Claire Burke - Jump

Jumper?

I scribbled down

jumping

hmmm…

jump-start…

is that two words, or one? Uh, I’ll do it later I reckoned with myself as I folded up the puzzle section of the newspaper and placed it to the side. I stood up and looked down on the floor at my pile of books and decided to pick up a few to place back on the shelf in an effort to tidy my mind a little.

Ah, I sighed, and began rugging myself up in preparation for stepping outdoors into the crisp autumn air. The atmosphere was still and filled with seasonal colours. I dragged a few dried leaves together with my boot and jumped lightly on the pile, producing a satisfying ‘crunch’. Stepping into a relaxed stroll and furthered up the path, only slowing down to take care of the crunchiest leaves along the way.

A metallic, hovering sound broke the atmosphere and I tried hard to ignore the disruption to the peace, writing it off as one of the neighbours’ new electric vehicles.

But then I was stunned on the spot to see what looked like a large silver craft floating above the trees.

The neighbour’s cows that were contentedly grazing in their fields started jumping sporadically and then I realised that they were beginning to ascend high up into the sky one by one.

From that day on I never looked at a single book again, for real life was so much more interesting.