Afloat

My breath steaming through the frosty air, I sliced through effortlessly parting crowds. Wary of slipping, I walked gently. My step grew as light as light itself, and so I noticed, to my surprise, that my feet no longer touched the ground. Relieved of a weight so familiar that its origin was forgotten, my shoulders had risen three full inches, causing my back to straighten until my toes had left the tarmac.

I could have mused the unlikelihood of my still bring able to choose my direction of travel, but such enquiries seemed oddly beneath me, both metaphorically and literally. None seemed to notice the separation of soles and sidewalk, so I was spared the embarrassment of appeasing the quizzical looks of strangers. All seemed well, better than it had ever been, and I was content for this feeling to persist uninterrupted for as long as it naturally occurred. Though loftier, my head was not noticeably above any other’s, and so I strode on through the crowds, delighting in the easy progression of my journey, leaving no footprints in the slush.

It was at a junction, delayed by the ruby glare of a standing man, patiently awaiting the return of his emerald partner, that I started to doubt my destination. Why walk on? Where might today’s gift lead me, if I acted upon it? A church stood on the corner, owning its space for a hundred years longer than me. Was I now expected to enter, and give thanks for providence? I decided not. My body had been released. To prostrate it would be absurd.

Meanwhile, the pedestrian passage had turned green. Bodies flooded around me, eager to complete their crossing in the time allowed. I could yield by simply disappearing but that would cause alarm, so I blended with the people instead, hiding at the edge of each half glance askew, until none knew where I began or ended. And dislocated from my cares I had no call to return to the world of form, so I drifted shapelessly into the steam rising from the city’s heart upon that Winter eve.

That was sufficient; a divorce without joy, a homecoming without tears. Being perfection, I exhaled, and was gone.