Flying has been one of man’s oldest and deepest desires. From the time of Icarus, many mortals have tried to invent a flying machine, albeit vainly. It was the Wright brothers who finally arrived on the scene, and solved the problem for all mankind.

Yet, even in today’s world, there are people who cherish the desire to fly. Loktak was definitely not one of them. He lived his simple life, and loved it. True, he enjoyed the odd superhero movie, every now and then, but he had his head placed firmly on his shoulders, and he knew that what was shown in the movies was best left to the movies. One day Loktak was going home from work. He had a fixed route, and he almost had the steps counted by heart. His house was one thousand, seven hundred and forty three steps from his office – give or take a few. At five hundred steps, there was a teashop, where he had tea, if he had the time. At one thousand and one hundred steps, a little girl sold flowers. He liked the girl, so he usually bought a flower, or two, from her. At One thousand five hundred steps there was the turn that led to his house.

Today he had money in his pocket, and free time on his hands. He decided to have tea at the teashop, and buy some flowers from the flower girl. But to his dismay, it was raining. He wasn’t sure if the teashop, or the flower girl, would be there in such weather. Their shops were makeshift and did not offer much protection from the weather Gods. As he had thought, neither of his favourite people were to be found.

But the rain was pouring now, and to save himself from getting wet, Loktak decided to climb a few stairs and take cover in the porch of a house on the way. To reach the safety of the shelter he had to climb a few stairs.

The rain, which had been falling for some time, had made the steps wet and slippery. Loktak was climbing the stairs absent-mindedly, as usual, and at the fourth step he slipped. He was jerked out of his reverie, and he came face to face with reality. The reality that in a few seconds his head would be introduced to the sidewalk. He was never good at meeting new people, and this particular introduction, he decided, was going to be very painful.

He braced himself for the impact.

But none came. The fall took longer than usual. Loktak felt himself float for a few seconds, before he found himself sprawling on the ground. It was wet and very uncomfortable, but there was no pain.

“What had just happened?” Loktak thought. He should have hit the ground hard and hurt himself, but nothing had happened.

“How did you do that?” he heard a voice.

It was the flower girl. She, it seemed, had chosen the same porch to escape the rain.

“What did I do?” Loktak asked, hesitantly.

“You flew.”

“I did not”

Saying that, Loktak hurriedly walked away. Could it be true, he thought, had he really done as the girl had said. Had he floated?

Loktak’s mind was in great turmoil when he reached home. He knew there was only one way to find out. He had to try it again. But he wanted to do that only in the confines of the four walls of his home. As soon as he had locked the door behind him he ran to where the dining table stood, He quickly stacked a chair on top of the dining table and climbed on it. It was no great height, but it was enough to test his theory.

He jumped, and braced himself for the impact. But he realized he was floating and it took him a few seconds to hit the floor. He could fly!

…Continued in next part.