A Giraffe Bedtime Story: The Window Above the Clouds

This giraffe bedtime story follows Galen as a stubborn mark on a window turns out to belong there. Read the complete original story below, followed by a small idea for telling it together.

The Window Above the Clouds

Galen the giraffe washed windows on Clover Street. He carried a bucket in a canvas harness and a cloth folded neatly over his shoulder. The upstairs windows were his specialty. For downstairs work, he partnered with a very particular dachshund named Dot.

On Thursday they reached the tall blue house. Dot polished the bottom panes until the front garden appeared twice. Galen washed the first floor and the second. At the very top, a pale streak remained across one square of glass.

He wiped it. The streak stayed. He dipped his cloth again and rubbed in a small circle. Still there.

"A stubborn bit," he called down.

Dot shaded her eyes. "Try the other corner of the cloth."

Galen did. The streak looked exactly as before. Through the pane he could see a room with an easel, a chair and a blue paper fish hanging from a thread. Someone had painted small silver scales on the fish.

A child opened the next window. "Please don't wash away my cloud."

Galen held his wet cloth still. "Your cloud?"

"On the inside. I painted it so the fish would have somewhere to swim."

Galen stepped back as far as his long legs allowed. Now he could see the whole arrangement. The white streak was a cloud. Another pane held a moon, and below it a row of little painted rooftops. The blue fish swam above them whenever the open window let in a breeze.

"I thought it was a mark," he admitted.

"It is," said the child. "I made it with a sponge."

Galen smiled. He cleaned the outside edges and left the inside painting alone. When he finished, the actual sky showed clearly behind the sponge cloud. The paper fish turned once on its thread, its silver scales flashing.

Dot called up to ask whether he had solved the stubborn bit. Galen explained. She considered this from the pavement. "A window with two jobs," she said.

The child drew a small picture for their bucket: one tall window washer, one short window washer and a fish bigger than both. Galen attached it to the harness where Dot could see.

They walked to the next house. Galen looked back once. High above Clover Street, the blue fish was swimming through its freshly polished piece of sky.

Make this telling your own

Ask your child to choose what hangs in the upstairs window. A drawing, a paper bird or a familiar decoration can replace the blue fish without changing the plot. Read the painter's short instructions plainly; exaggerated voices are optional. For a rereading, notice how the giraffe's first assumption about the mark changes once somebody inside the room explains it.

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