I’m using this as my entry for February 2007’s Blogging for Books entry.
She sat relaxing on the beach looking out towards the horizon. There was the tiniest breeze and the warm air caressed her skin. Even though her son and friends were making some noise nearby she relished the quiet time away from the city’s heat.
She glanced back at her son and her glance happened upon some towels drying on some string setup as part of the beach shelter. The towels were moving a little bit as the breeze dried them off but then the bottoms of the towels all moved simultaneously towards the beach as though there was some invisible pull. This was a bit weird she thought and had an immediate, impending sense of dread.
She went over to her son and sat down with him to give him a huge cuddle and kiss and as she was doing so looked towards the sea. Coming towards them over the sea was what looked like lots of lava and smoke as if there had been a volcano in the middle of the sea and it had so much to get rid of that it had risen to the surface. She knew that sitting on the beach and just watching would be the end of them so she thought they must move as far away from the sea as possible.
She wasn’t the only one who thought this. Everyone noticed what was coming towards them around the same time and what had been a peaceful late afternoon at the beach became panicked disharmony. She quickly gathered up her son, made sure they shoved their thongs on their feet, and started running inland. She noticed her friend and two children were close by so knew they had the same urge as she did. Her friend managed somehow to find a pram she put the youngest one in so she could move quicker.
She had no such thing and her son was too heavy to carry and too young to run very fast for a long period of time. She said to him, ‘Let’s fly. You have been practising and now is the perfect time for us to do it.’
She hoped that his flying capabilities would extend to her as well. She believed that his flying belief would carry them up and out to safety. She could see that he was a bit unsure and he said as much.
‘I know you can do this. I know that you can fly,’ she urged, trying not to let the panic come through into her voice.
The door to her bedroom opened, and she woke up to, ‘Mum, I’m starving, can you get me breakfast?’
‘Damnit’, she thought, we were just about to fly.
