Free The Story of the Blue Planet by Andri Snaer Magnason Page A

spilling its contents all over the beach. The children looked on in amazement.
    “It isn’t an invincible invading army! It’s a pile of blankets!”
    “They’ve clearly planned the attack very carefully,” said Jolly-Goodday. “They’ve sent supplies ahead of them. You should blow up the next crate. Ready, aim, BOMBS AWAY!”
    But no one threw a bomb. The waves caught hold of more and more crates and broke them open along the shoreline. Out of them tumbled shoes, clothes, blankets, and potatoes or dried fish.
    The children stood speechless on the beach as the waves threw the last crate ashore. It landed without breaking open and the children crept all round it.
    “What is it?”
    “Be careful,” said Jolly-Goodday. “It could be a nuclear bomb.”

The Bomb in the Crate
     
    Magni crept up to the crate and carefully broke open the lid.
    “What is it?” asked the children.
    Magni remained silent.
    “Magni, what is it?”
    “Just papers.”
    “What’s written on them?”
    “Death threats?”
    “Declarations of war?”
    “Ultimatums?”
    Magni flipped through the pile of papers.
    “They’re stories.”
    “Stories?”
    “Yes, they’re fairy tales and sagas, and poems too.”
    “Poems?”
    “And there’s a letter.”
    “Read it.”

    “Are the children in the darkness sending us food?” asked the children, and they looked at the bombs in their hands.
    Jolly-Goodday burst out laughing.
    “Ha ha ha ha!!! They are so stupid!” he shouted and rolled about laughing. “They believed what Brimir and Hulda told them! They think that you’re so hungry you eat nothing but soil!”
    No one laughed except for a few who giggled self-consciously.
    “They’re sending us blankets and poems?” asked the children.
    Jolly-Goodday laughed even more, bringing tears to his eyes.
    “Ha ha! I’ve never heard anything like it! They are in the darkness and cold and send blankets and food over to the sun and warmth, because they think there’s darkness here too.”
    “Why are they so kind to us?” asked the children.
    “I don’t know,” said Jolly-Goodday. “Some people just are so stupid and gullible.”
    The children stood on the shoreline and stared at the barrel they were planning to float over to the pale children. Flies buzzed all around it as food, blankets, and old shoes were all mixed together.
    “Okay now, carry on flying, kids, and let’s forget all this. Ready, steady, off you go.”
    No one moved.
    “What’s the matter with you all?”
    No one answered.
    “Kids who live in the cold and darkness and give away blankets and rainbow trout must be so stupid that they don’t deserve to have the sun where they live,” said Jolly-Goodday. “They wouldn’t know what to do with it. Get on flying now.”
    The children stood on the beach with drooping heads. Elva was going to embrace Magni, but he was too slippery.
    “Come with me,” said Elva, nudging Magni.
    Magni nudged Woody, who nudged Arnar, who nudged the next child, and they all glided up to Fairmost Falls. They landed by the waterfall, which trickled like saliva down into the canyon. The children peeled off the Teflon ® magic coating and threw it into the waterfall.

    The spray increased as more and more of the children threw the stuff into the waterfall, and its roar became louder and louder until the thunder was almost deafening. In fact, it was so deafening that all the jokes Jolly-Goodday had ever told the children were totally forgotten. And then a large and beautiful rainbow formed over the canyon.
    The children closed their eyes and felt the spray caress their bodies. They then flapped up to Mount Bright and dusted the butterfly powder carefully over the butterflies. The children embraced and kissed each other and then walked back. Many of them soon became very tired, as they hadn’t used their legs since the sun had been nailed to the sky. Their bones were weak, their joints stiff, and some of them walked with a stick.
    When they