Piles of Air (Feat. Emily Livengood)

A collaboration Piece with Emily Livengood, the story of a boy who desires to shovel towards the sky for a friend with silly adventures.

The Digger Scene:

            August, the young little digger, was astound in the mysteries buried under the sand, he shoveled and dug as far as he could in search of what that day would reward him with. Worms, Jewels, and water, digging with all his strength to complete his task.

 

            The shovel, tired and rusty would twist and twirl under the sand with every pulse the hands of August emitted. His hours were spent endless in the backyard sandlot his mother made. But the days grew lonely for the shovel and him, until one day a very strange person appeared with a telescope and binoculars...

 

            A silhouette hovered over the boys back, burning hot from the harsh sun. The strange silhouette wasn't too strange, though, in fact, it was the girl next door, the neighbor girl, Emily. 

 

            The boy’s vigorous digging abruptly stopped to give the neighbor girl a glance. In fact, the two had never once met even considering they lived next to each other practically for their entire lives. 

 

            Emily reached out, gesturing a hand shake.

The boy looks at her hand and smiles placing one of his many shovels in her grip. 

 

            "I'm glad you want to help, you're Emily aren't you?" The boy excitedly says shoveling his way through. 

 

            The girl stays silent and August stops...

 

            He looks at Emily confused, the shovel still dangling off her hand.

 

            "Is something the matter? Do you not know how to shovel?"

 

            "No no I surely know how to shovel but why do you shovel out here in the hot sun for many hours at a time?"

 

            The boy stopped to think of a logical reasoning for her question.

 

            "I'm digging to see what I can find," the boy said satisfied with his answer 

 

            "Gold, silver, a new world...whatever I can find"

 

            The boy stands up and looks at the binoculars on the girl. "Are you some kind of explorer?" He asks gently letting go of the shovel.

 

            "What are you exploring if I may know? I will show you my treasure if you show me the things you have spotted."

 

            "You could say I'm an explorer," Emily says grinning at the boy.

She hands the boy her telescope and positions it for him.

"Look up," she tells him.

 

            The boy slowly puts his eye in the image scrolling ball and glances beyond the clouds, the horizon, and out into the sky.

 

            "Why it is beautiful!" the breathless boy adds. "Do you always look at the sky like this? That is why you carry it around so much?" The boy plays with the knobs, expanding and retracting the image. He can see how the puffy clouds smoke across the sky as an airplane goes right through.

 

            Then he thinks of a great idea! "Are the clouds a big sand lot? Don't you think we could find much treasure in it?" The girl starts to nudge the boy to move over, wanting to observe the beautiful sky for herself.

 

            "Why dig into the ground when we can simply look up?" the girl says

 

            The boy stood there for a minute coming up with a brilliant plan. No more searching in the sand. It was time to start searching for the stars.

 

            The girl sighs and pushes the boy off "I'm the one who will reach the stars, not you, I'm going home now." Emily strolls along with her impressive toys and the Sun slowly melts away into the Ocean. 

 

            August later crawls in his warm and cozy bed, looks out of his window to the stars above. He takes his shovel and tucks it under his pillow, his eyes can’t escape the beautiful glow of the night, and soon falls into a deep sleep. One that swims through the sky...

 

The Dream Scene:

 

            The twinkling balls of fire danced throughout the sky. They were no longer still and at peace, rather than sleep, they were ready for play. August grabbed his beloved shovel from under his cold pillow and began to dance with them. Floating through the sky not even bothering to ask the question how he got up there in the first place. The clouds were practically at arm’s reach, to the touch they were chilly and a bit wet but loving. Grasping his shovel, August began to dig into the sea of clouds, one by one he did. Gracefully and daringly he plucked through them all while still floating above the world he left behind. Finally, after digging and digging he struck water, trickling calm water that hit his warm face and with it came lighting. The sky lit up with flashes from every angle. There was not a sight more beautiful than this. All beautiful things must come to an end at some point, though. It was time for August to move on to his next cloud. Hail, sleet, and snow blew out from the clouds, causing August to stumble through the air. How could something so harsh and bitter still become so lovely to the eye? The once rough breeze slowly became steady and smooth carrying August back down to his bed on safe ground, and the starry clouds up in the sky became sleepy again. Settling into their slumber they only hoped to meet August again. 

 

The Air Scene:

 

            Excited with such beautiful dream he runs out to the sand lot and begins to experiment with his shovel. His mother walks out to see what the curious boy was up to, and there she saw the boy preforming a shoveling movement in the air, the mother laughed.

           

            "August, what is this non-sense? You look silly, almost as if you were trying to shovel the air." The mother steps back into the house and little August tries harder and harder to shovel towards the sky. 

 

            Later that afternoon, the little adventure friend comes over to the house of the hard working boy to witness a very strange action from the boy.

           

            "What are you doing?" The girl asks scared and confused.

