The Stories of the Clouds

Chapter 1. The First Greetings

"The universe is made of stories, not atoms"   
                 - Muriel Rukeyser 

        Stories are what connects everyone in the universe. Everyone has some kind of story and all of our stories come from different places. Such as friends, noises, dreams, nightmares, shapes, and even from doing nothing but relaxing and daydreaming. But one thing is for sure, stories are what keeps everyone together, it's what everyone and everything shares. Some stories are small and seem insignificant and some are huge and seem so important that no one can forget about them or that almost no one has gone there life without knowing about the story like robin hood or King Arthur but all stories still remain and all stories are of great significance, and are still what influences the future of everyone who is apart of it and everyone who hears it.
     
        My stories form from watching the clouds, seeing them take different shapes as the wind pushes, pulls, and twists the clouds making new shapes. Sometimes continuing the story and sometimes starting a whole new one. I had normally watched the clouds by myself but throughout my life I have had a few join me. Most were family looking for an escape from reality for a few hours but the one I remember the most was when a stranger had come to join me and we became as close as two people could become in the time we could spend together. In fact my fondest memory of watching the clouds came from the day i had met her. 
      
        My name is James Azazel Erramun but my friends normally just referred to me by my middle name, so much so that no one knew my first or last name, everyone just knew me as Azazel even my teachers soon forgot my first name. I think in my whole life she was the only one outside my family that remembered my whole name. It was 2012 when i met her, we were about 13 years old and we had just started Jr. high. We lived in Ravenwood, Wyoming. It wasn't a very big town, maybe 10,000 people. There were several places for people to hang out and have fun. On the north side of town is the bowling alley which is the regular hangout of the high schoolers and adults though it wasn't very big, it was a eight lane bowling alley so most of the time it was split in half where high schooler were on the first few lanes and the adults were on the other side where the bar was. It was kind of the final right of passage for the town going from the high school side to the adult side. There was always the three year gap between the two where they still had to bowl with the teenagers. 

         The west side is where the roller rink and the schools were, that's where the elementary schoolers hung out. They normally either get spending money from their parents or just hung out there while waiting to get picked up. They are there mostly because it's close to the school so the kids don't have to walk far and they have something to do after school while they wait for their parents to get off work.

        Over on the east side is shopping districts, this is where the Jr. High kids all hung out, this is really the first right of passage into growing up because they were given their first taste of responsibility, so the parents normally have them do grocery shopping for them if they need any and if they don't than the kids just walk around and look at all the stuff and see what they like, makes it easier on the parents to buy for their kids on christmas and their birthdays since they go all year looking at the stuff they want but cant buy them and it saves on money since the parents don't have to have to keep buying stuff that the teenagers will run out of interest of in a few weeks.

           My favorite spot in the town is on the outskirts of the south side, it is a hill that overlooks the entire town. There was a tree on top of this hill, from the town's history it seems like this tree was here long before the town was built but what made it special was that it was the only tree with miles and any other tree planted seemed to not be able to make it. So since the beginning of the town the tree was known as The Miracle Tree. Ever since I was a kid I would climb that tree and stare down on the town, and it was beautiful looking through the tree leaves and seeing the light of the sun shining down on this town made it seem like it was our own little slice of paradise. I know it's kind of the go to phase of a small town but if you don't get why then you've never lived in a small town and you'd have to live there to understand. Looking down at the town from this hilltop is simply amazing and beautiful but the view during the day is nothing like the view at night. All the streets were lined with string lights going back and forth between each lamp making sure the whole street is lit up. The light shone like stars in the night sky each one shining bright and beautiful. Almost making it feel like for that time you were soaring above looking down on the stars. Like nothing could ever hurt you or could ruin that moment until the light of day shone. The rest of the town didn't see anything special with it and so for the most part I had this paradise to myself. Those nights were the best nights of my life and I had one of those nights the day before I met her. I could never have imagined how much one person could have changed my life. I will never forget the day that she came into my life and changed it forever.