Nigel Gray Quotes

“It was a warm day so the back door stood wide open. Sam’s balloon snuggled up against the ceiling. It was bobbing and bumping in the breeze.”

“After breakfast, Sam and Dad, went upstairs to wash their hands. Then from the bathroom window Dad caught sight of a glint of silver and red. ‘Look!! There goes your balloon,’ he said. ‘It must have blown out of the back door!”

“They watched it rising up, as straight and smooth as an elevator on its way to the very top floor of a building taller than the tallest tree. They run downstairs and went outside. Up and up went the balloon, jerkily, fidgety now, and fits and starts like a rock climber zig-zagging up a cliff.”

“And then, when it was so high it looked like a tiny red berry in the sky, the wind grabbed it. ‘I want my balloon,’ Sam cried. ‘No’, said the wind. ‘It’s mine! All mine!’ And off rushed the balloon, in a hurry now, south towards the mountains.”

’Don’t cry, ’ said Dad. ‘Across the mountains is the sea, and across the sea is the desert, and across the desert, a river, and in the river, and island.’

‘And on that island,’ said Sam, ‘my grandad Abdulla lives looking after his goats and tending his date trees.’ ‘That’s right,’ said Dad. ‘Perhaps,’ said Sam, ‘my balloon is going to visit Grandad Abdulla.’ ”

“yes,′ said Dad. ‘Then it will fly high, high, high over the snow-decorated mountains where golden eagles nest; high, high over the sparkling blue-green sea where silver fish leap from the waves.”

“high over the hot yellow sand of the desert where scorpions, and spitting spiders, and sidewinder snakes hide fro the heat.′ ‘And sandgrouse will pick at it,’ said Sam, ‘and falcons will fall on it, and hawks will fly after it, and vultures with their big hooky beaks and their sharp talons will tear at it, but the dry desert wind will help it to dodge and weave and nothing will harm it.”

‘That’s right,’ said Dad. ‘And then, tired after its long journey, it will see down below the long blue ribbon of the river, it will see the small gold and emerald jewel of the island; it will see the little brown house built of baked mud.”

‘Yes,’ said Sam, ‘and it will see Grandad Abdulla sitting in the shade of his mango tree. And down, down, down it will glide, landing in the yard like a seagull settling on the sea.”

“And Grandad Abdulla will say, ‘A balloon! A balloon for me! My grandson Sam must have sent it to show that, although he’s so far away, he’s thinking of me.’ ”