The Boy Who Could Float

“Come down from there!” The boy’s parents would yell when he would climb up trees and jump off of high places for fun, but the boy only wanted to go higher. One day, when he was in the schoolyard jumping rope with his friends,

“I bet I can jump higher than you!”

“No! I can jump higher!”

“Your turn!”

The boy jumped, but didn’t come down.

“Woah! He’s still going!”

The teachers tried to get him down, but the boy stayed floating right above the wood chips. The boy and his parents went to the doctors and the doctor said,

“I’m afraid your child has been diagnosed with the floats, and there is no cure.”

“How does this happen?”

“It is rare, but studies show it is a symptom of childhood curiosity.”

The boy floated everywhere. Not as high at first. At the grocery store, at school, and in the park; his parents would drag him along like a big balloon. Soon, the boy floated higher and higher, he could no longer hear his friends or watch them play. His parents had to climb on a ladder to hand him dinner, and to wish him goodnight. The older the boy got, the higher he would float.

“Why? Why must I be the only one who can float?” I just want to see my friends, and talk with my family. All of them have fun without me,” the boy said.

Soon the boy reached the clouds, and his tears became a part of the rain. Then, a man in a small plane looked out his pilot window and waved at the boy. The boy wiped his tears, and smiled.

The man came back the next day. With his contrail, the man wrote in the sky,

“COME TO NY!”

So the boy floated to New York City. He was drawn to the highest point in the great city, the Empire State Building. The people at the top pointed at the boy. The boy, remembering the pilot, waved at them, and they waved back.

The boy would stay in New York City until the cold winter rolled in. He would wave goodbye to all his new friends and follow the seasons to where it was warm. He floated to Madrid, to Paris, to Rome, to Giza, to Mumbai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Melbourne. In every place he made another new face smile.

When the boy grew old he began to deflate slowly. He remembered how lonely he felt when he first started to float beyond his family and friends. Now, as he looked out at the orange horizon, falling slowly to the earth, he thought of all the beautiful places he’d seen and all the wonderful faces he’d met.