 

         The excited sweaty boy looks over to the adventurous girl and signals for her to come over towards him.

 

            "I want to show you something!" The boy says waving his hand over to him. 

           

         The girl confused walks over slowly to his idiotic idea and sits next to the radiant boy.

 

         "Do this! -he waves his hand in the air- what do you feel? Don't you feel the air moving, it’s like moving the sand. Imagine, if you can move the sand by waving your hand and shoveling it, you can do the same thing with the air! That means...” Wham! Emily punches the boy on his head!

 

            "You’re crazy! -she screams- you can’t shovel the air, nor even move it, you’re not feeling anything but your hand shifting back and forth. I can’t believe you made me come over for this non-sense." Emily stands up angry at the boy's silly idea. August rubs his head and grabs the girl’s hand. Emily blushes trying not to look back.

 

       "I’m going to do it, Emily, I’m going to take you to the sky, that’s where you want to go don’t you?" The boy smiles and holds on-to the girl waiting for her smile.

 

            The girl stays quiet wanting to believe the crazy boy. She lets go of his hand...

            "Prove it to me! I will come back tomorrow, but for now, I don’t believe you... I..." The girl runs away with tears tracking her steps and the sun slowly faded away towards the end of the shoveling adventure.

 

            August sits outside looking up at the moon waiting to figure out how he is going to shovel through the air, and as he was going to rush inside to lay on his bed. He picked up his metal tool stretched his arms high into the sky and as he was going to lay down his arms again... his shovel got stuck in mid-air... He smiled

 

The Sky Scene:

 

            Just as Emily promised she would return back tomorrow. The sight of August floating mid-air was beyond shocking to the bare eye. 

 

            "August you’re floating in the air!" she yelled frantically.

 

            She didn't know if she was more upset because she was proven wrong by the strange neighbor boy or the fact that he was actually floating within the atmosphere. 

 

            "Of course I'm floating...I told you I could" he says grinning, relieved that his idea had actually worked. 

 

            Both astonished by the view, a genuine laugh bursts out between the two breaking the tension. August reaches for Emily's hand to prove her disbelief.

 

            "Just climb Emily, it's nothing but a pile of air, step on it, it won’t go anywhere." The brave girl begins to climb holding on to the hand of her friend.

 

            Chuckling on her way up, she reaches the top and was just a few feet away from reaching their first cloud.

 

            Emily took one of August’s shovels’ and begins to shovel the air along-side him. They laugh and giggle and throw air at each other until it hit... the shovel hit the edge of the cloud and they slowly climb up the puffed cotton ball that hanged string-less in the air, they couldn’t believe what was going on. Emily begins to run around the cloud jolting and jumping from sheer excitement.

 

            "August, I can’t believe this! This is where I always want to be!" As the young adventurer looks back to his friend she sees him shovel one last time, this time breaking the layer between the sky and the galaxy...

 

            Reaching space, their home was now hundreds to thousands of miles away. The stars they once saw outside this barrier was nothing compared to the amount they witnessed. The light of the stars lite up the dark space which surrounded them. Floating was effortless as the atmosphere wrapped itself around their bodies pushing them off into a new adventure. Emily and August both agreed they may never come down to earth again, but their adventures would never stop.

 

Author's Note

This is my new collaboration piece with Emily Livengood, feed back would be highly helpful. Thank you

Reviews

[Dr. YumnaKay]

"All beautiful things come to an end".. so true, just like this fantasy tale... I loved the Sky scene the most because they finally get what they'd been looking for..
Nicely penned, you two :))

[Sir Drift & Mr. Pulse]

Ah thank you very much for enjoying

[Dr. YumnaKay]

You're welcome, Sire. It was a pleasure 😊

[Sir Drift & Mr. Pulse]

I actually read this story today to one of my students im tutoring and he loved it

[Dr. YumnaKay]

That is really nice. Who wouldn't? 😊

[Ana Papaya]

Nice job you guys!!!
Full of magic and imagination. :)
I love these stories.

[Sir Drift & Mr. Pulse]

Thank you Papaya dear

[Ana Papaya]

Anytime my friend. Always a pleasure.

[aLittlePain]

Magical! I read this with my son, and we both enjoyed it very much. I love longer pieces like this especially when reading with my son you can really get lost in the story telling. Emily is an incredible character, and August is adorable. There is a Peter Pan kind of magic here, that probably sounds odd, but it certainly felt that way to my wee one and I.
The scenes are whimsical and beautifully written...a real sing song quality and rhythm. The dream scene is particularly beautiful.

A magical read. Well done to you both. Regards Ray

[Sir Drift & Mr. Pulse]

That comment just filled my cheeks of little fire flies, thank you very much and I am more than glad to know that one of my stories was read with a child. Emily is such a good writer, and we both worked hard for this to work. I am in great gratitude. :)

[aLittlePain]

You're welcome, you both have magic in your pens.