A Long Neck and a Small Hello

Shhh. Shhh. Shhh. Ines's soft feet went up the cloud hill. Ines was a little longneck dinosaur. Her neck was long and warm, like a scarf that could wiggle.

She lived high in Cloud Kingdom, where the hills were made of cloud, soft as pillows. The cloud hills rolled away, white and round, all the way to the edge of the sky. Down below, the moon shone up through the clouds, gold and glowing. Up here it smelled of warm milk and fresh laundry, all night long.

One day a new family moved to the next hill. Their little one was a cloud-sheep called Dara, made all of soft gray mist, with two tiny curly horns of mist on her head. Ines wanted to say hello. She wanted a friend.

Ines peeked over the cloud fence, with Mama right beside her. She opened her mouth to say hello. But her hello stayed small, down in her tummy, and would not come out. When Ines felt shy, she curled her neck down, down, down and made herself small.

Mama sat beside her and rubbed her back. "A hello can be small," said Mama. "Small is a good size for a hello."

So Ines practiced. She whispered to her blanket, "Hello, Dara. I'm Ines." She whispered to the moon at the window, "Hello, Dara. I'm Ines." She whispered it to Mama, and Mama whispered it right back, warm and low: "Hello, Dara. I'm Ines."

That night, Mama carried Ines in the little balloon basket over to Dara's hill. Creak, went the basket, soft and slow. They floated past puffs of cloud that smelled of warm milk. Mama held her the whole way.

Dara was sitting up in her cloud bed. Her mist was thin and wispy, and she looked droopy, like a cloud with too much rain in it. "Maa," said Dara, very quiet, like a tiny whistle.

"My window is full of cloud," said Dara. "The moon can't see me. I can't sleep without the moon."

Ines looked up. A big fluffy cloud sat over Dara's window. Behind it, the moon was shining up through the clouds, round and gold, but the cloud was in the way.

Ines looked at the cloud. Then she looked at Dara. Her neck felt long and wiggly. She stretched it up, up, up. It wobbled, and she curled it back down. "My neck is too long," she whispered.

"It reaches," said Dara, very quiet. "It reaches up so high."

So Ines stretched her long neck up, up, up, higher than she had ever stretched it before. She gave the cloud one small nudge. Pop!

The cloud floated away, soft as a sigh, and there was the moon, shining up into Dara's window.

Ines curled her neck back down, close to Dara. She took a little breath. "Hello, Dara," she said. "I'm Ines."

Dara's misty tail gave one small wiggle. "Hello, Ines," said Dara. "You have a long, kind neck."

Mama brought two little cups of warm milk and one big blanket that smelled of fresh laundry. She tucked them both into the cloud bed.

Dara yawned. It was a big, soft yawn. "Yawwwwn," went Dara, long and slow, and her mist went puffy and soft. Ines yawned too, a small yawn, right after.

Ines curled her long neck around like a warm scarf. Dara leaned right against it. "Hello, friend," whispered Ines, very small and very brave.

The moon looked in at the window, round and gold. The little balloon basket creaked once, soft and slow, then went quiet. Outside, the clouds went shhh, shhh, shhh.

And the two little friends fell fast asleep on the soft cloud hill.