A young man has a mystical experience with an element that takes him on a life-changing journey he won’t forget
“Kid, you lost?”
Kenny looked up from his phone, blinked, peered through the night, searching for the voice.
“Over here kid,” the voice said accompanied by the sharp click of snapping fingers.
Kenny scanned the empty street in front of him, the bright lights – from the department store behind him – shone out over an empty parking lot, a vast expanse of asphalt and yellow painted lines.
“No not lost,” Kenny called out into the dark.
“You sure, it’s late, kids like you are supposed to be asleep, dreaming big dreams. But you don’t seem to be doing that.”
“I…” Kenny paused, frowned, he focused on thin air, the place he was sure the voice was coming from. “I’m waiting for someone.”
“No you aren’t. Been watching you for a while.”
Kenny froze, a prickle traveled up his spin across his flesh.
“Don’t mean any harm kid, just looking to give some perspective. How about you take a few steps closer.”
With those words Kenny moved, his shoes scuffed the ground hesitantly. Then his curiosity crescendoed, and he took a firm step forward. He found himself seated in a yellow taxicab. The driver, a man with salt and pepper stubble was looking at him, the lit end of a cigar waving in the dim interior.
“Perspective?” Kenny asked.
In the rear view mirror the Cabby smiled, met Kenny’s gaze, turned the key. The cab began to thrum, the engine whistled, a high pitch sound like rushing wind, the taxi shuddered once and then it became one with the Wind.
The Wind, guided by the Cabby, began to swirl around the empty lot, a gentle loop, then throughout the town. It rustled the leaves of young oaks planted only a decade ago in the new residential streets. And even though Kenny did not notice, they lingered where his heart stirred.
The man smiled and suddenly Kenny was in the driver’s seat. He laughed, the Wind jumped forward in three short bursts of speed. The world was his, total freedom, he could be anywhere, be someone the world would want to know. Then it leapt forward, clouds parted as the Wind punched through them and the horizon bloomed before Kenny. He spun in sky, saw the twinkling lights of cities as small little motes on the surface of the planet. He flew onward, below the skyline vanished, then the coast appeared, then they were out over open water. In the total dark.
Kenny’s giddiness vanished. Go anywhere, be anyone, do anything. As the Wind his options were limitless, the earth was his to explore. I could be as influential as the Wind. In the dark the Wind jumped, spun, twisted in upon itself.
“There’s the trouble,” the Cabby said.
Suddenly Kenny found himself in the back seat.
“So many options, so many people, so many opportunities for comparison.” The Cabby drawled.
The Wind turned in a gentle arc and drifted back the way they came, began to spiral downward. They drifted through Kenny’s town, past the church steeple, past the glass walls of the public library, around the squat red brick community centre. Here was home.
“If I were you kid, I wouldn’t be so quick to abandon this place.”
The wind touched down in front of Kenny’s front porch. He found himself standing there. He looked out at the street, the wind rustled the leaves of the young trees, planted only a decade before, they swayed back and forth, gently waving. Kenny waved back and smiled.
This article was originally printed in Volume 24, issue 5 on January 9, 2025.