69 Short Stories

5th story: The world above the clouds 1111 words

"Oh no." I shrieked. But it was too late, one of my foot has already slipped outside.

Whoever pushed me off this cliff, I'm gonna make them pay. That was my last thought as I travelled towards the surface of the earth.

"Argh!!!!!" I screamed as the free fall started to accelerate. I tried to activate my parachute although I lost track of the altitude, wind level and basically everything that I'm meant to know.

"Why is this not working?" My own complaint was barely audible as the wind blew my words away. I pulled tightly at my parachute strings. But they weren't working!

"Goodbye, Earth! I love you!" I declared before closing my eyes and waited for death. I guess it'll be less painful if it comes without me knowing.

My back touched something and I couldn't resist opening my eyes. Because whatever's under me, it's soft.

"Hey! You ruined my roof!" Was what an old lady yelled at me. I looked in her direction. Only to see her blank white dress. I stood back up.

Air blew into my wide open mouth. Everything in my sight was blank white, I touched the 'ground', it felt like a million pieces of 2 ply tissue stacked on top of each other. Where am I?

"I'm sorry, M'am." I gestured to the women still standing beside me. "I have no idea what happened."

"Well you definitely are in a mess. Look at that flashy outfit, don't you dare wear that!"She stripped off my lime green parachute before I could understand the situation. "Welcome, young man, to the world of clouds."

"Thank you...?" I replied doubtfully, looking around. Sure, world of clouds, never heard of it.

"Like I said, this is the world of clouds. Oh, you meant a way to get out?" She laughed. "Tell you what, Lad. You just ruined my chance of returning to Earth."

"Every week, we hold a cloud racing event. It's a tradition for the ones who win to return to Earth. But that's pretty hard, your cloud gets injured if another cloud insists on knocking you out of the way." She explained as I listened carefully, she knelt down and pinched the white, fluffy floor, a tiny flake detached itself. "We all have clouds that are powered by an engine which we are to run by ourselves. Some pair up to have more muscle power. But no one ever teams with me, you know, I'm an oldling here."

"Well, I can pair up with you!" I smiled. It's not like I could get a cloud for myslef...right?

With my amazing engineering skills, I modified the engine of the cloud and made it far more efficient. Being so nervous for the upcoming cloud racing competition, I decided to have another chat with the old lady.

"Well, how did you end up here?"I asked. Sitting cross-legged on the deck of the 'ship'. 

"Ah, me. I was a skydiver about 40 years ago. An accident like yours." She replied slowly, closing her eyes as if to remember something. 

"So everyone here had some sort of accident in the air?" I speculated, rubbing my chin. I've seen a few clouds passing by every now and then. 

"Yeah. Now get ready, we gotta gather some vapour to boost this old ship during the race!"She stood up. I watched as disappeared into the engine room. 

I feel awfully homesick.

"Hey, lad, ready?"The old lady smiled warmly at me. I nodded back, I can see the nervous excitement in her eyes.

The referee declared the beginning of the race as we pulled the steamer tight. 

With all those vapour we've gathered and the magnificent engine designed by me, I thought, we stood a chance. 

I steered the direction carefully as the old lady yanked the steamer with, I could tell, all her strength. There's something that I should've but haven't asked her. 

"What's your name, M'am? Why do you want to go back to Earth?" I steered to the left to avoid a cloud-crash. 

She paused and looked at me for a second, then she resumed working the engine after rubbing her wrinkled hands on her white apron. 

"You'll know if we win. " Was all she said before we fell silent once more. It was awkward with all the cheering and yelling from the other clouds. But one by one, as they shot us dirty looks, we passed them by accelerating even more. 

Finally, I saw see the finish line, to be exact, the rainbow. There was only one more cloud in front of us. 

"M'am! Let's swap!" I yelled and let go of the cloud's steering wheel. She looked up at me with confused eyes, then a flash of determination appeared as we swapped spots. 

I smiled and rolled up my sleeves. 

We managed to catch up with them just about 500m away from the finish line. I could hear my heart pounding really hard. Sweat got into my eyes as I pumped up the engine. Come on!

The other cloud seemed to have noticed us too. Their steamer worked harder and it was obviously a tough competition. But then they took advantage of their size and knocked our right side. Our cloud trembled slightly, but haven't completely gone off control. Thanks to the modifications I gave to the outer railings. 

We managed to speed up once more and overtook them at the very last millisecond. 

"Yeah!" I cheered and high fived the old lady. She smiled as big drops of sweat strolled down her cheek. It must've been a hard time steering it back on track. 

"Tom and Piper. You're free to go." The referee declared. Piper, so that's the old lady's name. I nodded and looked around. So, how do we leave?

"You jump." The old lady, or should I say, Piper, appeared next to me. "You jump from the cloud. Don't worry, you've already did it once, plus, the council assured us that we won't die."

"Umm, okay.." I twitched the corner of my mouth and moved to the edge of the floating matter. "Also, Piper, Thank you, for everything."

Right, let's do this, Tom.

 I cheered myself on from within and there it went...

 I expected a long few seconds until I hit the ground hard and perhaps break my leg.

But it was way faster than I expected, It felt nothing different from jumping from a trashcan, or a mailbox. 

The doctors and nurses approached me, apparently, I've been in a hospital for the last few days. Well, I'm alive!  As I looked out the hospital window, I saw a continuous hill and the white clouds above.