Balloons

The balloons bounced cheerfully in the bright August breeze, floating skyward, and urged upwards by the warming glow of the sun shining overhead. Straining hopefully against their tethers and willing themselves free, they struggled against the constraining safety of the grey and concrete signpost to which they were lashed, a structure of a concrete and permanent reality, itself impassive and unaffected by the cycle of time. Indeed, the only admission that the passing years had affected any change at all upon that stately post was evidenced through the assembly of deflated balloons from carnivals passed that now hung limply, though elegantly, they seemed to insist, from faded red streamers tied round its top, enduringly and irrevocably shackled to the concrete establishment. A sickly air of importance seemed to emanate from the aged collection of ruined balloons as well, as though they were the once victims and now recipients of a ghastly and timeless mission that was as at present still unbeknownst to the younger generation drifting hopelessly above.

Just beyond the ageless post and securely fastened to his mother’s outstretched and red-gloved hand, Teddy struggled.

“Can’t I ride the Ferris wheel just once?” he called longingly up to the red-gloved woman. “You know it’s my favorite”. A stately woman of thirty-three, Mrs. Bond merely shook her head and kept on walking, unaffected by the sporadic tugs and flights of Teddy by her side.

“You’ve already been on the carousel and the bumper cars and through the petting zoo,” she said firmly. “That’s quite enough fun.”

Teddy, his easy smile not yet punctured by Mrs. Bond’s timeless rebuke, still bobbed hopefully along, tugging persistently at her faded red gloves.

“Now that’s quite enough Theodore! If you insist on acting like a child then I shall be forced to treat you like one. Your grandparents never tolerated this sort of tomfoolery from me, and I shan’t have it from you now.”

Teddy’s grip grew limp in the faded red glove, and he allowed his mother to lead him away from the warmth of the carnival. As he walked slowly away, his eyes drifted spitefully up towards a lone balloon somehow freed of it’s tether, soaring beyond the hard, grey clouds.