Kirsten Vangsness
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
She glances around, no sign of anyone on either side of their house.
She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and begins to flap her arms.
It is moments before she realizes she is air-rising.
After a few moments after that, she actually begins to ascend.
She keeps her eyes tightly shut, imagining how the world below must be disappearing.
Now she pushes through a mist of clouds.
She can feel the vapor still higher until the air is so thin she can hardly catch her breath.
As she slowly opens her eyes, she sees she is higher than that day she flew with Mac.
Never let them know you can fly, Mac had said.
She circles above weightless, her sense of ease restored.
She twists in and out of clouds, drifts down slowly until she is low enough to distinguish buildings.
She finds if she lets the wind take her, she can float through the air like a swimmer in water.
After a time, she turns in the direction of home, wondering how to calculate her landing, grateful to Mac years ago for having taken her up but now wishing he had told her how to get back down.
She feels herself falling ever so gently out of the sky like a leaf.
Downward, she swirls lazily, catching the currents, pausing to rest in a pocket of still air.
When she lands, there is only the soft thud of her feet touching the earth.
At dinner that night, she sits flushed at the table, surrounded by her three children and Nick, all of whom she loves.