0:00 Pip was clinging to a lamppost on Maple Street because the pavement was getting way too slippery with spilled lemonade.0:08 Okay, you remember when the clouds dumped two tons of cooked spaghetti all over the library roof last week?0:15 Pip thought THAT was the weirdest afternoon this town would ever see.0:19 Pip was wrong!0:20 So completely wrong!0:22 Because today, the clouds didn't drop noodles, or hail, or even normal rain.0:27 At two in the afternoon, the sky turned a strange, shimmering shade of electric bubblegum pink.0:33 And then...0:34 it started dropping sounds.0:36 Tiny, sparkling, fizzy drops that didn't go splash.0:39 When they hit the ground, they burst into tiny, popping chuckles.0:44 Literally!0:44 Drops of pure, uncontrollable LAUGHTER were raining straight out of the sky!0:49 At first, everybody thought it was fantastic.0:52 People ran out of the bakery catching the pink mist on their tongues.0:57 But within ten minutes?0:59 Complete chaos.1:00 Nobody could do ANYTHING.1:01 Officer Higgins tried to direct traffic, but a raindrop hit his mustache and he fell right onto the hood of a taxi, wheezing with giggles.1:11 The town bus driver was laughing so hard tears were streaming down her cheeks, so she had to park straight across the sidewalk.1:19 Worst of all, the town dam operator, Mr.1:22 Henderson, was rolling on the grass by the reservoir, howling with laughter, completely unable to turn the giant safety valve before the pond overflowed!1:32 Pip pulled up the hood of a yellow raincoat.1:35 The rubber kept the drops off, but the sound alone was practically vibrating through Pip's sneakers.1:42 One rogue drop splashed against Pip's cheek and—whoa.1:46 Pip let out a loud, breathless snicker.1:48 It felt like ten thousand fizzy sodas bubbling behind Pip's ribs!1:53 Pip bit down hard on the inside of a cheek, clamped both hands over the yellow hood, and sprinted.1:59 The problem wasn't just the rain.2:01 The storm was feeding on itself!2:04 The louder the town laughed, the darker pink the clouds grew, swirling like a giant bowl of cotton candy ready to burst.2:12 Pip needed something completely, totally, absolutely NOT funny.2:16 Pip skidded through the doors of the abandoned municipal weather station on top of Blueberry Hill.2:23 The giant brass weather horn—the one meant to sound emergency siren blasts across the valley—was pointed right at the belly of the pink cloud.2:32 Pip dug frantically into a backpack.2:35 What was the most boring, serious, un-laughable thing in existence?2:39 A joke book?2:40 No, disaster!2:41 A comic?2:41 Worse!2:42 Then, Pip felt it at the very bottom of the bag: Great-Aunt Gertrude's three-hundred-page manual on the historical taxonomy of decorative gravel.2:52 It had zero pictures.2:53 Pip shoved the microphone of the weather horn right against the pages.2:58 Pip took a massive gulp of air, cranked the horn's volume to maximum, and began to read aloud into the brass trumpet.3:06 Pip read about grey pebble density.3:08 Pip read about pea gravel sorting methods.3:11 Pip read about the chemical composition of standard crushed limestone.3:16 The giant horn blasted the droning, intensely dry words straight up into the swirling pink storm!3:22 The clouds actually hesitated.3:24 A drop of pink fell toward a flowerpot, fizzled, and turned a dull, sensible grey.3:30 The giggles in the air began to thin out into confused little snorts.3:34 Pip didn't stop.3:35 Pip shouted an entire chapter about sidewalk grading into the horn until the great pink cloud let out one giant, exhausted sigh—and dissolved into clear blue afternoon air.3:47 Down in the square, Officer Higgins sat up, wiped his eyes, and finally blew his whistle.3:53 Down on the grass, Mr.3:55 Henderson blinked, scrambled up, and cranked the safety valve shut.3:59 Pip leaned against the brass horn, looking out over a quiet, soaking-wet town where nobody was laughing anymore—just smiling, tired and peaceful, under a wide, sunny sky.
