Ray Bradbury by Icarus Montgolfier Wright

Author:Icarus Montgolfier Wright [Wright, Icarus Montgolfier]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-12-12T02:17:38+00:00

Page 3

Then whirl and jump.

Then cut the cords to free the great balloon.

Then rev the motor, prop the plane on air.

And crack the switch, to fire the rocket fuse.

And together in a single leap, swim, rush, flail, jump, sail, and glide, upturned to sun, moon, stars, they would go above Atlantic, Mediterranean; over country, wilderness, city, town; in gaseous silence, riffling feather, rattle-drum frame, in volcanic eruption, in timid, sputtering roar; in start, jar, hesitation, then steady ascension, beautifully held, wondrously transported, they would laugh and cry each his own name to himself. Or shout the names of others unborn or others long-dead and blown away by the wine wind or the salt wind or the silent hush of balloon wind or the wind of chemical fire. Each feeling the bright feathersstir and bud deep-buried and thrusting to burst from their riven shoulder blades!Each leaving behind the echo of their flying, a sound to encircle, recircle the earth in the winds and speak again in other years to the sons of the sons of their sons, asleep but hearing the restlessmidnightsky.

Up, yet further up, higher, higher! A spring tide, a summer flood, an unending river of wings!

A bell rang softly.

No, he whispered, I’ll wake in a moment. Wait … The Aegean slid away below the window, gone; the Atlantic dunes, the French countryside, dissolved down toNew Mexico desert. In his room near his cot stirred no plumes in golden wax.Outside, no wind-sculpted pear, no trap-drum butterfly machine.

Outside only a rocket, a combustible dream, walting for the friction of his hand to set it off.

In the last moment of sleep someone asked his name. Quietly, he gave the answer as he had heard it during the hours frommidnight on. “ Icarus MontgolfierWright.” He repeated it slowly so the questioner might remember the order and spelling down to the last incredible letter.

“ Icarus MontgolfierWright.

“Born: nine hundred years before Christ.Grammar school:Paris , 1783. High school, college:Kitty Hawk

, 1903. Graduation from Earth to Moon: this day, God willing,August 1, 1970 . Death and burial, with luck, on Mars, summer 1999 in the Year of Our Lord.” Then he let himself drift awake.

Moments later, crossing the desert Tarmac, he heard someone shouting again and again and again.

And if no one was there or if someone was there behind him, he could not tell. And whether it was one voice or many, young or old, near or very far away, rising or falling, whispering or shouting to him all three of his brave new names, he could not tell, either. He did not turn to see. For the wind was slowly rising and he let it take hold and blow him all the rest of the way across the desert to the rocket which stood waitingthere.

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