Xonelel: Just a little short story I wrote for Mr. Stewart’s class. Bit of a Sci-Fi drabble, really. :P

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“Penelope, come on! We’re going to be late!” Julie yelled urgently at her friend. Her voice reverberated around the empty school bathroom, which was as large as the hallways in a royal palace. Quite unnatural for a plain public school, but the size was it’s only redeeming quality. It was comprised of ugly white tile that had been turned yellow with the ages, and a series of hardly sanitary sinks. The one at the very end, near the door, was especially dirt, because everyone was clumsily trying to leave the bathroom, so several different sorts of “accidents” occurred in it almost daily.

Penelope was feeling very sick, and her French braided brown hair bounced around near her shoulders as she go out of the end stall and found her way to the sink by the door. Julie gave her one last pleading look, then disappeared with a swoosh out the door as the shrill call of the school bell rang out across the grounds. Lunch was over, and she needed to head back to class. But Penelope was very nauseous, and she regretted eating that questionable leftover Chinese food last night.

Her legs were jell-o as she over the side of the sink and banged her head against the head of the faucet. Penelope heard a delicate “click” and she brought up her head. Her aqua eyes zoomed in on the dirty, slightly mossy tap, and she saw that her head had clipped an almost invisible button. Almost immediately, the walls began to shake. It was like a heard of elephants stampeding across the savannah, only accompanied with the bell, which called on and on. Time seemed to stop as Penelope lunged for the door, trying in vain to open the cool metal handle. It was locked. And then she looked back at the sink. Staring in awe, she saw that the very wall housing the sink was moving to one slide, grinding across the floor and causing all these tremors. It screeched to a halt and Penelope stepped through the opening and look at the room surrounding her in wonder.

It was ridiculously small, compared to the bathroom. Only about the size of the handicapped stall, it was covered from wall to wall with futuristic gadgets, diodes, blinking lights, levers, buttons, and screens showing massive amounts of complex information. All this was attached to the metal walls, and in the middle of this peculiar area was a metallic pedestal, which was strangely fashioned in a Grecian design. There, above it, was a steel bangle, with red blinking buttons all around it’s exterior.

Nausea forgotten, Penelope walked closer to the object, then stopped as a voice rang out.

“IDENTIFICATION. GENDER : FEMALE. NAME: PENELOPE DREWBURN. OCCUPATION: STUDENT. AMBITION: BECOME AN ASTRONAUT. DREAM: TO FLY WITHOUT WINGS.”

Penelope jumped backwards incredulously and a crimson color blossomed across her face. How did the voice know all this?

“W-who are you?” She ventured.

“I AM THE FLYING MACHINE. YOUR DREAM IS VERY VIVID. I HAVE SEEN INTO YOUR MIND, AND YOU ARE WORTHY OF USING MY FUTURISTIC POWERS. YOU WANT TO FLY VERY MUCH. REACH OUT AND PUT ME AORUNDYOUR WRIST.”

Penelope’s heart was thumping madly against her ribcage, her most impossible dream was about to be realized. She picked up the bangle daintily and slipped it around her wrist. As she did, the ceiling of the room opened up, something she had only seen in rocket launches.

Penelope closed her eyes and thought of flying, and she gave a mighty leap into the air. She un-squeezed one of her eyes, and realized with dismay that her feet were dangling above the ground. She lifted herself up a bit higher, and a wide grin spread across her face as she zoomed higher and higher, into the sky. The warm May wind was whipping around her, tossing her pigtail ties loose and freeing her hair, which billowed out behind her as she climbed ever higher. Finally, whooping and laughing with happiness, she tore through a cloud, then ventured to look down.

The entire city of Aeropolis glittered beneath her, the Opal river ran lazily between the two halves of the city, full of skyscrapers that seemed to be reaching out to the clouds, trying to catch one, like Penelope had done when she was a child. Her school, directly below, seemed so insubstantial as she looked past her city, at the rolling green hills and valleys to the south, and the snow capped mountain peaks and evergreen forests to the north. She could almost feel herself exploring them already, with her newfound power. Penelope’s heart was full with pure joy, it seemed as it all the pressures and worrys of her daily life had been stripped away, along with her hair ties.

“MISS PENELOPE. I AM SORRY TO INTERRUPT, BUT MY POWER IS LIMITED. THE PEOPLE OF THE FUTURE PLANTED ME IN THE PAST WITH HOPES THAT THE RIGHT CHILD WOULD COME ACROSS IT AND CREATE ME IN THE FUTURE. THEY NEEDED TO EXPERIENCE IT, FOR I AM QUITE A COMMON SIGHT 100 YEARS FROM NOW.”

Penelope snapped back to reality and dropped slightly in the air.

“Does that mean I’ll never fly again?”

“IT MEANS THAT YOU ARE THE ONE DESTINED TO FLY, TO GIVE EVERYONE THE GIFT OF FLIGHT. AND GIVE EVERYONE THIS FEELING THAT YOU HAVE ACQUIRED. WILL YOU PROMISE ME THAT?”

Penelope smiled, her eyes burning with determination. “Of course I will.” She could feel her control over her flight weakening as she descended down to the strange room where she had found the bangle. It was running out of energy. Who knew the next time she would be able to use it’s marvelous powers.

And when she touched down, her Flying Machine’s voice was fading away.

“THE FOUNDER… Of ThE ComPANy. HeR NamE WAs…

“PENeLope…”

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