The venturous vessel was floating. Una's heart was sinking.

She was curled up at the bottom of the giant glass.

The fish pedalled around her furiouser and furiouser, as if riding mini bicycles.

"Land, ahoy!" A seagull screeched above her.

The ocean was slurped into a narrow pocket akin to a kitchen funnel Una's mom used to make lemonade.

The stainless-steel-grey-colored funnel then bloomed into a five-digit watery hand.

Each of its fingers formed a riverbed.

The gill-breathers maneuvred the glass towards the most diminutive one—the pinky finger.

The glass came to a halt in a perfectly manicured baby-blue fingernail.

A pond.

"Last stop, Petite Park. Quittin' time!" The fish cascaded into a miniature empty sardine can.

They pulled the metallic can-layer, like a comforter, all the way up to their fishy-mouths, instantly falling asleep.

"Poor things, they must be exhausted!" Una clambered out of the glass and bounced over the waterlily leaves in order to reach the land.

She glanced around.

A black swan and a white swan glided in the pond center. Their twisted necks were intertwined in a heart-shaped expression of fondness.

The Salmon-Red petal leaped into Una's hand like an eager pet, hungry for the caress.

She re-read the inscription.

"Shadowy park! That's it! Petite Park! Now, to find a melaknoli bird from line three. But what is mela-kn-oli? I don't know what kind of bird to look for!"

Peeking through the petal did nothing.

"Melancholy? It's when you are sad. Triste, tu comprends?" said a soothing soprano.

There was a gentle touch on her shoulders, like a mother's caress. A subdued giggle came from above.

"So, it's a sad bird I need to find! Thank you!" Una looked up to see who her interpreter was.

A smiling silhouette hovered in the sky. "You are very welcome, little one! Ma petite!"

Warm beams, glossy and luxuriant like a lion's mane, tickled Una's cheeks.

"Are you... Madame Sun?"

"Oui, c'est moi. And you are Una!" said a wax-colored face adorned with amber eyes and a banana-yellow smile.

Madame Sun pirouetted in front of the sky-blue curtain.

"You... know me?"

"There is little that I don't know, ma petite." Madame Sun peeked out behind a cottony cloud in a hide-and-seek fashion.

Una dashed after her, trying to catch Madame Sun's lemony locks.

"Here in the Sky Theater, I have the best seats to observe the World from above. Tu es très courageuse, Una. Very brave. Such a sweet child, too. I hope you will find your sister."

"Have you seen Paz? Or Duo? Please tell me!"

"I can't. I am just an Overseer. Your audience. I watch you perform and live your life. I shine the light on your thoughts. I am not an actress in your play. Only you can act in it and direct it."

"I miss Duo. And Paz. He was helping me find her, you see? Now, I lost him, too!"

"There, there." Madame Sun encased her into a golden-ray hug. "A word of advice: to learn about something dwelling in the park, ask other park dwellers."

A pack of Runtastic Runners passed them by at that very moment, bearing resemblance to a herd of gazelles.

Una's neighbor was jogging alongside them, her shawls flapping about her. It didn't seem to have bothered the woman at all.

"Hey! HAVE YOU SEEN A MELAKNOLI BIRD?" Una yelled.

Runtastic Runners' heads twirled.

Their legs pumped on without breaching the imposing staccato rhythm.

Their mouths spouted: "NO! WE HAVEN'T! All birds run away from us the moment we appear. We never notice how they feel! We don't really care, either! By the way: You should do something about your color! Eat fewer blueberries!"

Una tilted her head but there was no time to ponder on their remark. The sound of heinous, hideous harmonica whiskered her away towards the next park dweller: a man sitting on a tiny stool.

He spoke to her first.

"Now listen here, girl, who might you be

What is it you be wanting from the little old me?"

Una thought he might have a rhyme disease.

Mommy had it, Daddy used to say, that's why she wrote poetry.

And it was chronic.

Una decided to try reply back in verses as well. It came out naturally.

"My name is Una and it means 'one'

I'm looking for a sad bird under the sun."

The man frowned.

"Birds hate on my sound, they say I am a masochist,

In truth, I love music, as an Amateurish Accordionist."

Una wondered what the "masochist" was.

"So you haven't seen a Melaknoli bird?"

Neither have seen it nor overheard?"

The Amateurish Accordionist shook his head in reply.

"Nay, I haven't heard, not a word, say:

What to your skin color, has occurred?

I know it's rude and excuse the rant

But you had to have eaten an eggplant!"

"No one seems to be helping at all! Why, they are all just enumerating various foods I could have eaten to make my skin blue." Una looked at her arms, curious about her skin colour.

