Alex Carrick’s Blog

I made it. I’m free. I can’t believe it. This is so great!

I can hear them talking below me. They think this is a tragedy and it’s making them sad. They suspect the tree was lurking to ensnare me. They couldn’t be more wrong. I saw my opportunity and I took it.

The lady’s concentration wavered for a second and I leapt on a surging updraft, into the arms of these branches. Then she pulled too hard and my “chains” broke. Now I’m sitting pretty, way up in the sky looking out over the bay, open air in almost all directions.

They’re still talking about what they can do to rescue me. The man says he might climb the tree. That’s a laugh. He’ll get halfway up, then drop like a stone. I don’t really want to see that. I don’t know these people, but they seem decent enough and I have no reason to be cruel.

The little one says they should send squirrels up to get me. That’s actually pretty good, as jokes go.

Nobody in my immediate family has ever been free before. I had a distant relative who once had his chord break and he disappeared over a bank of hills. Nobody ever heard from him again.

There were rumours that he later found success in life as a lookout for migrating whooping cranes, but that’s only family folklore. More likely he got fried when tied up to a lightning rod. That’s the threat kite parents use on their children when they want them to behave.

I’m also the first kite in my family to go to university, majoring in history. That’s where I learned that there’s more to life than just being kept on a string. Sure, it’s nice to soar heavenward on a strong breeze, but then you get yanked from side to side and you’re brought back down to earth long before you’ve had enough.

Now I’m positioned here high in my lookout. My wings are spread wide and my tail is bobbing in the breeze. It’s true, I won’t be able to go anywhere, but sometimes you’ve got to give up a little to gain a lot.

Below me, I can see they’re finally giving up and moving away. There’s some talk about coming back tomorrow, or a week from now, or even in a month or two to see if they can get me back. They can forget it. I’m never coming down.

I’m hoping that what I’ve done will set an example for others of my kind. Maybe my actions will start a popular movement in the kite community. Proudly, I go by the name of Spartacus. Now if only I can find a mate.

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A considerably wilder version of the great outdoors appears amidst the poetry of The Lord’s Rogue Locomotive.

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For my first book, “Two Scoops” Is Just Right, please click here for the paperback version and here for the Kindle e-book version.

For the sequel, “Three Scoops” Is A Blast! (with the award-winning “Size of the Skip”) click here for paperback and here for Kindle.

For “Four Scoops” Is Over The Top (containing Hemingway short-listed “Caboose Follies”) click here for paperback and here for Kindle.

And finally, for my latest book, “Five Scoops” Is An Addiction!, please click here for the paperback and here for the Kindle digital version.

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