You Wouldn’t Want to Float to China

I was nine when I found out people could fly. It was simple. Just two steps to the left, then up.

A girl in my class taught me. Her name was Kelly. She had bangs.

“Just like this,” she said, before showing me. I frowned.

I followed the motions. I froze. Like a bubble in cola, I floated. I began laughing as I floated. As I rose, my stomach sank. I started to panic, flail.

“Just calm down,” Kelly said, floating up to hold my hand.

“I want to get down,” I told her.

She shrugged. She held my hand. She began to blow upwards. I followed her lead until suddenly our feet struck grass. I fell, even though it wasn’t a hard landing. I stood up, red faced. Kelly laughed.

The shock hit me all at once. “Why don’t people do this!” I asked Kelly.

“My mom says it is useless. We don’t move any faster and it’s not like cars can fly,” she made her voice more shrill, mimicking her mother. “plus, it’s dangerous. If you don’t pay attention you’ll float off to China. And, they eat dogs in China, you know?”

“They do?”

She nodded.

I thought of my dog, Squeaks. I shuddered.

“I don’t want to go to China,” I decided.

Kelly nodded, approvingly.

“Can everyone fly?” I asked Kelly.

Kelly nodded. “I think so. Mom said she can. My uncle said that people in Spain do it all the time but he said that is because they are lazy and don’t have anything better to do.”

I didn’t know anything about Spain. I suspected Kelly didn’t either. I didn’t say anything.

I really wanted her to like me.

But she didn’t and I grew up. I checked the internet for her the other day, just curious. She is living in Spain, working for Microsoft. I worked up the courage to message her, asked if people in Spain really fly all the time.

She never got back to me.

32 replies to “You Wouldn’t Want to Float to China”

      1. Do you meen to grow up to become an adult or just become bigger in mind? Because I do not think you should always stay a little bit a child.

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  4. Wonderful and crazy, as I´m accustomed to Flash. It is not fascinating to experience that you can fly? Anyone can fly if he wants? She had understood the world very well as a child. Why did she no longer understand it as an adult? And how does the last sentence appear? what is not yet, can still be, no?

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    1. The last sentence is kind of up to the reader. Either she grew up and doesn’t care. Or she is off in Spain flying around. It’s kind of up to you. To me, she forgot how to fly. But it’s meant to be up for interpretation

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      3. hmmm, o.k., this will definitely be a place they will rewrite in the script. (In the case, that these stories were filmed like the Frank stories …:)

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  5. wise thoughts, beautiful writing…we all fly but most are too shy to admit it to others…the process is different for each, don’t ask why…for you, two steps to the left, for me its run like Satan is after you…and then… up…

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    2. This is a great explanation, clinock. This is how I would like to imagine it. I am also sure that many want to fly and look too much to the right and left as the others do it and then they do not know how they get it themselves and are afraid to crash.

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  8. Hmmm, I have two “opened” questions there: First “She shrugged. She held my hand. She began to blow upwards. I followed her lead until suddenly our feet struck grass. I fell, even though it wasn’t a hard landing. I stood up, red faced. Kelly laughed.” As they blow upwards and suddenly struck grass, they landed not on the floor but somewhere else? And second: “I really wanted her to like me.
    But she didn’t and I grew up.” I think she did not grew up or? ( or relating to “wanted to like me”)

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    1. to the first one, they are blowing up, which pushes them back down to earth, to the grass. And the second, it is just a transition sentence. Just saying that the story never went further with her and time passed

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