Soaring in the Clouds
Good morning, world! It’s a lovely day today, because my flash piece, “A Castle in the Clouds,” is the story of the day at Every Day Fiction. You should definitely check it out! And, while you’re there, vote on it and maybe leave a comment.
This story is a fantasy romance/parable. My favorite part about it is the setting. Ami lives in a cloud. When the weather changes, so does her home, so it’s larger on rainy days and smaller on sunny ones. It reminds me of a game that I used to play with my grandmother as a child — our paper dolls had such fun exploring imaginary rooms. I loved to imagine the craziest most awesome rooms. In that game, it was a regular mansion, not a cloud, but imagining the possibilities that could exist was so exciting… Imaginary rooms could hold whatever you wanted — clothes, toys… anything!
When I was younger, I remember reading a fairy tale about a girl who lived in an invisible castle in the sky. Her companion was a large spider. The only thing the girl was not allowed to do was go into the spider’s special room during a certain hour of the day. At that time, he would cover all the walls, the floor, and the ceiling, so no one could see in, and she never knew what he did in there. So, of course, one day the little girl went into the room before the appointed hour and hid under the couch. The spider came in and, while he thought he was alone, he became a man. When the girl’s hiding place was revealed (as of course it would have to be), the castle became visible and floated down to the ground. She lived there with the man and it was nice, but never as wonderful as it had been living in an invisible castle in the sky with a spider.
Weird story, huh? I wish I remember the name of that tale. I’ve always remembered the story. It was one of the inspirations for “A Castle in the Clouds.” Another inspiration came from Little Women. There is a chapter where Jo and the girls, and Laurie, of course, describe their imaginary castles in the air — places where they are carefree and all their dreams have come true.
Ami’s adventure in my story is totally different from those above, but those were the things that gave me the first glimmer of inspiration that eventually became “A Castle in the Clouds.”
I hope you enjoy it, and if you have time, leave me a comment here and let me know what you thought!
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Lovely story today, Erin. I was pleased with the ending; reality, with someone you love, is much preferable to living alone in the clouds.
I used to love to make up imaginary rooms when I was a child, too; My dad would bring home rolls of used graph paper from work (but they were only used on one side!) and I spent hours drawing rooms, connected by hidden doors and secret passages.
How funny! My grandpa was a college professor, and he recycled all the term papers that his students wrote as scratch paper at the house. There were stacks of it in his office! My sister and I made drawings on them, paper dolls, etc. It was a long time before a realized that most people’s drawing paper didn’t have words on the back of it!
Yes!
I think I was nine before I figured out not everyone had drawing paper in fifty-foot rolls with squiggly lines on the back.
BTW, if you haven’t already written one, there’s a story in that memory of your grandfather. You have the touch to do it justice.
Oh, thank you!
Erin, What a beautiful story! Have you more like this? Have you considered putting similar stories together? I think you have nailed it and should do more. (But not abandoned everything else, obviously).
I loved your story at EDF
And my friend Kevin is always speaking highly of you, so i thought i would come check you out
Thanks so much, Gay! I have one or two others that are similar — more tale, less modern story. Interesting thought…
Welcome to my blog, M. Sherlock. I’ve seen you around EDF. Thanks for visiting!