My niece, who lives in Australia (which can feel a blinking long way away sometimes) turns one next month. I still haven't met her, but can't wait until I do. In the mean time I have written her a story. Happy birthday, Luka.
The
Invisible Thing
Deep in the jungles of South America, where the
waterfalls dance and the warm air smells like coconuts a little girl called
Sophie lived with her Dad in a tree-house high above the rainforest. The house was just big enough for the two of
them, and it sat on the widest branch of the tallest tree in the whole jungle. When Sophie looked out of the window at night
she felt like she was right among the stars.
By day when she looked out she could see the rest of the jungle below
her, stretching out in every direction like a thick, green blanket.
Sophie’s Dad was a scientist.
It was his job to travel around the world and observe rare and endangered
animals. He would quietly watch them in
their natural environments and record what he saw. Then he sent his
observations to zoos and museums for other scientists to study.
Even though she lived in the jungle Sophie still had to do her school
work. So every morning she stayed in the
tree-house and used a computer to keep up with the rest of her class. There was a special camera set up in her old
classroom, which was over a thousand miles away, and she could watch the
lessons and answer questions just like everyone else. In
the afternoons, when her class were doing PE and art and other things she
couldn’t join in with, she turned the computer off and helped her Dad with his
work.
One bright sunny afternoon she finished her homework and climbed down
the rope ladder which hung from a hole in the floor of the tree-house. She climbed down, down, down through the branches
until finally her feet hit the jungle floor.
It was much darker down here,
because the tree branches above were so thick and tangled together that hardly
any light got through.
She finally found her Dad near a tall banana tree she sometimes liked
to climb. He looked even busier than
usual, and was arranging and rearranging a pile of equipment laid out on a big
flat rock in front of him.
“What are you hoping to catch today?” she asked.
“Something special” her Dad replied.
“What sort of something special?”
“I’m not sure yet. I’ll know it
when it comes.”
She looked at the pile of equipment next to him. Sophie’s Dad had to be very careful not to
hurt the animals and so he had all sorts of clever ways of catching them safely.
He had different equipment for animals of all shapes and sizes: small nets made
from the softest silk to catch things which flew and special sticky paper for
catching tiny insects and bigger nets made from jungle vines to throw over
elephants and cages made of bamboo for whatever animals might fit in them.
Usually Sophie could tell what he was trying to catch from the
equipment he used. But today he had
taken out one of everything, and she couldn’t work out what he was trying to
catch. Sophie was an inquisitive sort of
person, and when she wanted to know something it was a bit like having an itch
which wouldn’t go away. As she plaited some vines together, she kept on thinking.
“What does your special something look like?” she finally asked.
“No one knows” said Sophie’s Dad. “It’s invisible, you see. But I’ll
know when it has arrived.”
Sophie’s eyes grew wide. The
word “invisible” had just been on her spelling list at school so she knew what
it meant.
“If you can’t see it, how will
you know it’s here?”
Sophie’s Dad looked up from his
clipboard, with a smile in his eyes.
“Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it’s not there” he
said. “I’ll know when it has come. You’ll know too.”
Sophie scratched her nose.
“But......how will we know it’s here?” she asked.
“We’ll know” said her Dad, in a voice which told Sophie there was no
point in asking any more questions. “Just
wait and see.”
The next day, once Sophie had finished her school work she climbed
down the rope ladder, down, down, down through the branches, and when her feet
finally reached the jungle floor she went to find her Dad. He was counting the spots on a thick python
which had curled itself around a tree branch.
Once the python had slithered away, waving its tail at Sophie to say
goodbye as it went, she asked the question she’d been wondering about all
morning.
“Has it come yet? The invisible
thing?” Her shoulders shrunk when her Dad shook his head.
“It will come when it’s ready” he said. I promise. Just wait and see.”
Three days went by, and still the invisible thing didn’t arrive. On the fourth morning, Sophie woke up early and
decided to pick some fresh bananas for breakfast. She climbed down the rope ladder, and instead of climbing all the way to the ground
she stopped when she reached the rainforest canopy. Here, the treetops made a
bridge, and she leapt from one branch to the next When she reached the top of the banana tree
she picked the two ripest bananas she could find, and put them into her
backpack. As she turned around to go back, she noticed something.
She peered through the branches to get a better view. Below her, sitting on the floor of the
rainforest, was a kind of creature she had never seen before. He wasn’t
anything special to look at. His fur was a dull, muddy brown colour, and looked
a bit like the washing up water did just before Sophie’s dad threw it
away. He didn’t have any stripes, or
spots to count. He wasn’t quite big
enough to ride, but he was too big to carry, and he didn't have wings so he
couldn’t fly. In fact, thought Sophie,
it didn’t look like he would be able to do much at all.
"Hello" she called. The creature looked up at her with a
pair of bright shiny eyes that warmed her like the sunshine did. Sophie smiled. She picked another banana, peeled it
carefully and threw it down to the creature.
