Floating
by Mariah Eppes
Alex would never admit to himself that he was here because Chloe said they could “hang out.” The words sounded weightless coming from Chloe’s mouth. He imagined that if he were to say the same words, they would be held to the ground by spiky metal chains. And no one wanted to “hang out” with spiky metal chains.
All around him the festivities were beginning against the pink and orange backdrop of sunset. People were laughing, cooking, and stumbling upon friends with a giddy happiness that was reserved for this time every year. It was a small town, he supposed. He had only recently learned that other places didn’t have things like this. That only small towns had festivals, or perhaps to be a small town it had to have a festival. He’d been every year, because it was something everyone did. But this was the first year he was without his family, or “with friends,” as he had explained to his parents. Right now, he felt more like had come alone.
He stood next to a bench as the square began to fill up. He didn’t want to sit and make it look like he had had enough time to sit before Chloe arrived. He shifted his weight from foot to foot. Pieces of conversation got stuck in the air as people passed, the kind you are forced to hear because for some reason a sentence or two got left behind and the volume doubled right as you happened to be listening. This happened to Alex a lot. He was thinking about whether or not this made him an eavesdropper when he saw Chloe approaching, alone – blessedly- alone. He wanted to think of a poetic way to describe what color her hair was, but he couldn’t get past red. It was red. Anyway, Chloe probably didn’t like poetry. They were sort of pals. His pals didn’t like poetry.
But girls did? Chloe was a girl. It had only occurred to him a couple months ago that Chloe was crushable. And by that, he meant able-to-be-crushed-on not able to be crushed. He didn’t want to tell anyone yet. He didn’t want to let the secret out.
“Hey! What’s up?” she said.
“Nothing,” he said.
“Peter and Jake are with their parents. They said they’d meet up later.”
“Cool. Er, good.”
“You wanna… get a funnel cake?”
“Sure, yeah!”
They walked shoulder-to-shoulder among the crowd with a funnel cake between them, their first two fingers covered in a layer of powdered sugar.
“How far do you think Chicago is?” said Chloe.
“I dunno. I guess pretty far.”
“Too far for a bike probably, right?”
“Yeah.”
Chloe licked her thumb thoughtfully. Alex noticed that the night was getting darker. He was watching Chloe through the colored festival lights.
“My brother’s going to college in Chicago now,” she said. “That’s pretty cool, huh?”
Alex knew a few people who had brothers or sisters in college. It seemed distant and removed from himself, like Chicago.
“I don’t really know that much about college.”
Chloe nodded. Alex couldn’t tell if it was a “that’s okay” nod or a “you’re a moron” nod. And how could there be such a variety of nods?
They had walked around the perimeter of the entire square and Alex could see the bench he had stood next too up ahead. A older boy and an older girl were sitting there, holding hands. Alex watched as the couple got up and strolled away.
“You wanna sit?” said Alex.
“Sure.”
Alex leaned back on the bench and Chloe popped the last piece of funnel cake in her mouth as she sat next to him. He looked out at the people. It was getting late and the crowd was thinning. Alex noticed that this might have been the latest he had ever been out alone before. He felt cool.
But his eyes suddenly seemed to be betray him. It was the way you see something impossible in front of you, but normally the source of the illusion reveals itself before you become alarmed. But for Alex, it wasn’t going away.
There was a woman dressed in pale pink ahead of him. She would have been normal, but her feet were elevated several inches off the ground.
Alex opened his mouth to say something to Chloe, but stopped himself. He didn’t want to look any more stupid.
But the people were changing. Everyone was acting the same, in fact they didn’t even seem to notice that themselves and everyone around them was floating.
“Chloe-,”
“What?”
Alex’s heart was racing. He didn’t feel cool anymore.
“It’s- oh my god-,”
“What are you freaking out about?”
“The- the people! They’re-,”
Alex turned his head to look at Chloe, but found that she wasn’t next to him. He got the feeling you get when a million thoughts show up in your mind at the same time, for a second, and then suddenly you are speechless and there is nothing in your mind at all. He wasn’t sure what made him look up.
But there she was, above him, her outline aglow from the festival lights against the dark blue star-pocked sky. She was perfectly at ease, she wasn’t even smiling, she looked more like she was studying something very closely. Alex could see the breeze up there pushing back her red hair, the way water moves hair. He never knew he could be so poetic.
“Do you think I could see Chicago from here?” she said.
This is the coolest thing I’ve ever read. Ever.
Very nice – enjoyed it thoroughly – thanks for sharing.
Looking forward to reading more from Mariah!
LOVE the story!!! Well done!!