IGMS Issue 28 by IGMS

Author:IGMS [IGMS]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Hatrack River Enterprises
Published: 2012-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

He'd intended to buy a hot air balloon, but there was no way he could justify such an enormous expense, even if he'd had that much money. He was leaving what remained of his savings to Gran, to help pay her senior care expenses. He'd have to buy a hang glider instead. But first he wanted to tour the hospital where he'd been born. He'd have to go back to The End, pay for the hang glider, then go tour the hospital, and wait until tomorrow to go find his parents.

Somehow it didn't happen. He stayed in bed until nightfall, got up, discovered the entire town more or less shut down in the evenings, then went back to his hotel room.

He still didn't call anyone or write any letters.

The next morning, he returned to The End. The ticket-gate attendant recognized him. Or recognized his hand stamp, anyway. "Season Pass is only thirty-five dollars," said the man.

"That's okay," Jared replied. "This is the last day." Then he remembered the twenty-four hour wait for delivery on the hang glider. "Well, I'll be back tomorrow, but that's it."

The ticket-taker shrugged and stamped his other hand. Yesterday, the stamp had been of a little green frog. Today, it was a kite. It seemed a good omen.

Once again, Jared arrived before the kite seller. He walked out to the mist-shrouded drop. He stepped over the safety rope and took a seat on the ledge, letting his feet dangle. A Led Zeppelin song echoed up from the deep. Jared didn't know the title, but he'd heard it many times. When it finished, a Japanese pop song replaced it. At least, he thought it might be Japanese. He didn't actually speak Japanese, so he couldn't be sure. He also heard many conversations, though of course he couldn't make out any of the words. When the kite seller arrived. Jared went to see him.

"Do you have any hang gliders today?" he asked.

"Sure!" replied the old man. He tapped his sign into the ground with a rubber mallet. "Already spoken for, though. You'll have pay me today and come back tomorrow to get your own."

"Right," said Jared.

He had the money in his pocket, twenty crisp hundred-dollar bills and a stack of tens and ones, because he wasn't sure if there'd be sales tax. Instead of handing it over, he helped the old man pin down his beautiful kites, and when that was done, he walked around the field, watching the people who came to picnic and play and those who came to walk along The End, those who threw paper airplanes and released balloons and bought the old man's kites and flew them. In the afternoon, a young man came, and the kite seller disappeared, then returned a few minutes later rolling a colorful bundle on a two-wheeled cart. Together, the young man and the old man assembled a hang glider, and when they'd finished, they wheeled it out toward The End. The old man unfastened a knot where

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