This is Jo’s favorite story right now. I told it to her twice tonight before bedtime. It is adapted from a book we checked out from the library. Our version is way better in my opinion. 😀

“Once upon a time there was an angry storm cloud. One day he was hovering above a jungle. He sent down lots of thunder and lots of lightening. One of the lightening bolts hit an old dead tree and the tree caught on fire. The angry storm cloud blew a huge gust of wind down into the jungle which caused the fire to spread to other trees and plants. A little blue parrot was sitting in his nest and saw all of this happen. He used his wings to fly high up into the sky to see what all was happening. When he looked down he could see his friends below in the jungle. Some of them were trapped by the flames and some were very scared. He called out, “Hey guys! Head for the river. Follow me, I can show you the way!” But his friends couldn’t hear him. He got another idea. He flew to the river, dove down into the water, and then flew back up into the sky. When he got high enough he fluttered his wings and little droplets of water fell down onto the fire. He did this over and over and over again. The storm cloud saw what he was doing and thought it was foolish. There was no way one little parrot could bring up enough water to put out such a huge fire. He went over to the parrot and said, “You are wasting your time! The fire is too huge! You might as well fly away and save your self!” But the little parrot said, “No. Those are my friends down there. If i don’t try to save them, who will?” The storm cloud was so moved by the kindness and bravery of the parrot that he began to cry. The huge tear drops fell down onto the fire and put it out. All of the animals of the jungle cried out, “Hooray! Hooray! The little parrot has saved us all!”

This is where jo says, “The storm cloud helped the parrot.” 🙂 And then this is the part where I tear up a bit and start at the beginning when she asks to hear it again.

Paul sometimes tells a version of the story that gives the back-story of why the cloud is so angry. “The cloud is angry because it used to be water in the ocean, but the sun came along and made it evaporate. All of the droplets came together and formed a cloud. The wind blew the cloud over the dessert and it got hot and dry and it wanted to be back home in the ocean.”