Flight

Chapter One - Stargazer Lilies

I found myself gazing by the window—again—this morning. The sky is bright and blue. The clouds look like my favorite cotton candy—big and fluffy. My lips form a frown as the flock of dove flies away.

We live in a 43-storey condominium in the city, and it is very busy, day and night. There are lots of cars travelling and you would hear an angry beeping every now and then. I try counting the longest time where I can hear no car beep. The longest was fifteen seconds.

Some people are screaming at each other’s faces and you’ll never know why they are doing that. Little kids came running around and laughs to an angry old lady while she helplessly waves her walking stick in the air. She looks like wild monkey flailing beside her cracked pots of plants. Students and workers are walking around, to and fro. Everybody seems in a hurry. Yesterday, I remember, I got tripped by a skate-boarder-dude—which happens a lot anyway, I mean me getting tripped all the time—and he didn’t help me get back up and just scrammed away. He seems bad, although he did shout ‘sorry’.

I don’t consider our city as picture-perfect but I still love the place. I mean, this is where I first started to dream an impossible dream. The city preserves nature and animal life. Wild animals like squirrels, monkey, donkey, moose, and many more are cherished and loved by people living in our city. There are lots of migrating birds passing by. I’ve seen many of them in my seven years of age but I have lost count of their names and species—I have a book, see. Although, I should’ve written them in a notebook but I’m too lazy to write.

There is a little forest—more like a park, and it’s my favorite place—at the east side where trees and plants and flowering bushes are taken care of. Every house is required to plant a tree in their backyard. Every building has potted trees in their rooftops. Every room has little potted plants by their window. We actually have two pots of Stargazer Lilies beautifully sitting by our window. I am a proud Mama because I am the one who planted them.

Our room is on the twenty-fifth floor. Every morning I would wake up early just to see those flocks of birds hover around the building. It’s just so amazing! They are circling the building endlessly and never looking tired. There was a time that they came close by the window and I was able to take a picture. I even won an award at my school because of that picture. A grin is all you can see on my face, reminiscing those days. Suddenly, my mother comes inside the room, disrupting my thoughts.

Out of nowhere I tell her, “Ma, I want to fly.”