Course of the sky

- I used to fly when I was little.
- In your dreams ?
- In real life, I would rise up on my toes, lift one leg and then gently push the other into the ground until I come off in the air. Once in the air I swam like a frog.
- And were you alone while doing all this?
- No, of course not, my best friend was with me. He didn't know how to swim in the air, but he could jump.
- Well I can jump.
- How high can you jump? This lad could jump, without a hassle, over trees and then fall back to earth like a snowflake. I tried to help him hang in the air, like me, and teach him to swim like a frog.
- But he didn't learn.
- No, and he told me he never would, so we decided we would play near the ground somewhere, just above the trees. We would do somersaults, scare the birds, we were a menace. One day, I remember it like it was yesterday, I decided to fly up and see if I can get to the clouds, it seemed a very fun up there. We tried to go together, him leaping from ever higher trees while I slowly swam toward the clouds. When I became to distant he climbed atop the highest poplar and jumped with all his might towards me. He came up to me, up high, and told me "I can't get higher, you'll have to go on without me." I knew I was leaving him behind. I looked back one last time and saw him waving, while flaking toward the ground.
- So you left without him?
- He was my best friend and I let him down. I said it's not important and that I'll get back someday and we'll go together to the clouds, but I felt I had to leave, even alone.
- So little old you flew to the clouds? How cute.
- Ribit ribit  slowly towards the clouds, I passed sparrows, I passed pigeons and even passed the seagulls, hovering up there effortlessly. Seagulls reach the clouds, but are only visitors, because they have to go back and land, I didn't need to go back. I climbed until I found the majesty birds. Birds that never come down from heaven, who live and sleep there ... up in the air.
- In the clouds, you mean?
- Yes they nest there in the clouds. They have very long wings that are almost transparent and their heads are adorned with gems. I felt lost among them, until one approached and talked to me.
- Wait, you talked to a bird?
- It wasn't one of our chickens, it was a noble bird. Feathers around her head were like a crown that shone with all colors of the rainbow. She said she enjoyed seeing, a man there. She told me she didn't get along with the seagulls, supposedly they nag, and the only birds you can have a conversation with are ravens, but they rarely climb up there. One night, the majesty bird was looking at the starry sky and told me she wanted to leave, to fly to the moon and the stars.
- And you? Did you want to fly to the moon?
- Well why not ? We began the journey together, I was slower but the majesty bird waited for me. We flew for 3 days and 3 nights. A trip like this is more beautiful than hiking on earth. From above houses are pins, cities are ant swarms and fields are meaningless multicolored rectangles, everything is small and unreal. On the third day the majesty bird tried to swim like a frog, she looked hilarious. All was well and good until we got to the thin air, we were in the stratosphere. - I tried pushing harder but I just couldn't climb. She looked back at me and saw I couldn't follow. She gave me one of her feather gems and told me "I don't think we'll see each other again but  take this, I want you to remember me."
- She you left behind.
- Ironic isn't it? I looked at her as she flew away, watched until she became a twinkle in the sky and then she disappeared. I went down to the clouds but it wasn't the same. A raven chased by a storm got shelter there, he saw me and took me back home. I fell back to earth.
- What happened to the friend ?
- When I met him again, he didn't want to jump anymore, and after a while he forgot he ever did.
- I'm sorry you didn't make it to the stars.
- I'm just sorry I didn't take you with me.

Art by karenkodoku

Versiunea în română: Crugul Cerului

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Finger

The finger, a finger like any other. Magic though, because it moved under the pneumatic motor force of the Hand inevitably towards me. He came so close that I could distinguish the fingerprint, a byzantine maze shaped like a snail, very beautiful and presumably unique. Obviously, I bit. It didn't take much, like biting into a carrot and pop, it was already in my mouth. The bio-mechanism tied to that digit almost lost its mind when it realized what happened. I won't lie to you, I was a tad sick at first, my first instinct was to spit it out, but no no, I had to spite the Hand so I kept it between my teeth. I had to feel it next to my molars and test it like a ripe cherry. My finger was soft juicy and consistent.

Meanwhile other beings, that might as well have been supernatural for the power they had, picked me up and placed me in a room made of antimatter. It must have been antimatter because I wasn't allowed to touch anything and the room shrank every time I wasn't looking. The dwarf gods entered decisively and sent me to the plutonian shores for questioning. I had to swallow it, I knew these fatties were about to ask me where it was. One of these higher intelligences even had the ridiculous idea that the little phalanx could be reattached in some way with the use of white magic and sharp fingers, I tell you nonsense. All these big dwarves were moving slowly and deliberately so after a while I stopped chewing and swallowed it, they didn't even notice.

Gastric juices can dissolve iron, that's another false advertisement. When I finally went to the bathroom in the middle of the floating filth I found a small ivory bone. I would have taken it, seriously, without disgust, and wore it as a necklace, or maybe made it into a pointer for school so everybody would point at the map with the finger. Unfortunately the dwarfs were still watching me and we all have to live with disappointment. That's the lesson I took from this incident, so I flushed.

Yet people continued to exaggerate, and point their fingers at me, I get hungry just thinking about it. What I am trying to tell you here is ... don't stir my appetite. 

Art by Anca Toma
Versiunea în română: Deget

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