The Prince With the Raincloud in His Pocket

This story is for Tensai.

It is adapted from a story in California Fairytales by Monica Shannon, but I suspect she borrowed it from some much older source.

Once there was a prince who kept a raincloud in his pocket.

He lived in the northwest, in a small town much like Steelhead. And nearly every morning he would take the raincloud from his pocket, shake it out, and set it free to rain all over that small town.

The people in that town were happy--they didn't mind the rain. They loved to walk along the shiny streets, splashing through the puddles. They especially loved to watch the ripples spread in circles as the raindrops plashed down hard into the water that had pooled along the sidewalks.

One day the prince received a telegram. It was from his brother, who lived in California. The brother begged the prince to come and visit him, and bring the raincloud. "It has not rained here for months," the brother said. "The crops are parched, the land is dry, the dust is terrible! Please come and save us--come and bring the rain."

The prince could not ignore his brother's plea--he began packing his bags for the journey. The people were upset. "What will we do without our rain?" they said. "Oh," said the prince, "You will not miss it. You will find that sunny weather is a blessing, and my fear is that you will not want me to come home."

So he left, and traveled down to California. His brother was overjoyed to see him. "I'm so glad you came," he said. "Please make it rain, make it rain right now!"

The prince obliged. He reached into his pocket, brought the raincloud out, and set it free to roam the sky. Immediately a mass of dark clouds began to form. The sky turned black--and then it did not only rain, it poured and poured and poured!

The people raced for cover. They hurried round their houses closing all the windows--not an easy task, it had been a very long time since most of those windows had been closed--and then they stood on porches and in doorways gazing at the rain. Only a few children came out and played in the puddles, and their mothers quickly shooed them back indoors.

After a bit, the prince called the raincloud to him, put it back into his pocket, and the rain first slowed, then stopped. He and his brother walked into the castle, talked of family and friends, had a lovely dinner, drank a good deal of fine California wine, and went to sleep.

The prince slept late the next morning--it must have been the journey, or perhaps the wine. He arose at noon, dressed, and went outside. The sun was out. He noticed that a crowd of people were gathered outside the castle--he wondered why they were there.

Well, when one has a task to do it is best to do it first thing after rising. The prince reached into his pocket for the raincloud and prepared to turn it loose. But people were converging on him, calling out to him--at first he thought they were cheering for the rain--then he realised that they were shouting, "No, No--wait a minute!"

A line of people formed in front of him. They all had urgent business--he had been a ruler long enough to know that when he saw it. He took is hand out of his pocket and assumed a proper attitude for hearing urgent business.

The first in line was a farmer, wearing overalls and a red bandana around his neck. "Please don't make it rain right now," he said. "I need to cut hay today. If you make it rain today, my hay will spoil."

That seemed a reasonable request. The prince nodded and said, "Okay, we'll have the rain tomorrow then."

"Oh, no!" cried a young woman in the crowd. "Oh, please no rain tomorrow! My fiance is coming tomorrow, and we have planned a picnic." She blushed, she looked quite pretty indeed--the prince found himself totally envious of that fiance. "All right," he said. "We can do it day after tomorrow."

"No, sir, I beg you, NO!" cried a large man wearing a business suit. "Day after tomorrow is the sale of the year at my department store. People will be lined up all the way around the block. If it is raining, they will all go home. My store will be bankrupt, my employees will have to be let go, their children will starve in the streets!"

That seemed a bit of an exaggeration--the prince doubted that a little rain would make anybody's children starve. Still, he shrugged and said, "All right--how about if I have the rain on Saturday? That should give everybody plenty of notice. You can reschedule any events where rain would be a problem."

But then the people all began to cry together, "Oh, No, No, NO!" Saturday we all play baseball in the park. This is the deciding game for the league championship--if it rains the game will be cancelled. Oh, please not on Saturday!"

The prince turned and gazed into his brother's eyes. "I am so sorry," he said. "I tried to help you but it does not seem I can." He tucked the raincloud firmly down into the bottom of his pocket and returned to Oregon.

The people there were overjoyed to see him back. They laughed and told him just how tired they'd become of endless sunny weather, just how much they'd missed the rain. "Without the rain, every day was the same," they said. "Now we will have some weather, that will make things much more interesting."

The prince smiled, reached into his pocket, turned the raincloud loose. "It is so good to be home!" he said.