July 2010
There was always a crowd of children around the bearded man, who was selling the balloons. This was the only park in the whole world, thought Joey, that had a balloon man in it.
‘Get your balloon here.’ the man smiled at Joey, but as Joey felt in his pocket to see how much money he could find, he realised that a three year old didn’t earn much pocket money. ‘Come on!’ the bearded man cheerfully called out, ‘Buy your balloon, and release it into the clear blue sky, let it float away as free as a bird.’
‘Joey-Joey,’ his mother called to him, ‘do you really want a balloon?’
‘Oh yes, mum, I really would love that big yellow one.’
At last Joey had his balloon, and as it soared up, up into the sky, into faraway places, it floated on the fluffy white clouds, and what was that down there? It must be the sea. Then shops appeared, but they had funny names on them. The yellow balloon floated on and on, it was having such a lovely time.
Then it saw some children playing in a field, ‘Ooh look,’ they cried, ‘what a lovely yellow balloon!’ So the balloon lowered itself so the children could play with it. They shrieked with laughter as they bounced it from one to another. Then the balloon said, ‘Goodbye.’ to the children and floated away again, oh! it was having such fun.
It floated on and on until it saw a playground, so decided to play on the slide and swings, but there was no one to play with, so it floated high into the sky again. ‘Hallo, bird,’ it called to a seagull, ‘may I fly along with you for a while?’
‘Why yes, yellow balloon, you can ride on my back if you wish.’ The yellow balloon was so happy it had been released.
‘Joey-Joey you must wake up now you have been to sleep.’
A bleary eyed Joey looked at his mum, ‘But where is my yellow balloon and the seagull and the children?’
‘Oh, Joey, have you been dreaming again? I will buy you a balloon tomorrow, what colour would you want?’