Member-only story
Flights of Fancy
The wonders of the sky beckon.
Marcien had always been a strange man, but the day he said he had invented a flying ship took the cake. When the townspeople gathered for the spectacle — surely he wasn’t serious — they found their expectations dashed for a completely different reason: there was indeed a flying ship — but it was much more a canoe than a magnificent voyager.
Even when Marcien invited shy Laurie Evenshore for a test ride, the townsfolk were already laughing.
“Where do you intend to take such a ship?” the grocer asked, not even bothering to hide his meanness. “I bet the first storm you encounter in the skies will tear it apart!”
Marcien frowned but said nothing — until Laurie laid a hand upon his arm and stared down the grocer. “It’s a fine day for a flight,” she said, the words meant for Marcien even though she did not waver in her glare set upon the grocer. “I’d like nothing more than to see the sky up close.”
Then she turned her head away, and suddenly there was no room for laughter in the vicinity. Some of the townsfolk even looked abashed that they had guffawed and tittered at the invention and its grand reveal.
After all, Laurie Evenshore had never spoken up to anyone, so it was a rare day indeed when she had lashed out — and for Marcien the Loon of…
