One night Jack and Poppy heard the wind when they were lying in their beds. It had bashed and thrashed and crashed outside their bedroom window all night for hours. Trees had shaken their leaves and sometimes there had been banging sounds. Jack and Poppy liked the noise of strong wind. It made them feel cosy and comfy in their little beds.
When morning came Jack had an idea. He said, “Let’s go out and see what the wind did.” Poppy said, “I’ll bet it did a lot!” and they both raced off to find mum.
Mum said, going out to have a look was fine as long as they didn’t go too far from home. And then she said, “I’ll tell you what. Would you like me to make you a small snack to take with you?” Jack and Poppy grinned and laughed. Mum knew the kids might actually go a little further and if they did they might get hungry. So she put a few delicious things into a little plastic bag. “There you go!” she said and Jack and Poppy grabbed their jackets and put on their go-up-the-hill shoes and went out.
It was still a bit windy. But they opened the garden gate and stepped out onto the footpath. Poppy looked around and said, “We could go up the hill.” Jack wanted to do that too and they set off. The footpath led them towards the big hill and the wind pushed and pulled them as they went. They pulled their jackets tight around them and pushed into the wind and up the hill. It was great fun!
All around them on the ground there were leaves. Green leaves. Brown leaves. Big ones. Leaves that had been chopped up and broken. Jack said, the wind had done that. “Yes,” Poppy said. “It’s pulled them off the trees and thrown them onto the ground. Quite rambunctious.”
After some time Jack asked if it was still OK to keep walking up the hill, but Poppy said “I think we’re fine.” She said the wind had died down a lot. “It’s not making the trees swish around and there’s no more leaves being ripped off. ” Jack hoped she was right and they kept walking up the hill.
Finally they reached one of their favourite places, but it had changed! The wind had made it different. There used to be a row of trees but the wind had pulled most of the leaves off. Now Jack and Poppy could see right through them, down across the town and all the houses
“Wow! Now we can see out,” said Jack. “We can see for miles and miles,” Poppy said. “So cool.” And they stood together and looked through the branches of the trees down onto the houses ‘way below them.
Then Poppy grabbed Jack’s arm. “Look!” Jack looked and looked and tried to see but he only saw houses. “What can you see, Poppy?”
“It’s their house,” Poppy said. So Jack looked and looked again, until … Yes! He saw it too. “It’s our cousins’ home!”
Jack and Poppy couldn’t believe their eyes. Their cousins lived so far away, right across the town. And now the leaves were gone they could see their cousin’s house. Jack said, “This is amazing.”
But Poppy looked even harder. She squinted her eyes and peered and tried to see even better and sharper and then she squealed. “Jack, I can see them!”
And when Jack peered and squinted he could see them too. “That’s our cousins. In their garden!” “Yes,” Poppy said. “They must be looking at what the wind did too.” And Jack nodded and began to wave. “Wave at them, Poppy!” he told her. “Wave and let’s see if they can see us.”
So they waved and jumped and yelled. “Hello! It’s us! Look over here!” But their cousins didn’t look up. They didn’t see the little waving arms. They didn’t hear their shouting and calling. They were just too far away.
Then Jack had an idea. “Why don’t we take off our jackets, and zip them together into one big jacket and wave that?” “Great idea,” Poppy said. “Just like pirates lost on a desert island.”
So they struggled off their jackets and Poppy showed Jack have to zip them together into one big flapping jacket and they lifted it up together and waved it. The jacket went up and down and to the side and back again and around. And they yelled and called at the top of their voices. And the wind laughed and pushed and shoved them and the jacket and their thin little voices.
Then, “Jack! Look at them!” Their cousins had seen them. Far away, down in the town, the cousins were now looking up. Right up at Jack and Poppy. Then they waved!
“They’ve seen us!” said Jack. “Poppy this is so cool.”
And all the cousins waved to each other. Jack and Poppy jumped and bumped and did a silly little half dance in a circle, and the wind made their big jacket flap and dance. And ‘way down in the town their little cousins grabbed the towels off the clothes line and waved them like flags and they did a silly cousin-dance too.
And they were all laughing and calling but then their cousin’s mum called the cousins to come inside and Jack and Poppy watched them disappear into their home.
“Well that was so good!” said Jack. “Let’s race down and tell mum.” “Ok,” said Popply, “but what about our snack?” “Good point,” Jack said. And they sat together with the big joined up jacket around them both, to keep warm in the wind, and they munched through mum’s delicious snacks.
Then they set off for home, running and leaping and dodging and sliding down the hill, onto the footpath, around the corner and into their garden gate.
“Mum, you’ll never guess!” they shouted. And mum nodded. She said, “You’re right. I’ll never guess why you’ve zipped up your two jackets and made them into one big one!” Jack and Poppy looked at each other. Mum was right. They were all wrapped up in the big zipped up jacket in one big happy bundle.
Jack and Poppy just laughed, “Mum, that’s not it. We’ve just seen our cousins!”
Now it was mum who was laughing. “You can’t see your cousins up that hill,” she said. “They live far away, on the other side of town. You’re making up an adventure, you rascals. But you can’t fool your mum.” And she chuckled and smiled.
And even when Jack and Poppy told her about the wind blowing the leaves off, mum just smiled and nodded. She said, “I know Jesus’ mum went up the hills to see her cousin, a few months before Jesus was born. Remember that story?” Jack and Poppy did remember. Mum often read Bible stories to them at bedtime.
Mum went on, “But I’m not so sure about you and your cousins up our hill!” And she smiled. “Come on,” she said. “I’ve got some delicious lunch ready for you two.”
Jack and Poppy followed mum to the table, but they looked at each other and smiled. They knew they’d seen their cousins.