The balloon

[xlwoo]

A little boy walks by his mother's side, with one hand in hers and a balloon in the other. A sudden gust of wind snatches the balloon away from the boy's hand and bears it skyward. As it flies higher, the excited people in the street all look up. "Surely," the balloon says to itself, feeling proud of its uprising, "they all envy me of my ascent." Then in its upward flight it passes by a balcony on which a group of boys and girls are standing, giving a cry of excitement when seeing an escaped balloon hurry on its way of freedom. "They are cheering me, I'm sure." The balloon thinks. Up and up it soars, above the roof, above the spire, through a thin cloud, into the blue sky. Then a dove hovers near, but after a glance at it, flies away with indifference. "Of course, the bird nears to salute me," The buoyant balloon flatters itself in exultation, "but as I ignore her to keep my dignity, she takes herself away in awe and respect." The higher it clambers, the haughtier it becomes, till it reaches the zenith where it means to stay for millions of years, but, alas, it bursts!

[YesNo]

That's the problem with bubbles and balloons. They burst when you least expect them to. Nice story.

[Andrea Michelle]

A nice, quick read about the dangers of our own pride. Thanks!

[monaliza23]

thanks . Nice story

[DATo]

Very nice. I have one too.

Little mouse walks by his mother's side ... looks up .... sees a bat, and exclaims, "MA, I JUST SAW AN ANGEL!"

[heartwing]

I could have followed this balloon and her/him anywhere. Sure, balloons usually go up, but hey, you won me over with sharing the balloon's thoughts. I was fully engaged in the suspension of disbelief. If the balloon wanted to hang around on earth a while too or come back down and hang around, I would definitely have been on board. It reminded me a little bit of Snowman, Snowman by Janet Frame. Frame builds a whole world on the thoughts of an inanimate object. Nice little piece of imaginative work.

Here you go, in case you are interested. A link to the full text of short stories called Snowman, Snowman by Janet Frame. The title piece, the first story included, is called Snowman, Snowman: https://archive.org/stream/snowmansnowmanfa00fram/snowmansnowmanfa00fram_djvu.txt