it could have been the moon's reflection

             Usually my gliding was a way of making traveling by foot a bit easier.  It’s kind of like standing on those moveable walkways they have at the airport, but instead I glide, mid-stride, about a foot above the ground.  It’s easier to go down the stairs this way, and it’s faster and more efficient than walking, taking less energy but having greater speed.  If someone is in pursuit, or if I am chasing someone, gliding is my mode of choice.

            But today was totally different.  I appeared to be in a sort of gymnasium with a high ceiling and various gymnastics equipment—a balance beam, parallel bars, and more of that sort of thing.  My interests lay in a set of three flat…well; I guess they most resembled giant tables.  Each was set many feet away from the other and they decreased in height.  These giant tables took up most of the space in the gymnasium.

            Starting on a platform raised before the highest table, I took a few steps and pushed myself up into the air, moving forward in a high arc, almost reaching the ceiling, before landing on the first table.  As I landed, I used my momentum to jump into the air again, in a similar fashion as the first time, landing on the second table, and then jumping to the third.  I pushed off of the third and flew through the air, arching down toward to ground.  This landing could hurt!  I am going too fast.  I grimaced.  But I slowed just before reaching the ground, landing gracefully on my feet.  A smile spread across my face.  That had been so much fun! 

            I caught the eye of a man standing by the balance beam, who looked at me with a small smile, shaking his head, “You are such a show off!”  I scowled in return.  He strode to the platform and leapt from table to table, trying to imitate the height I had, but clearly failed.  When he landed he began to laugh, “I can’t come close to what you did.”  I started laughing, too, realizing that he had been joking, and didn’t really think I had been showing off.

            I did the table course a few more times, before leaving to meet a friend in her classroom.  As I reached her classroom, I still felt a buzz from my newly found talent.  I was there to help her reorganize the desks before class began.  Once we finished, I wanted to show her what I could do.  I leapt from desk to desk, being careful not to arc as high as I had in the gymnasium; the low ceiling of the classroom would definitely not allow that.

            “Okay, okay!  I get it!” She said as I continued, with a similar shake of the head and small smile as the man at the gymnasium had had.  “You better stop before the kids arrive.”  She gave me a look conveying that I could cause quite a stir if they saw me performing this stunt.

            I understood, but just before I stopped, I turned a corner between desks, using the wall as a jumping off point.  Awesome!  This is almost like parcours!  I had always wanted to be able to do parcours.  But then I stopped my playing, because I really didn’t want to cause my friend any difficulty with her class.  I knew it must be frustrating to begin with, trying to get twenty six-year-olds to follow her lesson plan.

            We chatted a bit about whatever we thought we needed to tell each other, then I gave her a hug goodbye.

            As night began to fall, I joined some friends for drinks on a canyon’s rim.  I excused myself after awhile to take a walk to enjoy the warm night.  The moon was as full as it had ever been, glowing brightly, casting the canyon in its cool light, creating dark shadows where it could not reach. 

            I looked back to where my friends sat, satisfied that I was far enough away before I pushed off the edge and floated above the canyon.  Its spires reminded me of the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon, but they weren’t quite as high.  I floated above the spires, in the direction of the moon, when I noticed something glowing beneath me.  If I had been floating over water, it could have been the moon’s reflection.  I drew nearer to take a closer look.  It was the same size as the moon in the sky, glowing the same ethereal light. 

            Did the moon’s sister fall from the sky, to land in this small, obscure canyon?  But as I drew nearer the glow started to fade and it did not look like the moon after all.  It was an odd shape, almost like a pear, made of grey sedimentary rock.  This in itself was puzzling since the canyon was made of red and brown rock; the color grey was no where to be found except in this strange rock. 

            I turned back to the canyon’s edge, where my friends were talking and drinking and laughing.  I looked back at the rock and saw it glowing again.  Maybe it’s just some strange optical illusion.  I tried to convince myself of this, but I wasn't.  It had really shaken me up. 

            I landed back on the rim, a few hundred feet away from my friends, and looked back across the canyon at the moon.  That was the only moon I could see, for the canyon’s spires obscured the strange glowing rock. 

            I slowly returned to my friends, inhaling the scent of the red dirt beneath my feet and the hint of honeysuckle on the breeze, though I could see no flowers.  As I drew closer, I heard someone say, “It would be just great if it rained right now.  With thunder and everything.”  There was a murmur of agreement.

            I looked at the stars in the clear sky above and wondered if I could make it rain.  I closed my eyes, forming dark clouds heavy with rain and electricity in my minds eye.  I heard the howl of wind through the canyon and felt a cool drop of rain, followed by another.  Thunder rumbled in the distance.

            I smiled as I opened my eyes and joined my friends again, to watch as the storm rolled in over the canyon.