1. A Letter Above the Rooftops
On Saturday morning, Mariam found a white staircase outside her bedroom window. It went up between the clouds. Her grandmother looked through the window and smiled. "The cloud post office is open," she said. "You may visit with Wren. Come home before the steps turn grey. If it rains, wait inside the post office and send me a message."
A small bird in a blue cap waited on the first step. He carried a yellow bag with a picture of an envelope. "Good morning. I am Wren," he said. Mariam took her grandmother's small parcel of biscuits and followed him. Below them, the houses became little coloured squares. Above them, paper envelopes floated through an open window.
Inside the post office, Wren caught the letters in a wide basket. The wind brought them from different towns. Each letter had a name and an address, and Wren put it on the right shelf. Mariam helped him count the parcels. Then she noticed an envelope sitting alone under a blue cup. Its paper was yellow at the edges.
"That one arrives every Saturday," Wren said. "The wind cannot find the address, so it brings the letter back." On the envelope were a blue kite and three little bells. A loose white label covered most of the back. "Can we read inside?" Mariam asked. "The letter belongs to its reader," Wren said. "Let us look at the outside first."
Mariam showed him the kite. "My grandmother draws kites like this." Wren turned the envelope carefully. The old label was stuck to the thin paper, and he did not want to tear it. "The keeper of our old school knows how to lift labels," he said. "We can ask her. First, perhaps the kite seller knows this picture."
2. Three Little Bells
The kite shop stood beside a tall cloud shaped like a tree. Red and green kites hung from its branches. The seller was fixing a long string. Mariam showed him the envelope. He looked at the blue kite, then at the three bells. "I did not make that kite," he said. "But I know those bells."
He took a picture from the wall. It showed the old cloud school with three bells above its door. Beside the school was a group of children holding kites. "My mother went there," he said. "The kite club used a picture of those bells on its letters." Mariam looked closely, but the faces in the picture were too small to recognise.
The seller drew a path on a piece of paper. Mariam and Wren followed it past a cloud garden and a quiet pond. Soon they reached the old school. Its gate was closed. A sign on the gate said that the school had moved to a larger cloud. Under the sign was the new address.
"We can follow the address," Mariam said. Wren shook his head. "The children moved there. We need the person who looked after the old bells." Mariam read the bottom of the sign. In smaller letters, it said: For old school records, visit Miss Bell, next door. They looked around and saw a green door behind the garden.
Miss Bell opened it with a gardening glove on one hand. She invited them to sit at her table. When she saw the drawing, she went to a cupboard and brought an album. "The kite club," she said. "I kept the bells ringing when these children were here." She turned the pages until she found a large photograph.
3. The Name Under the Label
Two girls stood at the front of the photograph. One held a blue kite. The other held its string. Mariam pointed to the second girl. "That is my grandmother! She has this picture at home." Miss Bell read the names below it. "Salma and Farah," she said. "Salma made the kite. Farah helped her fly it."
Mariam's grandmother was Farah. She often told Mariam about learning to fly a kite, but Mariam did not know the other girl's name. Miss Bell remembered that Salma's family moved away. After that, Salma sent letters to the club. When the school moved too, some old addresses stopped working. The wind still brought letters to the empty building.
Miss Bell placed the envelope under a lamp. She lifted the loose label slowly with a small tool. The envelope stayed closed. A name appeared beneath the label: Farah. Below it was the old school's address. "This letter is for your grandmother," Wren said. "The drawing brought us here, but now we have her name."
Mariam wanted to run straight home with the letter. Then she remembered the grey steps outside her window. Through Miss Bell's window, the clouds were getting darker. "We should go back to the post office," Wren said. "We can check the stairs there." Mariam thanked Miss Bell and asked if she could show her grandmother the photograph.
Miss Bell gave her a copy. At the post office, Wren called Farah on the cloud telephone. Mariam explained what they had found and asked if she could bring the letter home. "Please do," Farah said. "I have not heard from Salma for years." Then rain began to tap against the window, and the white staircase disappeared into grey cloud.
4. The Wind Finds a New Address
Mariam felt disappointed. She wanted to see her grandmother open the envelope. Wren put the letter safely on a dry shelf. "We will wait here," he said. Mariam called home again and explained the rain. Farah told her not to worry. Mariam and Wren shared the biscuits while they listened to the rain and sorted the last small parcels.
After lunch, sunlight came through the window. The steps were white again. Wren checked the path, then walked down with Mariam. Farah was waiting beside the bedroom window. Mariam gave her the envelope and the photograph. Farah sat in her favourite chair and opened the letter herself. She read the first line twice before she smiled.
Salma had written about the old kite club. She wanted to meet Farah and fly their blue kite again. "There is a new address at the end," Farah said. She wrote a reply with her own address too. Wren checked that the writing was clear. This time, the wind would know exactly where each friend lived.
The next Saturday, Salma came to Farah's garden with a long blue kite. Mariam helped them tie its new string. A boy called Samir watched from the gate. He was new to the street and did not know anyone. Mariam asked if he wanted to help hold the kite. He nodded and came into the garden.
At first, the kite fell onto the grass. Salma laughed and moved a little farther from the tree. Farah held the string, and the children lifted the blue paper together. A gentle wind carried it up above the rooftops. High on a cloud, Wren waved his cap. The three little bells on the kite moved in the sunlight.
