Explorations on a Windy Day

The wind whistled across the nearby field, blowing against each blade of grass and forcing them into a polite bow while it listlessly blew through the deep green forest, rustling the leaves on the trees half-heartedly. It whirled in a cascade of mist over the blue and white flowers that bloomed in the bed of the diminutive brook far beneath as it tumbled high into the air and wreathed itself around a fall on the further side of the meadow. Then, with a frightful groan, it flung itself into a tunnel high up on the slope. But this restless wind soon wearied even of such trifling sports, and moaned sullenly as it flung itself over the edge of a steep cliff. Nothing was to be done, and worse still, nothing was to grace it.

The air livened with an upward sense of warmth, the sun lazily rose higher and higher, and the cool early morning sky struggled painfully to brighten. Tenderness, light, billowy clouds fondly crowded up against the light. From this position on the rock, the wind shot right into the air and the clouds followed it. For a few seconds, they danced around the sphere of light with them, still spinning higher and higher in the sky. The sun now desperate to join them fought upwards to such heights, scorching hotter and brighter as it went. While the restless wind left the downy companions to dance mockingly around the ball of fire, teasing the sun toward them to play the game they loved, the clouds waited patiently for it to reach them, while they moved along sluggishly.

A little girl was bringing a large jug of water from the brook, far down in the still meadow. She was the first to feel the warmth of the sun's rays. It focused its burning rays on this girl, charring her wherever it was met with open skin, with all the vigor it could muster. Squinting hard at the burning sun above her, she stopped to wipe the sweat from her brow. The breeze whirled around her, caressing sweat droplets away as it delicately brushed against crimson skin. She let out a sigh of relief as it lasted just long enough. However, the wind went to the rear to continue their game as the sun had already begun hitting other targets.

The sun began firing radiation, hitting first at a father and his son as they mounted the slope, then at a woodsman removing a tree at the forest's edge, and finally settling its radiation upon a youngster running around with his dog. A family wanted to have a picnic under the waterfall and were exhausted by the rays of the sun. Wind came to their aid, unharmed. The wind caressed the climbers lightly as it rose upwards up the slope, before invading the forest shades down to depths, to bring the coolness out across the woodsmen:. The wind ran across the boy's hair and gently across the dog's dense fur as it bounded across, playing duck-duck-goose with the picnicking family, whirling on by to make them all sigh in appreciation for the small respite from the hammering heat.

Then it dulled a bit, and the air began to cool down. The sun had been ceaseless in its sluggish, painful trajectory to join the waiting clouds above them during their game. The sun caught up with them, drew the cloud cover over its head, and slept at the middle of the morning. With a dismal attitude towards letting the game be at an end, upward toward the sky the wind blew and yanked the clouds madly out from in front of the sun. But he time and again turned over lazily and, with a stretch, buried his head again behind the cloud cover. The clouds were now really clinging to the light, willing to stay on, since they had been reunited. Now the sun was lower, and the wind tugged on the clouds, which clung on even tighter.

Finally, the wind relented and descended again into the meadow to caress the little one once more before rising over the hill, beyond the father and his daughter, and finally slapping back into the forest to rub against the woodsman. No one let out a delighted sigh as the wind passed by unless the sun was shining resplendently above. Instead, they bowed their heads and whined and hugged themselves tightly with their arms. The wind sighed plaintively and veered and veered, seeking a playfellow, and sighed again. And then, at last, the wind surrendered and slept at the crest of the gully. There was nothing to do, and, all in all, there was nothing to do anything for without the sun.