On the Cloud

I always get inspired while flying (or any kind of travel for that matter). This is one of the products of my recent travel. In fact, I started this blog with a story I wrote on a plane (here), so this made me nostalgic.

 

The child was happy to be on the cloud. From here, everything down there in the world looked tiny yet beautiful. The way the mountains and forests complemented each other impressed him. The perfect combination of brown and green. High and low. He also noticed the round farms in between. They added to the beauty of the scene. The smooth, round-shaped farms were perfectly complimentary to the pointy mountains.

He remembered that one day when he had been to his grandparents’ farm with his father. It was very muddy and he hated it at first. But his father invited him to work and play with him right away and for the whole day. This made him happy. That was one of those days when he could feel his father’s presence by him to the fullest. One of the days when he felt like a real part of his father’s world. One of the days when he felt really safe.

He could also see in some distance the lake his mom had talked about multiple times and had never visited. His father had promised to take him there, but that also had never happened. It was not that far but oh well. His father was a busy man. He was happy that he could see it a bit now for the first time in his life. It looked very blue and very beautiful. This satisfied some of his curiosity about the lake. But he also wondered if it was shallow enough for him to swim. This, he could not get an answer for from this distance.

‘Maybe one day’, he muttered to himself, ‘I will go there and swim’.

He saw a plane flying just under the cloud he was sitting on. He got excited. He had never been on a plane and he wanted to do this so badly! But he specifically wanted to do it with his mom and dad.

He looked down and closely at the plane. Who was in it? Who was now accomplishing his biggest dream?

Towards the end of the plane body, he saw a boy that looked like him. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief and opened his eyes again. The boy was still there and was waving at him. The plane was not moving now and the boy was still waving. He reflexively waved back and smiled.

He looked a bit more carefully at the kid and noticed that there was a man next to him that looked like just like his father in those old photos. The man waved at him too.

There was also a woman on the other side of the kid in the plane. The woman bore striking similarities to his mom, especially when she was younger. She was also waving at him.

He waved back at all of them. But why were they waving at him? That looked weird. And they did not stop doing it either. His hands were tired, but theirs weren’t.

Eventually, the plane started moving and was now no longer in sight. He did not see the family anymore. Well, he assumed they were a family.

He took a deep breath with his eyes closed on the cloud. As he was in this state, he heard a woman’s voice that said:

‘Hey, Paul, we are going to visit your parents today, right? They must have missed you. It’s been a while.’

‘Yeah, sure.’, Paul agreed to his wife’s statement.

On their way to the nursing home, Paul wondered if he would ever fly on a plane with his mom and dad. Or if he would ever swim in the lake with them. Though he knew the answer, he still wanted to keep his hope intact. Maybe his mom and dad would suddenly be young again. Miraculously.