"It is blue! I am feeling blue, true. It must reflect on the outside, too!" She clasped her mouth.

"I caught the rhyme disease! Oh well. My new skin color goes along with the color of my backpack," she managed to end the involuntarily rhyming.

"I still haven't spoken to the ground park dwellers! This might help me see more and hear more! The Magni Glass can take me to the Mini World!" Una fished out a magnifying glass out of her backpack.

She lay on the ground, appearing very detectivesque to herself.

No sooner had she used the loupe was Una able to stumble upon the strangest sight.

On the mini tracks, there was a tiny transport labelled "Termite Train."

There were countless ants sitting on itty-bitty seats.

They were snacking on what seemed to be sugar crumbs.

"Eek! Eustace! Oh my gosh, Eustace! Would you look at that?" A lady-ant, wearing a necklace of shiny dust particles shook her husband out of the stupor.

"What is it now, Clarice? Can you not allow me to read the "Daily Dragonfly" in peace? OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT? It's a giant's eye! And it's staring right at us!"

"I'm so sorry!" Una shouted an apology.

The strength of her voice caused the Termite Train to sway dangerously.

"Eustace" and "Clarice" now lay on the floor, their insectoid arms and legs writhing in the air.

"Why, I'd better whisper. Poor things! I was just looking for a Melaknoli bird," Una murmured.

The offended insects poked their heads out of miniature windows. "BIRD? Bird, she says! How rude! Don't you know birds turn us into bird snacks? What makes you think we would want to see a bird?"

"Watch where you are waving that thing! You could cause a Bugpocalypse!" A ladybug shrieked, indicating Una's loupe.

It was too late. One of Madame Sun's golden hair strands stuck in the magnifying glass.

The flamy lock scorched the minuscule rails just in front of the Termite Train.

The vehicle came to a halt, unable to keep advancing.

Quickly, Una put the looking glass back into her backpack, trying her best to look innocent.

"I have done an awful lot of harm! I don't even know how to go about looking for this bird! No one knows where it is! I think I shall take a little break."

She fled the scene of the unintended crime.

A nippy wind wafted through the Petite Park playground.

Una quivered, tucking her palms into the oversized jeansy pockets of her overalls.

A monochrome baby-whale sized swallow plummeted towards Petite Park.

Its obese body settled on the top of the burgundy-leaved tree.

The horizon blackened with that thick-seepy-under-the-bed darkness Una always dreaded.

Runtastic Runners began going backwards instead of forwards.

The other park dwellers seemed to be playing statues.

"They are on pause. Everything inside me has been on pause, too," whimpered Una. "I must press the play button now. For Paz."

The Amateurish Accordionist's accordion stretched upwards under an uncanny angle. It resembled a set of stairs reaching towards the crown of the burgundy-red-leaved tree.

Una's sneakers sneaked up the accordion bellows, leaping up two or three "steps" at the time.

The burgundy-red leaved tree grumbled: "Just... Take... This... Spiritless Swallow... Away from me. My branches are breaking!"

"Sorry," croaked the bird. "Flock flies south. Miss them. Feel empty. Numb. No energy. Let me be."

"Oh, my darling Spiritless Swallow! I know how you feel. I do! I miss my sister and my tomcat. Without them, nothing seemed to matter to me anymore. But now I have met you. And you matter to me. I do wish to help you somehow!" Una exclaimed.

"How?"

"Well... You are so mighty big. I wonder why. Maybe the Sadness is inflating you! Filling you up! Like stale air that makes you heavier. I need to deflate you, somehow! You have to think of a happy thought. Of something that makes you smile."

"No," said the Swallow.

Burgundy-red-leaved tree groaned again: "No. Use. This Spiritless Swallow would rather wallow in misery. Swallows are famous for their wallowing."

Una didn't want to give up on it. Strangely enough, even if she herself felt exactly the same, she had the need to lift the swallow up.

She thought that by doing so, she might lift herself up, as well.

"Why, I have just the thing!" Una pulled out a blue-butterfly bubble blower from her backpack. "Look! This is liquid happiness!"

She pursed her lips and blew.

Bubble after bubble flew out of the plastic circle, like yet another and another new planet being formed.

Several spherical shapes floated around Una.

She felt as if she was breathing an entirely new miraculous micro-universe out into being.

"You and me, Swallow! We are like two soap bubbles, shiny and fragile! Someone blew us out here. We don't have much time to walk this park! Let us use it in the best way we can. What do you say? Laugh with me, my friend?" Una embraced the bird.

The Spiritless Swallow opened its mouth.

Bubbles glided down its throat and tickled it.

It giggled.

