The Bubble Called Joniel

The bubbles fly far away. Nobody knows where, but in every direction. Small, big, free and weightless are the bubbles.

"Fly, fly far away," little Luca whispers, his brown eyes fixed on the delicate soap spheres that changed to blue, then orange.

While whirling upwards, little Joniel smiles back at the child and regards him from an increasing distance, while the gentle breeze takes him towards the sky, and the other bubbles dance around him.

"Hey, excuse me!" he tries to shout to the child, but his voice is lost in the wind.

"Come on, come and play with us!" the other happy bubbles urge him.

"Did you understood what he said when he blew you into the air?" he asks hopefully.

The bubbles laugh. "Did he say something? Maybe what you heard was the voice of the wind.”

But Joniel knows it’s not like that. The child said something to him before letting him fly free into the sky. And he wants to know what it was.

"Please, wind, my friend, let me reach that child," Joniel, the small bubble, begs.

"Forget him and fly with the other bubbles. The words of the humans are not your concern," urges the wind.

But Joniel is a stubborn bubble. The wind pushes him upwards and he whirls downwards. The wind directs him to the left and he pulls to the right.

"Excuse me!" Joniel cries again to the child.

The child fails to hear him.

Joniel looks at him sitting on the stairs before the door of the house, waiting for something.

"Child, please, repeat what you said! I need to know..."

But Luca doesn’t pay any attention to the small bubble that is still twirling above him, while the others are now far, far away.

Joniel struggles not to be taken away too.

"Hi, Sara!" Luca says suddenly, at once happy. His sister is finally back home from school. He stands up and goes towards her, smiling.

Sara stares at the gravel before her and does not notice her little brother. She looks askance at him, gives him a nod and makes to pass him by without stopping.

Just above them, the small bubble, Joniel, continues his struggle against the persistence of the wind.

"Give up, it’s no use trying to know the child’s words," the wind scolds him, annoyed by his belligerence.

But Joniel insists, he refuses to give up.

Below them, Luca blushes and asks fearfully, "Are you happy again, now?"

Sara turns, an inquiring look on her face. "Happy about what?" she asks, irritated.

"But I thought ..." Luca looks down, disappointed.

Sara ignores him and is about to go up the stairs.

At that moment, the wind, tired of the recalcitrant bubble by now, decides to blow harder. But Joniel whirls again and finds himself resting a few inches from the girl whose name is Sara.

The wind blows but Joniel thrusts it away with all his strength. He is engaged in a crazy, uncoordinated dance.

Suddenly, the girl looks up, perplexed, and little Joniel passes by her, lightly brushing the tip of her nose. Sara observes the bubble dancing in the wind and touches her nose, astonished. Then, almost without being aware of it, she smiles, revealing a metallic twinkle between her teeth. She shakes her head, amused, then goes indoors.

Joniel, exhausted, decides to give up. He’ll never know what the child whispered to him, he thinks sadly.

But, at that precise moment, Luca turns, his face wreathed in smiles, and races with the wind to reach the little bubble, now already far away. "Thank you!" he happily whispers.

"Thanks for what?" little Joniel murmurs, confused.

The wind laughs heartily. "He asked you to make his sister’s sadness fly away," he reveals.

"Who? Me? But it’s something I’m not able to do!" poor Joniel sadly regrets.

"But you have just done it!" the wise wind contradicts him. "His sister was sad because of the braces she’s obliged to wear, so she doesn't smile anymore. Without being aware of it, you’ve done what you thought you couldn’t do."

"Really?" asks Joniel, amazed. To him, this is incredible. He’s just a little bubble! But an extremely resourceful one, it seems!


- Lara Marzo
Translated from the Italian by Marta Favro
Turin, Italy.
http://it.geocities.com/shiningarden