My collection of Middle Grade, sci-fi and fantasy, flash-fiction...
My collection of Middle Grade, sci-fi and fantasy, flash-fiction stories, Try Looking Ahead, came out over six months ago. I’m still very proud of it. However, it didn’t sell that well. It happens! Some books catch fire, some don’t. Many of the 12 stories that were in the book have already been published elsewhere, but there was one story that I particularly loved that was only in the collection: The titular “Try Looking Ahead.” Folks who read the collection have told me that they loved this story, too. As a writer, I want my stories to be read…so my publisher agreed to let me publish this story on my blog. If you like it, please feel free to pass it along. The spot illustration (above) was done by Stacey Robinson. Ok, here goes…
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When Charles was five, his father got him a bicycle, a real
bicycle with two wheels, an upgrade from his current tricycle. His father put a
helmet on his head and patted him on the back, and said, “You just pedal, and
I’ll hold the seat to keep you steady. Just try looking ahead and you’ll be
fine.”
Charles put his feet on the pedals and started moving his
legs and the real bicycle with two wheels started moving and his father was
holding onto the seat, keeping Charles steady. Charles tried looking ahead, but
after some time he looked back and saw his father waving in the distance.
Charles got scared and swerved and his bike slid out from under him and he hit
the ground, hard.
“That’s OK,” his father told him. “Just try again. Look
ahead. Always look ahead.”
Before getting on his bike, Charles closed his eyes and
tried to look ahead. He tried to see what would come next.
_____________
When Charles was eight, his father signed him up for
baseball. All of his friends were playing, and he wanted to play with them,
even though he never cared much for baseball. Charles’s father took him to the
batting cage to teach him how to hit, even though Charles’s father never really
knew how to play baseball either. But his father tried to teach him anyway,
handing him a helmet and a bat and giving him the only advice he could think
of, “When you’re waiting for the ball to come, just try looking ahead. The
moment that ball comes out, swing as hard as you can.”
Charles gripped the bat and stared ahead at the mechanical pitcher,
and, as soon as a ball popped out, he swung his bat as hard as he could. He
probably could have swung his bat three more times before the ball actually
reached him. Charles stood there and watched the ball pass him by. He looked
back at his dad, who shrugged, and suggested, “Try swinging later, I guess.”
Charles looked ahead and swung later, but he still missed.
He eventually hit a ball, and he also eventually realized that he didn’t care
much for baseball.
_____________
When Charles was 13, his father bought him a telescope. None
of his friends had telescopes so it took Charles some time to warm up to the
idea that he had one. Eventually, he took his telescope out back and pointed it
up to the sky and tried to find something, anything, worth looking at up close.
He couldn’t find a thing.
Charles told his father that space was boring. His father
told him that he’d love him no matter what, unconditionally, through thick and
thin…but if Charles ever said that space was boring again, he’d have to move
out.
Charles laughed because he knew his father was joking, but
then his father put down his book, and said, “Seriously, though, space isn’t
boring. Space is amazing. Did you ever wonder why the moon rises every night
and sets every morning?”
“Because it’s revolving around the earth,” Charles replied.
Everyone knew that.
“But do you know what that means?”
Charles started to open his mouth but then realized that he
didn’t know what that meant.
“The moon is revolving around the earth because it’s falling
into the earth.”
Charles thought about that for a second, and then asked,
“But why doesn’t it hit us?”
“Because the earth’s falling into the sun, causing the moon
to always miss the earth. All of the planets in our solar system are falling
into the sun, but they’re always missing because the sun is falling into the
center of our galaxy. The sun never gets there, however, because the center of
our galaxy is always falling into the center of our local group of galaxies,
which, in turn, is always falling toward our local supercluster of groups,
which, in turn, is always falling into the center of the universe.
“Everything you can see is always falling toward something.
And the fact that most things aren’t hitting anything is one of the most
amazing, non-boring things you will ever witness.”
Charles imagined his own feet, pressed against the floor of
his house. He realized that if the floor were to disappear, he’d fall until he
hit another floor. He never realized that he was always falling into the earth
and that the only thing stopping him from getting hurt was the ground that was
constantly stopping his fall.
Charles’s father saw the confusion on his son’s face. “Don’t
think about falling,” he said. “Just try looking ahead.”
Charles went back outside and peered into his telescope. He
spent an hour staring at a giant rock that was falling toward him, always
missing.
_____________
When Charles was 16, he told his father a secret. His father
made a joke at first but then hugged him and told him that no matter what
happens next, always try looking ahead.
_____________
When Charlie was 18, her father bought her a car. It wasn’t
a great car. It was actually in terrible shape. It was ten years old and had a
rearview mirror that fell off and a door that rattled and a radio that couldn’t
play MP3s and a rear defrost that wouldn’t defrost. But it was all Charlie’s
dad could afford, and he knew that she would need a car in college.
“Sometimes you’ll feel the need to get away, I’m sure,” he
told her. “And when you do, just get in this car and try looking ahead. Drive
all the way home if you want and never look back. I’ll be here with the light
on.”
Charlie drove all the way home only once, during her first
year of school, when she was feeling incredibly homesick and alone. She spent
the whole night talking to her father outside the house, with her old telescope
pointed up to a giant rock that was falling toward her but always missing her.
She remembered why she went to college and drove back the
next morning.
She looked ahead for the next eight years.
_____________
When Charlie was 30, her girlfriend came to visit her lab.
Charlie showed her the most recent pictures of bright and beautiful objects
trillions of miles away that were falling into other bright and beautiful objects
but always missing because everything was always falling into something else.
Charlie told her girlfriend that even right now they’re falling into each other
but that, since they both weigh about the same, their falling sort of cancels
out.
“What if I were heavier?” Charlie’s girlfriend asked.
Charlie thought about that for a second, laughed, and said,
“You’d have to meet my dad first.”
“I’m just trying to look ahead,” Charlie’s girlfriend
replied. “Just like you always told me to do.”
_____________
When Charlie was 40, she took her wife and daughter to her
father’s sixtieth birthday party. It was at the old house, which hadn’t changed
much over the years. At some point that night, she looked outside the window to
see her daughter standing on her toes, trying to look into her old telescope.
Charlie was about to go outside with her daughter but saw that her dad was
already out there, undoubtedly telling her daughter about large objects falling
into them but always missing.
Undoubtedly telling her to always try looking ahead.
_____________
When Charlie was 55, she sat down next to her father, who
was lying in bed, eyes closed and breathing steady.
She kissed his forehead, thanked him for everything, and
told him that no matter what happens next, to try looking ahead.
_____________
When Charles was five he opened his eyes.
“What did you see?” his father asked.
“I saw me riding this bike,” Charles answered.