The creature sniffed at it, ate it in one gulp, and then danced around
in a circle. He waved his tail at Sophie, who laughed and fed him another
banana. This time, after he ate the
banana the creature stood on his front paws, as if he were doing a
handstand. Sophie clapped her hands with
delight, and picked some more bananas.
The creature ate four bananas, and did a different trick each time, always
waving his tail at the end, and Sophie began to think that the creature was
something rather special after all.
When she began to peel a fifth banana the creature gently shook his
head, as if to say he’d had enough. She put
the banana into her backpack with the others, and made her way back to the rope
ladder. As she began to climb, the
creature waved his tail at her as if to say goodbye. “I’ll be back soon” Sophie called to him, and
then giggled as he did a back flip.
She climbed back up the ladder
to the treehouse, where her Dad was snoring quietly in his hammock. Just as she was about to wake him up, a flock
of parrots flew past the window and did the job for her.
“Good morning early-bird” he said, as he rubbed his eyes. “You’re looking very chirpy. Has the invisible thing arrived?”
Sophie shook her head. “I don’t
think so” she said then added “But I’m still not quite sure how I’d know.” Her
Dad laughed.
“Just because you can’t see
something.....”
“Doesn’t mean it’s not there” Sophie finished for him. “I know.” She took the bananas out of her backpack.
“I did meet a new creature though” she said, smiling as she remembered. “He’s very friendly. And he can do lots of tricks.”
“Hmmm.” Sophie’s Dad scratched
his beard as he ate his banana. “Perhaps
I’ll take a look. You should come too.
It’s still early enough; there’s plenty of time before you need to log on to
school.”
They both climbed down the rope-ladder, down down down through the
branches and as soon as they appeared through the canopy, the creature, who had
been waiting, leapt up into air. Sophie was glad to see him there and scrambled
down the ladder as fast as she could to greet him.
Her Dad joined them a few minutes later. “Is this the creature you were talking
about?” he asked, and Sophie nodded.
“Isn’t he lovely?” she replied.
Sophie and the creature played together while Sophie’s Dad watched,
smiling all the while. Finally he
stopped them. “Time to go and do your schoolwork”
he said to Sophie, whose heart immediately began to sink. “You two can play together later” he added.
“I think I’ll be able to manage without your help for one afternoon.”
“Maybe we could help you look for the invisible thing” Sophie said.
Her Dad smiled. “Maybe”, her
said, as he watched the creature cuddle up to Sophie. “But somehow I think the
invisible thing might just be here already.”
Sophie turned to him. “Really? It’s here?” her Dad nodded.
“I think so.”
“Well aren’t you going to put
it in a cage? Or cover it with a net?”
Her Dad shook his head. “Not
for now” he said. “Now off you go. See you this afternoon.”
Sophie gave the creature one last cuddle, and then had a terrible
thought.
“What if he’s not here when I come back?”
“I have a feeling he will be” said Sophie’s Dad. “But I’ll keep an eye
on him for you.”
"What about the invisible thing?" asked Sophie. “Will that still be here too?”
"Yes, I think it probably will" said Sophie's dad,
scratching the creature's head.
Sophie found it hard to concentrate on her school work that morning. She got all sorts of sums wrong which she
normally knew the answers to and her teacher, Miss Nelson, had to ask the same
question three times before Sophie heard her.
When it was finally time to turn her computer off she scrambled down the
rope ladder and found the creature waiting for her. They played together all afternoon, running through
the trees and laughing together and eating bananas, and Sophie felt as happy as
she could ever remember feeling.
Evening came, and as the sun went down and the air grew cool, the
fireflies came out and danced above their heads like tiny shooting stars. Sophie’s Dad came to find her.
“It’s time to go home” he said, and Sophie gave a sigh.
“Goodbye” she whispered to the
creature, as she buried her face in its fur. “I’ll come and see you again
tomorrow.”
Later that night, Sophie sat in the tree-house, surrounded by
stars, and thought about the creature. She
wondered how he was, and what he was doing, and whether he was even there any
more. Then she remembered about the
invisible thing, and wondered if that was still there too. She tried to peer down through the trees to
see but they lived up so high it was
impossible to see anything at all, not even the tree-tops. The only thing below her was a giant sea of
darkness, and Sophie sighed.
“I wish our house wasn’t quite so high” she said as she climbed onto
her Dad's lap, where she liked to sit and listen to stories before it was time
for bed.
“I thought you liked it here” he said.
“Living up among the stars.”
“I do” replied Sophie. But I wish the ground wasn’t quite so far
away. I can’t see my creature from up
here. Do you think he’s still there?”
"Just because you can't see something, doesn't mean it’s not
there”, Sophie’s Dad said quietly. “Or that they're not thinking about you” he
added, almost to himself.
Sophie snuggled deeper into her Dad’s lap, and finally understood.
As she slowly began to fall asleep, curled up in her Dad’s lap and
surrounded by stars, the invisible thing curled itself around them both too,
and gave them an enormous hug. Even
though she couldn’t see it, Sophie knew it was there. And down in the jungle far, far below, where
he’d be waiting for Sophie the very next day, the creature knew it too.
