CHAPTER 49
TRANSFORMATION
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-spilt clouds, -- and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of -- wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through the footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor ever eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
- John MaGee, Jr.
Six-year-old Sara Myers was having a flying dream again, a really good one. This time she was flying around town with Santa, helping him make deliveries. This pleased her very much, since, as she explained to Santa in the Mall the week before, she had wanted to fly ever since she could remember, even if Mom and Dad said that she couldn't.
Not being able to fly simply wasn't fair, she reasoned. After all, her older brother Jimmy collected model airplanes and wanted to be a pilot when he grew up, and Mom and Dad approved of that! She didn't like clunky, noisy airplanes; she just wanted to fly herself, without an airplane or balloon or anything. That seemed to her to be a much simpler thing than using airplanes, but for some reason her parents didn't think so. Several times a day her parents explained to her that people didn't have wings and needed airplanes or some other type of machine to fly. And Jimmy was always teasing her.
At least Mom and Dad did approve of her interest in birds, butterflies, and other flying creatures. That's why her room was full of books, pictures, and models of flying animals of all sorts. Her parents didn't let her have models of flying horses or people though, even though the people on the VISICOM said that there were some strange flying People out West that scientists found, along with unicorns and giants and other wonderfully strange creatures. Her Mom and Dad said that those weren't real though, and that people shouldn't believe everything that they heard and saw on the VISICOM.
Such things were just stories they said, like all the talk about space aliens and the big rock named Dannos that was supposed to smash the Earth for Christmas. Sara didn't like the big rock part of the story either, especially because it seemed to upset Mom and Dad so much. Every time Mom and Dad heard the word 'Dannos', they got all sad. They tried to hide it, but she knew that something was very wrong. She even suspected that the rock story had something to do with why she and Jimmy had been kept home from school all week.
Still, Sara's parents couldn't stop her from thinking about flying, or from dreaming about it, and that's just what she was doing now. Only now the dream was over, and the Santa of her dream was gone and she was yawning and trying to open her eyes. The dream seemed so real this time that she felt like she was still flying. She fought to keep that flying feeling in her head.
She was surprised and pleased to find, when she finally opened her eyes and looked around, that she really was flying! Actually, she was floating about four feet over her bed, next to her model of an owl that hung from the ceiling. She was so surprised and pleased that she wasn't thinking about flying for just a moment. In that moment she started to fall, but just like in her dreams she knew exactly what to do: she had to think flying thoughts! In an instant, she was floating steadily again!
Just floating was great, but it wasn't enough, so she tried to fly around her room. Just like in her dreams, it wasn't easy, and she couldn't fly very fast, but then of course she was just starting out. She remembered seeing young ducks learn to fly on the VISICOM, and they had to practice a lot too, before they were very good at it.
She couldn't just stay there in her room practicing though, because this was going to be a very busy day. This day was Christmas Eve, and Mom and Dad announced a few days earlier that they would open their Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas morning! This seemed to be a very strange thing to her and Jimmy. She and Jimmy still had their presents for Mom and Dad to wrap, and Aunt Elizabeth was coming to visit.
Wouldn't everyone be surprised when they saw what Santa brought her! She had asked Santa for a Julie Doll, like she saw on the VISICOM, but what she really secretly wanted was to fly, and that's just what she got! Somehow, Santa must have learned of her wanting to fly, and learned that he should come one night early too, and be in her dream.
Should she wait until later in the day to show everyone, or do it now? She decided that she should wait, but she just couldn't. She had to show everyone! She decided to show that know-it-all Jimmy first. She flew to bedroom door, opened it, and then across the hallway to her brother's room. She knocked before she went in, because Jimmy would yell at her if she didn't, but then she flew right in.
Margaret and Bob Myers were determined to sleep in. According to the VISICOM, this could be their last opportunity to ever do so. Dannos would come the next night. Besides, they needed their rest, because it would be a big day. Like millions of other families, they planned to hold Christmas Eve celebrations and prayers. They weren't sure what, if anything, they would do about the newscast that they heard late the previous night. They liked President Wright and that Latanna fellow, but their story about a dragon and about human psychic powers that must be used to save the Earth was difficult to believe. So far, they had not seen anyone suddenly gain psychic powers; at least not in their own family, where everything was perfectly normal.
Suddenly, they heard screaming. Both Margaret and Bob woke to that terrible sound, but Margaret was the first to realize that it was Jimmy screaming. For a terrifying moment, she thought that it was Dannos already. She sprang out of bed and was running to her son's room before Bob could complete his question to her about what all the noise was.
Bob was still yawning, stretching, and otherwise trying to wake up when he reached Jimmy's room. He found his wife Margaret sprawled on the floor in the doorway, unconscious! As he kneeled over her limp form he looked up at Jimmy, who wasn't screaming anymore; he was just staring up at the ceiling in bug-eyed astonishment. He also heard his daughter giggling, but looking around the room, he didn't see her anywhere. Finally, he followed his son's upward gaze.
Floating above him was his little daughter Sara!
"Hi Daddy," she said. "Look what Santa got me for Christmas! Now I can fly with his reindeer! Make Mommy wake up so she can see too.”
He stood and reached up for her, but she quickly flew out the door and down the hallway, still giggling.