Cloud Flyers

In a little town out west an amazing thing happened. A family had four children who all had super powers. OK, so this really wasn’t all that amazing all by itself; lots of families had children who all had super powers. Usually, however, the kids’ super powers were things like being able to grow your fingernails really fast, or being able to sprout a four inch hair in the middle of your forehead. What made this family amazing was that all four children could fly, and everyone agreed that (since flying was definitely the coolest superpower they’d ever heard of) this was a special group of siblings.

These brothers and sisters loved to fly on hot summer days when clouds would lazily cross the sky. There was nothing like a good cloud to cool you off, and the air was always cooler at cloud level. One thing that they always wanted to do was to fly through the big, fluffy clouds, but their dad had told them that it was a bad idea.

“Trust me,” he’d say, “it just isn’t safe to fly through the big, fluffy clouds. Try to stick to the flat and wispy ones and you’ll be fine.”

Their Dad’s super power, by the way, was that he could make his voice get very loud. This was handy, because no matter where the kids would fly off to they would always hear him call them home for dinner. In fact, pretty much everyone in the state would come home for dinner at the same time, thinking that maybe their father was calling them home, too.

One especially hot day, the children were looking at the sky hoping to find a nice cloud, but the only cloud that they could see was a big, fluffy and inviting cloud on the horizon. It was probably the biggest, fluffiest and most inviting cloud that they’d ever seen.

They went to their father to beg for permission.

“Dad, can we please fly through that cloud today?” said Cole, the oldest of the four, “It’s such a hot day and that cloud looks so nice!”

“Yeah, dad,” said Riian, who was second oldest and arguably one of the top 7 sisters in the world, “Please?”

“No, you guys,” their Dad said tiredly, “I’ve told you, it’s not safe to fly through the big clouds.”

“Aw, dad,” Jack whined, “it isn’t fair! That’s the only cloud in the sky. You have to let us fly through it!”

Izzy, who was the youngest and who was often a bit bossy when she spoke to her father, agreed, “Dad! You let us fly through that cloud!”

“Watch your tone, young lady,” said their dad, “and my answer is still no. You guys know better than this; please don’t ask me again.”

“ I need to go help your mother get through some doors.” Their mother’s super power was that she could hold an unlimited amount of things in her hands at one time. Unfortunately, when her hands were packed with everything she wanted to pick up, she very often would have problems with doorknobs and handles. “Why don’t you guys fly over to the pool or something?”

As soon as their dad was out of sight, Izzy turned to them defiantly and said, “I’M flying through the cloud.” Whoosh! Before the other three could respond she was off, and they quickly took off after her to try to catch her.

Izzy, though very small and awkward when walking on the ground, was almost as fast as the other three when it came to flying, so catching her when she had a head start was not going to be an easy task. Cole, Riian and Jack flew as fast as they could and slowly, slowly closed the gap between them and Izzy, with the cloud looming ever closer. Just as they grasped her feet, they passed into the cloud.

All four children stopped and hovered in the midst of the water vapor. It felt very good to be out of the sun and in the dampness of the mist. Cole was a bit confused. “This doesn’t seem very dangerous,” he said, “and it feels SO good.” Jack agreed, “I don’t think this cloud is dangerous at all.” Riian had a thought, “Maybe we should hold hands and fly around in the cloud for a little bit just to see what it’s like?” “Sounds good to me!” said Izzy, and they all began to drift slowly through the cloud.

After the heat of the day, nothing could have felt as good as the cool, moist breeze that greeted them as they wandered further into the fog. Every inch of skin that was exposed was bathed in the mist and it felt like every tiny spec of vapor was trying to kiss away the tiniest fraction of the heat that had made the day miserable. They continued to drift, and each one began to think that they just might stay in the cloud as long as they possible…

WHOOSH!

“Whoa, what was that?” said Cole, “Did you guys see something?”

“No, I felt something.” Izzy corrected, “it was right behind me.”

“Maybe we should try to find a way out,” Riian said a bit warily, “before…”

WHOOSH!

“There it was again,” exclaimed Jack, “What is that?”

“It looked kind of like a wet snowball!” Cole yelled.

WHOOSH!

“That’s not snow!” cried Izzy

WHOOSH!

“No! It’s ice!” Yelled Riian.

WHOOSH!

“Let’s get out of here!”

They began to fly with all their strength when WAP! a large hailstone struck Cole in the shoulder. With the ice flying past them at an ever-increasing rate Cole began to fall and Jack flew to catch him. In the next instant WAM! Riian was hit in the leg and also began to fall with Izzy in pursuit to catch her. When Jack and Izzy caught the other two they decided to try to fly straight down to get out of cloud, but SMASH! Cole stuck out his good arm to stop a softball sized hailstone just before it was going to hit Izzy square in the head. Izzy and Jack quickly changed their direction to try to avoid being hit so directly by the ice and slush and flew faster than they thought they could, especially with their injured siblings in tow. Hailstones of all sizes were striking the siblings all over their bodies now, with Cole and Riian bravely trying to take the brunt of whatever collisions they could so that Jack and Izzy could keep flying. The violent storm in the cloud was blinding them now and they were positive they could only last a few more moments when suddenly everything stopped.

They were out of the cloud, and back in the warmth and calm of the sun.

Izzy and Jack were exhausted and bruised, and Cole and Riian could barely breathe, but the peace of the air around them enveloped them and they began to recover. The unmoving air seemed much more inviting and welcome than it had just a few minutes prior. Cole and Riian began to breathe easier and could just start to fly on their own again…

CRACK! KABOOOOOOM!!!!!

A bolt of lightning soared past them; it’s origin in the cloud that suddenly seemed way too close. With what remaining energy they had they flew home, bruised but grateful, and vowing never to disobey their father again.

At least when it came to flying through clouds…

The End