Free Cloud Riders by Don Hurst Page A

Huff? Silk is so funny."
    "Hey, mate, does she know the name of my Cloud?” Will whispered, hoping his cloud wouldn't hear.
    "Master, she pulled away from her family group of clouds. Their last name is Bunch. He rides Blanch. Blanch Bunch. They were all sun yellow and made fun of Blanch for her whiteness. Master. So she left home."
    Paul told Will what Silk had said. “Why not ask Blanch to speak to you?"
    "You're pulling me, right, mate? That sounds so weird.” Several moments of silence followed. “Okay. Okay! Talk to me, Blanch, if it's okay, don't you know. Speak!” Several more minutes passed. Will tipped his long body backwards and began to laugh.
    "What did Blanch say?” Paul asked.
    "You're pulling me so hard I'll have a limp for life, mate. Good one!” Will said between gasps. “You're making this whole thing up, I'm betting. Maybe you're nuts, but you're funny, mate.” Will laughed, until Paul's lack of response brought an end to his mirth. “You aren't making this whole thing up, mate, for sure?"
    Paul looked in the direction of their flight. “Yes, I make it up. And, no, I don't make it up. I'm in what Wizard Maken Fairchild called my parallel-imagined-life. So are you, in yours. But I think we are all on our own imagination trip, all mixed together like some kind of stew that's still cooking. For all I know it's all turning into some kind of joke mush! Silk talks to me, I can't help it if Blanch doesn't do it for you. Maybe Blanch Bunch can't talk to anyone from England.” He grinned at Will. “If I had my way I wouldn't be the only one who hears my cloud. Okay?"
    "Sorry, mate."
    The reflected golden sunlight made Silk glow as if Paul rode upon a neon sign. His ice crystal mount, no doubt cold as the inside of an ice cube, felt warm to him. Will and Isno's ride remained white.
    They traveled toward a destination not under Paul's control, unless the direction came from his subconscious imagination.
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Chapter Ten
    The Yellow Dirt Road
    Paul felt joy from his freedom of travel, but feared he didn't have complete power of command. “Charge toward Vicki and Holly, Silk!” This neither speeded nor slowed their forward motion. “It's okay, Silk. Go at your own speed.” Paul grinned, enjoying the ride and wondering what exactly he did control. The whole thing confused him and he had to press his lips tightly together to keep wisecracks in.
    Far ahead of him, he heard Vicki's laugh. He called, “Vicki! It's me! Paulie!"
    "Blimey, you heard her?” Will asked. “Hear anything from Holly kind of like?"
    Isno awoke and looked at Paul with quizzical eyes, then dropped back to sleep. Obviously he found Huff very comfortable.
    "No. I heard Vicki laugh, up ahead, Will.” A warmth spread through Paul as he mind-wished Silk to increase speed. The cloud's acceleration improved, Paul held onto her back through his imagination's directive.
    Huff and Blanch kept pace.
    Still Paul could hear Vicki's unmistakable laugh. The echoing sound haunted him. She didn't sound frightened.
    A rainbow of sun reflections remained with Reshape as he followed behind the group. He had morphed into a toy poodle, turned upon himself and became engulfed by a giant hippopotamus wrapped in a long colorful beanstalk. “You don't have to call me Reshape if you don't want to,” Reshape's hippo-beanstalk shape said in a strange hippo-beanstalk-bear voice. “Call me anything you want. A name is but a name."
    "How about Vicki Forgeter,” Paul snapped at Reshape. No answer. “Sorry, just being a wise guy. It's one of the things I'm really good at."
    "Oh, Master. You are so funny.
    "I was talking to Reshape,” Paul answered Silk's thought-transfer. “I'd never wisecrack to my ride, being as if you threw me off I bet I'd drop back to earth like an anchor.” Paul gave it some thought. “I think."
    "Mate, you think I'd fall back to England?” Will glanced at Paul. “Or where you came from, kind of like?"
    "Or