The Balloon on the Train

Lucy sensed that Tuesday was going to be One Of Those Days from its start, and she wasn’t wrong. The Metro broke down twice before she got close to the office. The colleague who’d ignored every phone call, text, and email from her for months called her that morning and wanted to know why his project hadn’t been finished last week. Her vacation request was denied.

And then, during a break, she glanced at her Facebook page and noticed that Kevin’s status had changed to “In a Relationship.” His new profile picture showed him with his arm wrapped tightly around a pretty woman who definitely wasn’t Lucy. Her stomach felt like she’d swallowed several cold bricks. Maybe it was just as well that she’d left her lunch sitting on the kitchen counter at home.

The one thing the awful Tuesday couldn’t do was stop itself from ending. That afternoon Lucy waited on the subway platform, her nerves sizzling like drops of water in a very hot skillet.

She boarded a train and sat down in one of the grungy yellow seats. The train was an older one that smelled like years of sweaty bodies, fumes, old newspapers, and general subway funk.

And then she spotted it: A red balloon, riding the train along with all the tired tourists and all the tired working stiffs.

Lucy could picture how it got there: Some child must have let it go while her parents hustled to get off the train before the doors closed, and the poor kid probably made a big embarrassing scene when she realized she’d left her balloon behind.

And Lucy couldn’t blame that kid, because it was a very nice balloon. The more she looked at it, the more she felt that it was too pretty to be left all alone on the train.

Lucy glanced around once more to make sure that there were no potential owners nearby. And then she walked over and grabbed the white ribbon dangling from the balloon knot.

She clutched her new balloon as she exited at her stop. It would brighten up her living room, at least for a little while. She needed happy things to look at now that Kevin had finished moving out.

When she stepped outside and her arm jerked up and her feet left the ground, she didn’t even realize what was happening at first. And then she looked down and realized she was seeing people’s upturned faces as they stared and pointed.

Thank God I wore pants to the office today, she thought, struggling to secure her purse as she rose.

And then Wait, I’m afraid of heights.

Wait, I don’t like flying.

Wait, how is this even happening?

Somebody please help, she thought as she clutched the balloon’s ribbon with both fists. But few people bothered to look up, and really, what could they do? Shoot her down? That wasn’t exactly an encouraging thought.

And then she realized that holding on to the balloon felt strangely comfortable. Her arms didn’t even hurt as she clung to the white ribbon. A breeze ruffled her hair. She glanced down at her feet in their black flats dangling over the city streets as the cars beneath her got smaller.

It’s like I’m flying, she thought. Either that, or I’ve finally lost it.

She couldn’t tell how fast she was moving, but the busy cityscape below her gave way to suburban neighborhoods and then heavily wooded areas of green splotched with golden and red. Before long, she saw nothing but hills.

The balloon lifted her up a steep slope and then lowered her to an open space at the top of a peak. Several large rocks surrounded the clearing, and she sat down on the biggest one.

She tied the balloon’s white ribbon tightly around her wrist. She had no idea where she was, but she hoped dearly that the balloon was her ride home.

And then she took a deep breath and looked around. The late afternoon sun cast golden light over the place where she sat. It felt much cooler up here than in the humid city. She smelled crisp autumn leaves and savored the peace; the only sounds she heard were the air moving through the trees and an occasional bird call.

Towns like clusters of little Monopoly houses spread out far below her. The river that wound through the valley looked like a tiny stream.

“It’s beautiful up here,” she said. “It’s such a different perspective.” Everything she’d been preoccupied with seemed so small now. Her problems at the office. Kevin. All of it.

The red balloon swayed slightly in the breeze, as if it agreed with her. She relaxed, drinking in the cool mountain air and the lush and beautiful green landscape below.

“Thank you,” she said after a while. “I think I’m ready now.”

And the balloon lifted her into the air again. Watching the sun set from up high brought tears to Lucy’s eyes as the balloon carried her away from the mountains and over landscapes that started to look familiar to her. In what felt like no time at all, it deposited her on the roof of her apartment building.

She looked at the congested and noisy street below and made a mental note to find a calmer place to live.

Lucy carefully untied the white ribbon from around her wrist. She clutched the ribbon and looked fondly up at the lovely red balloon one last time.

“Goodbye. And thank you again,” she said as she let it go. The red balloon drifted up and away from her, and she watched it as long as she could before the bright red spot finally disappeared into the early evening sky.

She hated to let it go, but she knew she had to.

Somewhere else, somebody was going to need it.