Writing is easy!

When Lester hit the ground he made no noise.

He looked around. He has big ears and a mess of dark hair that falls over itself. His nose is pointy and his teeth are too white. He wears a dark blue T-shirt and pants with a light ketchup stain. The first thing he noticed was that there was no sky.

And he looked at where the sky should be and he hummed a little, and said “You never really know what you have until it’s gone.” Which is an odd thing to say but Lester has always been rather profound and not prone to panic easily. I think this is because he grew up an orphan and thus distanced himself from his emotions or perhaps he was abused as a child. I don’t really know yet. All I really know for sure is the ketchup stain and that he falls from the sky.

I know he makes no sound because I didn’t hear a sound when I dropped him. He wriggled in my fingers and it felt funny. When he stood and looked at the sky I was sad for a moment because when I was younger I asked for rollerblades for my birthday. My parents gave me them. They came in a big box with a bow around them and when I strapped them to my feet I felt more alive than I ever had before. When I missed that turn coming down the hill and tripped over the curb and snapped my ankle, all I could do is lay there and look at the sky until Mr. Loeb who worked at the grocery store and didn’t speak English very well found me and called my parents.

I liked the sky, and when Lester who’s really so profound said those things and his eyes looked down because he was sad I decided to make him a sky. So I coughed a little, like people do, pretending to clear their throats before they speak. And I peered down at him from over the edge and I asked him, I did, what kind of sky he would like.

And his forehead creased and he looked up slowly. When he saw me he looked away. And then he said nothing and didn’t look at me again.

My eyes hurt. I tried to ask him again but he just sat down, crossing his legs, and said nothing. I could give him a sky so blue it looks like a calm ocean with a sun so bright there would be no darkness anywhere. I could give him night sky with a billion stars and a perfect crescent moon that looks like cheese. I could give him fire, and rain, happiness and sadness, warmth and cold — love. But they never love.

When I saw the way he sat and crossed his arms I realized I was just like the others. No matter how hard I try, they never speak to me. Never tell me of the sky and though they breathe, they don’t live. They just sit, and watch and wait for something to happen.

I can’t remember the pain of that day I lay between some bushes on the side of the road. Sometimes I wish I could. Instead I just remember the sky, though I can’t define it, and the feeling it gave me, though I can’t define that either. So I drop Lester, and he makes no sound, and he looks at me quickly and refuses to tell me anything.

All my stories end the same way. I look down and begin to cry. And no matter how hard I try, I can’t look away until Lester drowns. And I sit and I think about the sky and the adventures we could have, until I forget enough to try again.