The more it cackled, the more it was burping and wheezing.

Sadair was now coming out of its ears and beak at the same time.

One strong feeling of Deep Depression erupted into millions of tiny tendrils of sentiments.

The Sizable Spiritless Swallow deflated.

One hundred tiny swallows burst out of it instead.

They playfully wooshed through the ring on a bubble-blower in a joyous flight.

The burgundy-red tree sighed in relief.

One of the leaves fell into Una's lap.

Except it was not a leaf at all.

It was a Burgundy-red petal.

The sky rumbled as if its stomach were growling in hunger.

Una scrunched up her forehead. "Is it about to rain? Oh, I can see lightning! Mum says lightning comes from the flash of the huge camera in the sky so whenever I see it I should smile real big!"

It began raining indeed, but there was no water to speak of.

Kittens and puppies were slow-motion sliding from the sky, landing on the grass, unharmed.

"It's raining cats and dogs!" Park Dwellers bit, tripped, and elbowed each other in order to grab the little critters.

"Not fair!" Una pouted. "Their pets just fall from the sky for them! What about me? Why hasn't my Duo fallen from the sky for me?"

"I have."

"DUO!"Una ran towards the tomcat with outstretched arms.

"I would not do that, if I were you. I just went potty, moments ago. I really had to go. My bowels were all contorted from the non-desirable parachuting experience!"

"I thought I'd never see you again!" Una kneeled next to him as Duo rubbed his sides against her legs. "How come you fell from the sky with all those other kittens and puppies?"

"I honestly cannot say. I do not dawdle on such occurrences. Suffice to say: life has a way of surprising us. We end up where we never expected we would. People fall into our lives from the sky and the only thing we can do is deal with their presence. I, for one, did not expect I would be delivered in such fashion, along with this common riffraff."

"Your wise cat has got a point. People exit and reenter the scenery of our theatre play at the most unusual moments, Una! Remember that!" Madame Sun waved at her from above, tossing her illuminative locks about proudly yet again.

"Nicely put." Duo squinched towards Madame Sun. "It was my time to reenter the scenery of your play. What happened back there on the beach—it was merely a goodbye, Una. Not a farewell."

"I am so happy right now! Oh, I am not blue anymore!"

"Were you blue?" asked the tomcat.

"I was blue for you. But you are here now!" Una smiled. "I learned I shouldn't eat blue food. It makes one's skin turn blue! Kids at school teased me that I ate too much orange food. You know, because my hair is orange. But I don't!" she sulked.

"How positively harebrained. Everyone knows orange food such as carrots, makes you see in the dark." Duo purred.

"And, Duo, look! Look! I got the Burgundy-red petal! I got it on my own!" Una squeaked.

"Congratulations are in order," Duo said. "You did do it all by your lonesy. You seem to be coming along quite nicely. Have you read the inscription yet? I am agog with curiosity to know what it says."

"No, I was hoping I might find you so we could read it together! Listen to this:

Fit-for-king ice-cream

Before the color spectrum,

After the embers"

"Ice-cream? That fine-scented dairy product I was never authorized to sample? My gustative and olfactory powers might not aid you in this quest, alas," said Duo.

"I don't know what the line two and line three mean, Duo. But: there is only one ice-cream in the whole town fit-for-king! They sell it in the 'Imperial Fresh Ice Cream parlor!' It's just... I don't know how to get there, from here."

One hundred swallows paused in a playful pattern.

Their bodies formed a question together, along with a prominent interrogation mark:

"DO YOU NEED A LIFT?"

"Do we? We do! Don't we, Duo?"

"Oh, of course, we do. 'We' are absolutely delighted to be tossed into the maws of the air currents yet again. And neither of us is afraid of altitudes." Duo's whiskers wrinkled in a woebegone way.

Una gulped down a mouthful of her fear of heights. "It's for Paz, Duo. And we will be closer than ever to Madame Sun. To the light."

"All right. I'll play along. Just... Don't forget to zip up your schoolbag this time." Duo made a moue.

Una did so, sensing the tomcat shiver on the inside.

The flock of frequent flyers turned into a huge smiley emoticon. An ecstatic exclamation sign hovered right next to it.

The claws on tiny bird feet latched onto Una's body like mini hooks.

They sank into her auburn hair strands.

Got attached to her ear lobules.

Clutched her jeansy overalls.

Fastened onto Una's light-blue backpack.

The buzzing of simultaneous vibration of two hundred puny wings soaked the air.

Park dwellers ooh-ed and aaah-ed, gripping their new pets, shielding their eyes from Madame Sun's dangerously dazzling hairdo.

The flight of the swallows whisked Una and Duo up-up and away.