The Night Builders

00:00Tucked in

Are you tucked in? Pull the blanket all the way up to your chin. That's it. [pause] Tonight's story is about a girl called Mira, a whistle that wouldn't come out, and some very small builders who only work at night. You don't have to do anything at all. Just listen, and let your arms get heavy.

00:34Fffff

Mira was six and three quarters, and all day long she had been trying to whistle. Her big cousin Theo could whistle. He could whistle a whole song, with a twiddly bit in the middle. Her grandpa whistled for the dog, two sharp notes, and the dog came running. Even the kettle could whistle. [pause] So Mira pushed her lips into a little circle, like she was about to blow out a birthday candle, and she blew. Fffff. [pause] Just air. She tried a smaller circle. Fffff. She tried a bigger one. Hhhhhh. That one sounded like a tired dragon. [chuckles] She tried with her tongue up, and with her tongue down, and once, by accident, with her tongue sticking out, which made her laugh so hard she forgot to blow at all. By bedtime she had tried about a hundred times, and not one whistle had come out. So she lay in bed, looked at the ceiling, and said, out loud, to nobody, "I can't whistle. I'm just not a whistler."

01:50Someone small

That's when she heard a tiny knock. Not on the door. Somewhere much closer than the door. Somewhere just behind her eyes. [pause] Knock, knock. "Excuse me," said a voice no bigger than a button. "We're about to start the night shift. Do you mind if we come through?" Mira closed her eyes to see better, which is a thing that only works at bedtime. And there, in the dark behind her eyelids, stood a builder. She was about as tall as a thumb, with a yellow hard hat, a little lantern, and a wheelbarrow. Behind her, more lanterns came bobbing along in a line. "I'm Pim," said the builder. "I'm in charge. Every night, while you sleep, we take the things you tried today, and we build them into the road." "What road?" asked Mira. "The road to the things you can do," said Pim, as if everybody knew that.

02:53The wheelbarrow

Pim's wheelbarrow was full of stones, and every one was a little different. Some were round. Some were bumpy. A lot of them were crooked and lopsided, the way a stone looks when it isn't quite sure it's a stone yet. "What are those?" asked Mira. "These," said Pim, "are your whistles." [pause] "But I didn't whistle," said Mira. "Not once." "I know," said Pim, kindly. "These are your tries. This one is the small circle. This one is the big circle, the one that sounded like a dragon." She held up a very lumpy stone and looked at it with great respect. "And this one is from when your tongue was sticking out. [chuckles] Not much use, that one. But we keep everything." Mira looked at the pile. There were a lot of stones. About a hundred, actually.

03:54Crooked ones hold best

The builders got to work. Nobody hurried. They hummed as they went, a low, sleepy hum, and they set the stones down one by one, tapping each one into place with a little wooden hammer. Tap. [pause] Tap. [pause] Tap. [pause] Mira noticed something funny. The builders liked the crooked stones best. When one of them found a smooth, perfect stone, she'd shrug and put it to one side. But when she found a wobbly one, she'd say, "Ooh, here's a good one," and fit it in carefully, turning it this way and that, until it clicked against the stones next to it. "Why do you like the crooked ones?" Mira asked. Pim wiped her forehead with the back of her glove. "A smooth stone just sits there," she said. "A crooked one has corners. Corners grip. Every time you try a new way and it comes out wrong, you give us another corner. That's what holds the road together."

05:04Not yet

Mira looked along the road. It went a little way into the dark, and then it stopped. It just stopped, right at the edge of the lantern light. "It doesn't reach," she said. "It doesn't go all the way to whistling." "Not yet," said Pim. "Roads take a few nights. Some take lots of nights. Your cousin's road is very long by now. He's been laying stones for years. Did you know he used to sound like a tired dragon, too?" Mira did not know that. She thought about Theo, big tall Theo, puffing air like a dragon, and it made her smile in the dark.

05:49The old roads

"Come and look at something," said Pim. She lifted her lantern up high, and Mira saw that there wasn't just one road back there. There were lots of them, running off into the dark in every direction, smooth and finished and worn from being used. "That one's your shoelace road," said Pim. "Took us ages. Do you remember the bunny ears? All those floppy bunny ears?" Mira did remember. She used to get so cross with the bunny ears. Now she tied her shoes without even looking. "And that one is riding your bike," said Pim. "And that little one, over there, is the one where you learned to snap your fingers. Still a bit bumpy, that one." Under the blanket, very quietly, Mira snapped her fingers. [pause] It worked. [pause] "So what do I do?" asked Mira. "Tonight? Nothing," said Pim. "Tonight is our job. You just sleep. Tomorrow you try again, and you bring us more stones. Bring us crooked ones, if you can. Those are our favorite."

07:07The night shift

So Mira let her arms get heavy. Then her legs. Then the rest of her. Behind her eyes the lanterns bobbed, and the little hammers went tap, [pause] tap, [pause] tap, slower and softer, like rain that's almost finished. [pause] The road grew a little bit longer. Not all the way. Just a little. [pause] And just before Mira fell all the way asleep, she made her lips into a tiny round circle, about the size of a blueberry, and she blew the smallest breath. [pause] It wasn't a whistle. But it was very, very close to one. [pause] Somewhere in the dark, Pim picked up a brand new stone, the best one yet, and smiled. [pause] Goodnight, Mira. [pause] And goodnight to you, too. Whatever you tried today, the builders have it now. [pause] Sleep well.