so.
When I was eight years old, I thought, "I am certain I can conquer my state of not being able to fly." I felt flight in my bones. I felt my bones becoming hollow and marrowless, becoming readied for the great blue beyond, and so I climbed to the top of our barn. The wind was mild. I made my way over to the edge of the barn's peaked roof. I looked. It was a long way down. I opened an umbrella, not that I needed to. It was simply an insurance policy.
Edging the heel of one boot off the roof, I filled my lungs. I stepped the other foot forward into the nothingness of air, following the route of the birds.
The results were not as I had expected.
My stomach, in a trancelike, gravity-free state, did fly. It soared. Though, sadly, the rest of my body obeyed physical laws.
I woke a little later on the ground, a bit broken, a goat nibbling on my hair, my umbrella inverted at every spine. I didn't call out or complain, "Aye! My aching bones," or, "What a mess I've made of a perfectly good, barely used body," but rather, staring up at the sky, I thought, "With a bit more practice I'm certain I can get it right."
-The Invention of Everything Else, by Samantha Hunt
---
I hate not having a voice, and I hate not being able to ask for help, and I hate being sick, most of all.
Edging the heel of one boot off the roof, I filled my lungs. I stepped the other foot forward into the nothingness of air, following the route of the birds.
The results were not as I had expected.
My stomach, in a trancelike, gravity-free state, did fly. It soared. Though, sadly, the rest of my body obeyed physical laws.
I woke a little later on the ground, a bit broken, a goat nibbling on my hair, my umbrella inverted at every spine. I didn't call out or complain, "Aye! My aching bones," or, "What a mess I've made of a perfectly good, barely used body," but rather, staring up at the sky, I thought, "With a bit more practice I'm certain I can get it right."
-The Invention of Everything Else, by Samantha Hunt
---
I hate not having a voice, and I hate not being able to ask for help, and I hate being sick, most of all.