Painting by Shawn Mc Lean

The night the sky fell down

Early one morning the songbirds woke Eric. They stood on the window sill chirping that the sky had fallen down. Eric got up from his bed and pelped out. He saw the sky lying like a thin blue veil over the rooftops and trees outside. And some places the sky lay on the ground. Right outside the house Eric saw a hole in the sky. "You have to repair the sky," the songbirds twittered. "If not the sun can't rise."

Eric collected needle and sewing thread from his mother's workbox and went out. When he came to the hole he could see the stars glued to the back of the sky. They lit up the area while Eric sewed as fast as he could. When he had finished sewing, he shouted to the songbirds: "Now you must lift the sky back into place. It's only ten minutes to sunrise."

The songbirds gathered under the sky and started lifting. They flapped their wings and lifted the sky slowly up from apple trees and flagpoles and rooftops. "Higher, higher," Eric shouted. "We can't lift it any more," the songbirds replied. "You have to help us."

Eric glanced at his wristwatch anxiously. There were only a few minutes before the sun rose. "Stay put," he shouted and climbed up the flagpole to help. He climbed all the way and stood up on the top, holding the sky with his out stretched arms. "Come on songbirds, lift, lift, lift."

Sadly they couldn't any more. One by one they gave in and Eric felt his arms becoming heavier and heavier. He looked down and felt dizzy. His body started to sway. "Help," he shouted. "I'm falling." Eric grasped the sky where he had sown it together, and it worked as a parachute for him. While falling he heard a ripping sound and thought for a moment that he probably hadn't sewn the hole well enough. When he hit the ground he knew what he had to do.

Quick as a jest Eric ran in to the garage and fetched his bicycle pump. He opened the hole so that he could get through and sew the hole close to the pump. At the last moment he saw the sun slowly rising on the horizon. Eric held his breath and started to pump the air back under the sky.

He pumped as fast as he could. For each push the sky lifted a bit higher. Over the houses, over the flagpoles. Finally the sky slipped back in place. Eric took the pump out, climbed quickly through the hole and sat on a cloud while he sewed the hole tight from the inside. "Now, you have to help me," Eric whispered to the cloud. "Make me a rainbow that I can slide home on."

"Certainly," the cloud said. "And thanks for repairing the sky." While Eric skidded down the rainbow the songbirds sang for him and the clouds danced for joy. He waved at the sun while it rolled up on the sky, as he landed on the lawn in front of the house. When he lay down on his bed he saw the sky and the clouds and the songbirds and the sun. Then he yawned and fell asleep.

© Martin Nygaard