MEGAN PRICE: Little Yellow Airplane
Older was far away but waiting didn’t seem so bad if I was doing it in the sky.
The strange feeling of endlessness gripped me as I lay on the grass. The airplanes drew lines in the clouds, rising and falling in the wind. My brothers were good pilots, turning their planes upside down and spinning around like toys on strings. I wanted to be a pilot, but they said I was too small, that when I was older I could try.
Older was so far away.
If I lay in the right spot, the world around me disappeared. All I could see was the perfect blue of the sky and the little yellow airplanes. The soft rustle of trees still went on out of sight. I reached out into the sky and tried to grab the little yellow planes, but they went through my fingers. My arms fell back down beside me and I played with the grass. It reminded me that I wasn’t in the sky, that I was too small, that older was far away.
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“There you are,” said my eldest brother flopping down beside me.
“Why aren’t you in the sky?”
“Because I was waiting for you.”
“For me?”
“Come on, there are two seats.”
Excitement ran through me and I lifted myself up off the grass. My brother threw me up into the air, putting me on his shoulders. When I’m older, he wont be able to, I thought as we walked along. I looked back at the planes in the sky, then down at my brothers wispy curls. Maybe small was okay for now. I jumped onto the wing of his little yellow plane and watched him put on his goggles.
“You look like a fish.”
“A fish who can fly.”
I laughed and buckled up. The engine started and fear welled up inside me, but it was a different fear, one I loved more than any other kind. The runway was long but the plane took it in no time. Soon the trees grew smaller, the ground moved far away, and we were in the sky. Wind rushed through my hair and the world was different.
The clouds were cold and the sun was warm. I watched all my brothers in their little yellow planes and imagined my own flying around with them.
Older was far away but waiting didn’t seem so bad if I was doing it in the sky.
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