High up, far, far away, where the universe touches infinity, there lived the enormous, warm, and smiling Great Sun. Every morning, it sent its children, the sunbeams, to Earth to warm it and wake it up. Today was a special day. A brand new, curious little ray named Glow was preparing for his first journey.
"Well, the time has come!" the Great Sun whispered and stroked Glow on his little golden head. "Remember, Glow, you are not alone. You are a team!"
Glow looked at his hands. And indeed! He wasn't just floating in the air. On one side, brave Red, who always wanted to be first in everything, held his hand tightly. On the other side, cheerful Yellow held him, giggling like a little bell. Next to her hopped lively Green, who couldn't wait to greet the trees and the grass. And then there was Orange, who smelled like ripe apricots, Violet, as mysterious as the evening sky, and finally, quiet, gentle Blue. All the colors held hands tightly, and when they joined together like this, they shone as one single, magnificent golden-white ray.
"Our task is clear," said Yellow, who was something of a leader of the expedition. "We must fly all the way to Earth and caress a little bluebell waiting in the grass in a meadow. Without our warmth, it will not bloom."
"Hooray!" shouted Red. "A race! Who'll get there first?"
"This is not a race," calm Green chided her. "We must fly there all together. Otherwise, we won't have enough strength."
And so they set off on their journey. They flew through space as fast as a thought. They passed sleeping planets and twinkling stars that waved to them in greeting. Glow was thrilled. Everything was so new and exciting! He held his colorful friends' hands tightly and felt strong.
As they neared Earth, they saw it was wrapped in a thin, delicate layer. It looked like a bride's veil.
"What is that?" asked Glow.
"That is the atmosphere," explained wise Violet. "It is the air that everyone on Earth breathes. We must fly through it."
They flew into the atmosphere, and suddenly, everything changed. The air around them was not empty. It was teeming with tiny, almost invisible beings. They were small, transparent sprites. They had little bodies made of pure air and funny blue caps.
"Welcome, welcome!" they squeaked in thin little voices and danced around the sunbeam.
"Good day," the colors greeted in unison, but they flew on.
But the sprites were very playful. They especially liked one color.
"Look! How beautiful! Let's catch her!" shouted one sprite, pointing a finger directly at Blue. Blue was the gentlest and lightest of all the colors. She was hopping in the ray like a little blue spark.
In an instant, hundreds of blue sprites pounced on her. They didn't want to hurt her. They just wanted to play with her. They began to tickle her, pull her hand, and toss her among themselves like a little ball.
"Oh! Help! Let me go!" Blue laughed and cried at the same time as the sprites carried her away from the others.
"Hold on!" shouted Red, trying to catch her. But the sprites were too fast and nimble. Red, Yellow, and Green were too big and heavy for them. They flew right through them as if they weren't even there. But they caught the small, swift Blue with ease.
"What's happening? Why are they only catching Blue?" Glow wondered. He stopped and watched what was happening. He saw how the swarm of sprites was playing with Blue. They were stretching her in all directions, throwing her high up, and she laughed and sparkled. And wherever she landed, everything around her turned blue. One sprite threw her to the right, and there the sky turned a light blue. Another threw her to the left, and there it turned azure.
The sprites scattered her all over the sky. They played with her so enthusiastically that the one little Blue suddenly became one huge, endless blue expanse.
The other colors stood still. They were sad to have lost their friend.
"What shall we do?" asked Orange. "Without Blue, we are not a complete ray. Maybe we should go back."
Glow thought for a moment. He looked up, where Blue was still playing with the sprites and painting the sky. Then he looked down, at the Earth, where a small, still-closed bluebell was waiting for their warmth in the grass.
"No," he said resolutely. "We will not go back. Look at Blue! She isn't sad. She is playing. She has found new friends and has an important job. She is making the whole sky beautiful for the children on Earth."
The colors took a good look. And Glow was right. Blue was laughing merrily, and her laughter echoed across the sky like a gentle tinkling.
"And what about our bluebell?" asked Green.
"We are still a team," said Glow. "Even though there is one less of us, our strength is still enough. We must finish our task. Blue is doing her job up there, and we will do ours down here."
They took each other's hands again. They were no longer as brightly white as they were at the beginning. Since they were missing Blue, their combined light now had a warmer, golden hue.
They continued on their way. They flew through the beautiful blue sky that their friend had created for them. They waved to her, and she answered with a cheerful flash.
Finally, they reached the meadow. They found the small, green bud of a bluebell, shivering in the morning chill.
"Alright, now all together!" commanded Glow.
Red, Yellow, Green, Orange, and Violet took a deep breath and together breathed all their warmth directly onto the bud. They gently caressed it with their golden light.
The bud trembled. It felt the pleasant warmth. Slowly, one petal after another, it began to open. And when it opened completely, it revealed a beautiful, deep violet color inside.
"Thank you, colors of the sun," the bluebell whispered. "Without you, I would never have awakened."
Glow and his friends smiled. They were proud. They had completed their task. And when they looked up, they saw the most beautiful blue sky in the world above them. They knew that their friend Blue had completed hers, too.
And so it happens every day. When you look at the sky in the morning and see that it is blue, it is because the playful sprites in the atmosphere are playing with the blue color from the sunbeams and scattering it all over the sky. Meanwhile, the other colors wave to them in greeting and fly on to warm the flowers, the trees, and you.
What do you think, children, will you try to count how many different shades of blue you can find in the sky on your next walk? Perhaps you will even see the part where the sprites are frolicking the most.