Casting Off
At first, it was fun to watch.
At first, a cheerful smile and a bright giggle as it twisted and dipped in the air currents across the fields when she let go of its string.
At first, wide eyes watched it cut a graceful arc, and then saw it plunge downwards as if trying to retrace its flight back to the little girl whose outstretched hands reached for it.
At first, she seemed convinced that her new balloon was the best of playmates, the way it danced and managed even a few pirouettes in the summer sky.
Then, in one of those inexplicable moments of betrayed innocence, her smiling face darkened, and her tiny fingers repeatedly opened and closed, opened and closed, as if she were calling to it in mime, as if she were saying, "Enough silliness, balloon, come back to me this very instant."
Then, the sudden realization that her new balloon was gone for good.
Then a sharp, almost primeval yelp.
Then a bulging red face and an explosion of tears.
We lose things in life.
At first, it was fun to watch.
At first, a cheerful smile and a bright giggle as it twisted and dipped in the air currents across the fields when she let go of its string.
At first, wide eyes watched it cut a graceful arc, and then saw it plunge downwards as if trying to retrace its flight back to the little girl whose outstretched hands reached for it.
At first, she seemed convinced that her new balloon was the best of playmates, the way it danced and managed even a few pirouettes in the summer sky.
Then, in one of those inexplicable moments of betrayed innocence, her smiling face darkened, and her tiny fingers repeatedly opened and closed, opened and closed, as if she were calling to it in mime, as if she were saying, "Enough silliness, balloon, come back to me this very instant."
Then, the sudden realization that her new balloon was gone for good.
Then a sharp, almost primeval yelp.
Then a bulging red face and an explosion of tears.
We lose things in life.
