THE BALLOON TREE

Mikey was having a birthday party and he was having so much fun. His friends from Montessori had come to celebrate with him, and they had lots of cake and chocolates and his very favourite thing – jujubes.

Soon his mum and dad took all the balloons that were tied up in one corner and began giving them to him and each of his friends, he got a bright purple one. “Hold on tight,” said his dad. “They float away.” Earlier that day, Mikey’s dad took him to the shop where they filled the balloons with a special kind of air called hydrogen. It made the balloons float instead of floating down like they usually did. This was one of the most exciting things that Mikey could ever imagine for his birthday.

And now he and his friends were playing who-can-catch-theballoon-the-fastest, where they released the balloon for a second and caught it by its string before it could slip away. It was fun and everyone began laughing and jumping around, until a few of them lost their balloons and they began crying.

So mum and dad decided to change the game to make everyone happy again, but Mikey wanted to play with his purple balloon. Everybody was busy trying to find out what game to play next that they did not notice Mikey running around with his balloon; and they did not notice when a gust of wind blew it away too far for him to catch it and he began to run after it.

Mikey ran faster and faster as the balloon got carried away further away. He did not realise that the balloon was getting carried into the little wood that was close to his house. Often he lost sight of the balloon but it would bob up through the trees again and he would try and catch it.

He began to notice that he was lost after the balloon did not appear for awhile. He stopped in the middle of the darkness and began to cry. “Where is everybody?” he shouted. But only silence greeted him.

“Oh no what do I do?” he thought to himself, and just then he caught sight of his balloon, quite faraway. It looked like it was caught to something. Mikey ran forward and made his way through some shrubs before he found himself in a clearing.

And what a surprise he got. He stood staring at the biggest tree in front of him, and instead of leaves what covered it were balloons. There were red balloons, green balloons, silver and gold balloons. Balloons in all sizes and shapes. And beside the tree sat an old looking man with pointy ears. In his hand was Mikey’s purple balloon and he was attaching it to the tree.

Mikey ran forward and asked: “Can I please have my balloon back?”

The old man wrinkled up his already wrinkled forehead and stared at the boy. “A balloon always finds it way back home to this tree, I don’t think you can take it back,” he answered. “It’s for the balloon to decide.”

Mikey began to sob. “I’m lost and I don’t know how to get back home, I’m going to miss the rest of my birthday party,” he said.

The old man’s frown disappeared. “It’s your birthday? Then you get to pick any balloon here on this tree,” he said. “What a lucky day for you. That’s the only time anyone is allowed to take a balloon from this tree.”

Mikey stopped crying forgetting his troubles for a moment, and looked at the amazing tree. How wondrous if he could pick any balloon he wanted. His eyes darted up and down, should he choose the big golden balloon or the one shaped like a dog?

After a while, he decided on the big silver one with cats and dogs drawn on it. As soon as he pointed to it, the balloon floated down and hovered around him.

“It will show you the way home now,” the old man nodded, and the balloon suddenly leapt forward and began bobbing through the trees. Mikey without a single word or a glance behind him ran after the balloon. He ran and ran, until he heard voices and laughing. He ran into his birthday party once again and found it just how he left it, it almost felt as if time had not moved since he followed his purple balloon through the woods.

Did he dream it all? But when he looked up, there was his silver balloon. He held onto the string and walked back into his party, wondering if anyone would believe the story he was about to tell. What a strange and exciting birthday it had been!