and sound.”
“We’re home!”
Their friends rushed backward and forward and up and down. But no one came to welcome Brimir and Hulda.
“Aren’t they laughing because we’re safe and sound?” asked Hulda, looking around in amazement.
No one seemed to take any notice of them and they had no need to wipe wet kisses off their faces. Brimir tried to grab hold of Elva, but it was like trying to grab a car on the highway.
“I’m busy. There’s so much fun right now. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Must fly. Bye. Ha ha ha ha ha.”
‘Weren’t you looking for us? We were lost in a dark forest.”
“Lost? Who’s lost?”
“We were lost,” shouted Brimir. “Weren’t you even worried about us? We could have died.”
“Worried? Ha ha ha ha ha. We don’t have to worry about anything. Jolly-Goodday tells such funny jokes. Whenever we have thoughts or worries on our minds they are changed immediately into jokes and we start laughing, ha ha ha ha. We stop thinking and forget about everything except the jokes.”
A great noise of laughter and merriment could be heard from down on Black Beach. Jolly-Goodday stood there in red shorts, calling out through a huge loudspeaker.
“What’s green, lives a yard underground, and eats stones?”
“What?” replied the children.
“A green stone-eater!”
The children laughed and laughed so much their laughter resounded through the mountains.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Brimir and Hulda were a little bewildered.
“Everybody’s so busy flying and listening to jokes that no one even noticed we were missing,” said Brimir.
“But they’re certainly having a lot of fun,” said Hulda. It was quite a funny joke.
“Shouldn’t we tell them about the pale children in the darkness?”
“If the nail is removed from the sun and the butterfly powder returned, we’ll never ever fly again.”
“Shall we use this last chance to fly?” asked Brimir.
“We must try to rest and recover a little after all the darkness, and get rid of our gray hair.”
Hulda took off into the air and Brimir was going to follow her when he felt a pang of remorse in his heart once more. The same pang as when they met the children in the darkness and told them they didn’t know where the sun was.
“Hulda, come on down to earth. I feel so bad.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I feel as if a little bug’s gnawing at my soul. I can’t forget the pale children in the darkness,” said Brimir.
“Me neither.”
“How can we help them?”
“Let’s talk to Jolly-Goodday, he always saves the day.”
“We also have to thank him for saving our lives.”
Jolly-Goodday the Comedian
Brimir and Hulda flew low to the ground down to Black Beach where they met Jolly-Goodday. He sat in the sand building sandcastles. By his side lay the loudspeaker. He smiled when they arrived.
“Well, hello there, Brimir, and you too, Hulda! Aren’t you in a good mood? Shall I tell you a joke? My goodness you do look smart.”
“What do you mean, smart?” asked Brimir, forgetting to correct his name.
“You’re so silver gray-haired, and she’s more stoney-gray, very smart.”
“You think it’s cool for a child to have gray hair?”
“Do I think it’s cool? Gray’s in fashion. Where have you been?” asked Jolly-Goodday, shocked.
“We were in the darkness on the other side…”
But Brimir was unable to finish the sentence. Jolly-Goodday picked up his loudspeaker.
“Time for a joke!”
He brayed so loud their ears began to pop.
“What’s brown and says ‘Bee Gee’?”
“WHAT?” could be heard in unison from the flying children.
“A brown Bee-Gee!
Ha
Ha
Ha
Ha
Ha
Ha
Ha
Ha
Ha
!”
Jolly-Goodday lay in the sand, splitting his sides with laughter.
“We really must speak to the others,” said Hulda, nudging Jolly-Goodday with her toe.
Jolly-Goodday was astonished.
“Why do you need to talk? Don’t you want more fun and more jokes?”
“We have to tell the kids something important.”
Jolly-Goodday handed Hulda the loudspeaker and she shouted into the air:
“Guys! Come here, we need to talk to you.”
“We can’t come right now, it’s so dull if we stop flying. Tell us a joke!”
Hulda called out to them again, but the kids wouldn’t listen.
“I know how to deal with these kiddyflies,” said Jolly-Goodday, taking the loudspeaker.
“If you don’t come right now I’ll have the fierce wolf eat you!”
The children hurried down from the sky and gathered in a large group in front of Jolly-Goodday.
“And about time too,” said Jolly-Goodday.
For the first time Brimir and Hulda now saw the faces of their friends again, and what Jolly-Goodday had said was true. Gray was indisputably in fashion. Everyone had become gray-haired. Magni’s black hair was turned wolf-gray, and Elva’s brown hair was as gray as dust.
