"Every cloud has a silver lining."Have you ever heard someone say that? Well, whoever said it didn't know Solomon Stratus. Solomon was a cloud with no silver lining whatsoever! He was drab and dismal through and through. There was nothing about Solly Stratus to make anyone feel cheerful. He was so gray and gloomy the other clouds called him "Sullen Solly" or "Solemn One".

 They also called him "Silent Sol", because he hardly ever said anything. He often wouldn't answer when spoken to. At most he would say one or two words, like "Yes", "No", "What?", "I dunno".

 Another nickname they gave him was "Solli-tary", because he always stayed by himself.

No one really understood why Solly acted this way. Solly didn't really know himself. The truth is that deep down Solly was filled with shame. He was so ashamed of himself that he didn't know how to face the other clouds.

 Solly was ashamed about the toys he liked to play with. He still liked to play pretend with toy figures, and he was sure the other clouds would call him a baby if they knew. He was very sensitive to being made fun of.

 Solly was ashamed of the kind of food he ate. He ate lunch by himself so the other clouds wouldn't see his peanut butter-and-banana sandwiches. He liked to drink hot orange juice, and he was scared to death that others would ask him, "What's that stuff you're drinking?" He was sure they would laugh at him and call him weird.

 Solly was ashamed that he secretly liked and admired certain other clouds. He was ashamed about the boy clouds he liked, because he was sure that they would never like him. And he was ESPECIALLY ashamed about the girl clouds he liked. He usually turned red when they floated by, and he was sure that everyone else noticed and laughed at him behind his back.

 Solly's home was above a large city with a wall around it, but whenever he could he left the city to be by himself. Sometimes he would go off to the desert, past the river which flowed into a big salty lake. On one of these trips, he happened to look down and see two men standing in the river. One of the men, who was wearing hairy clothes, held the other man, dunked him in the river, and raised him up again. At once a bright white bird came down from the sky and landed on the man who had been raised, while a voice came from a cloud far above: "This is my beloved Son. I am well pleased with him."

 "How can a man be the Son of a cloud?", thought Solly. But that was certainly no ordinary cloud. Although the voice came out of the cloud, it seemed to come from somewhere else, as if the cloud were only a loudspeaker. Whose son was that man? Solly was itching to find out, but he was much too ashamed to even go near the cloud to ask.

 The man who was the Son went out into the wilderness, and Solly followed him. "This man stays alone, just like me", thought Solly. "I wonder if he has the same feelings that I do?"

 The man didn't eat or drink anything at all for many many days. He seemed to be struggling with something. Solly wished he could help, but somehow he knew that he couldn’t. Whatever the man was fighting with, he had to overcome himself.

 Some time later Solly was floating near his home city, and he saw soldiers bring a man outside the city walls. Many of the people were crying and wailing; others were pointing their fingers at the man and yelling insults at him. How ashamed that man must feel! They were treating him worse than Solly's worst nightmares. They even stripped off the man's clothes, so he had nothing at all to hide behind. Solly's foggy breath curdled just to think of it.

 But that wasn't all. They took the man, nailed him onto a piece of wood, and raised him up high off the ground for everyone to see. Then Solly recognized him -- this was the Son, the man he had seen in the wilderness!

 Solly watched sadly. How lonely that man must feel! Solly knew what it was like to feel lonely. He stood by, and shielded the man from the sun as best he could. He got darker and darker as his mood became more and more depressed, until the whole city was covered with darkness.

 A few hours later Solly saw the man cry out, bow his head, and die.

 Solly felt as if the world had come to an end. All of his pent-up feelings of frustration, loneliness, anger, and despair came bursting out. He let go with a thunderclap so loud that it shook the earth and split rocks open. The people down below were terrified -- some ran for cover, some fell to their knees and cried out.

 After he saw that man die, Solly was so depressed that he didn't feel like doing anything. He floated here and there, not paying any attention to where he was and where he was going.

 A few weeks later, Solly was floating near a mountain outside his city. He happened to look down, and saw a small group of people. He stared at the leader of the group. It was him – the same man who had been killed! Solly could see the holes in his hands and feet, where the nails had been. He watched amazed as the Man began to rise up from the earth, faster and faster. Solly felt an irresistable force drawing him towards the man. The people down below were staring up at the Man rising up into the sky, but Solly’s gray bulk soon hid the Man from their sight.

 The Man in the sky called out to him, "Solly, Solly." Solly was scared "Who are you, Sir? And how do you know my name?" "I am the Lord of heaven and earth", He replied. "I have always known you, even before you knew yourself." Solly glowed red with embarrassment (to the people down below it looked like an early sunset).

 "Solly", the Man said, "You don’t need to be ashamed about yourself any more. I made you the way you are, and I don’t make mistakes! You are very special to Me. And I am proud of you.

 The Man continued to go up, up, up, far out of the sight of even Solly. Solly looked after Him for a long time, trying to see where he went. The Man was gone, but somehow Solly knew He would be back someday.

 After his encounter with the Man, Solly's life changed a great deal. He still preferred to be by himself, but he didn't run away from the other clouds like he used to. He began to smile every once in a while, especially when he was telling the other clouds about the Man. When Solly smiled, it lit up the whole sky so brightly that some of the other clouds began calling him, "Solly Smiles". But Solly didn't care what they called him, because it was enough for him that the Man was happy with him. And oh yes, now Solly has a silver lining which gets wider and wider every year. (What'll you bet that the clouds will start calling him "Silver Solly"?)