“I thought it was our adventure in the darkness that had made us gray-haired, but why are they gray-haired too?” whispered Brimir to Hulda.
“They wish to talk to us,” said Jolly-Goodday, pointing at Hulda and Brimir.
“Oh, we don’t want any talking, except if we get more fun and games in return.”
“They’ll be very quick,” said Jolly-Goodday.
Brimir and Hulda told the kids the whole story of the sun. How they had been blown into the darkness on the other side of the planet where the forest was blacker than coffee, and how they narrowly escaped from bears and hairy spiders thanks to the Teflon
®
wonder stuff.
“Hooray for Jolly-Goodday and Teflon
®
wonder stuff, which saved Hulda’s and Brimir’s lives,” shouted the children. “Now can we go?”
“We haven’t finished our story yet.”
Brimir and Hulda told their friends about the home delivery service of the wild animals, and they told them about Darrow in the hyena’s mouth, and about the poor pale children who were dying from hunger and cold sitting in the darkness waiting for the sun.
“Glad you’re both back anyway,” said the children. “Let’s carry on flying, ha ha ha ha ha.”
Brimir held out both his arms and stopped them.
“Didn’t you hear our story, kids?”
“Yes, thanks, it was fun, ha ha ha ha ha.”
“But what about the children in the darkness who are starving and shivering with cold in a dying forest? Shouldn’t we help them?”
The kids shrugged their shoulders.
“How can we help them?” asked Elva innocently. “We’re only children.”
“Somebody must do something sometime,” said Woody decisively, “but right now I’m missing out on some great flying time.”
“Don’t you care about the children in the darkness?”
“Are they also gray-haired?” asked Elva.
“No, they’ve just got ordinary hair,” said Hulda.
The kids burst out laughing.
“How awful! Don’t they keep up with the latest fashion?”
“Weren’t you listening to what we were saying? They’re dying,” cried Hulda.
“Do you know what to do?” asked Woody, “I can’t think of anything.”
“I think it’s best if we remove the nail from the sun,” said Brimir.
One could hear a pin drop, the sound of feathers falling.
“REMOVE THE NAIL FROM THE SUN?” asked the children, gaping.
“Remove the nail from the sun?”
asked Jolly-Goodday, gaping.
“And we must stop the wolf from chasing all the boring clouds over onto the other side of the planet,” said Hulda.
“And we must let the butterflies fly again,” said Brimir.
“Are you crazy?” asked the children. “Do you want us to die of boredom?”
“Otherwise the children on the other side will die of hunger in the cold and dark.”
“You believe us, don’t you, Jolly-Goodday?” asked Brimir. “You’ll know how to save the children in the darkness. You have the answer to everything.”
Who Owns the Sun?
Jolly-Goodday stood on the beach with a kindly smile. He patted Brimir on the head.
“Oh, my poor dears, I’d forgotten you are such little children and see things in such a simplistic way. You all think it’s great fun to fly, don’t you?”
“Yes,” said the children.
“Isn’t it more fun than anything else?”
“Ye-e-es!”
“And who taught you to fly?”
“You did, Jolly-Goodday.”
“And who wanted to fly?”
“We wanted to fly, it was our most treasured dream.”
“And the butterflies are on your land?”
“Our land? Is it possible to own land?”
“Yes, you own the land where the butterflies live and that’s why you may do what you want with the butterflies. And if the others want to see the butterflies fly over their land then they must pay for it, because you own the butterflies. You’re not going to stop flying unless they pay you to.”
“Pay us? With what?”
“They can pay with gold.”
“What do you do with gold?”
“You store it where no one else can see it.”
The children thought this very strange.
“And what about the sun? Who owns the sun? It didn’t start anywhere and never stops shining anywhere, but goes ring after ring and shines equally on all of the planet; that is until we had it fastened down with a nail,” said Brimir.
“You own the sun, of course. The idea to nail down the sun was ours and if the others want the sun for a few days a year, then they’ll have to pay for it.”
The children thought about this for quite a while.
“In other words, the children on the other side really owe us gold for having been able to see the butterflies for free for hundreds of years,” said Arnar the thinker.
“Exactly,” said Jolly-Goodday. “Don’t you think that’s fair?”
Brimir and Hulda looked a little bewildered.
“We don’t quite understand,” they said. “That can’t be right.”