It was twilight and Jimmy was running through the wet grass, toward a small hill that he remembered well. He knew that at the top of the hill, there was a special spot where the grass wasn't quite the same shade of green as the rest. He ran faster as the hill came into view. The hill... The MAGIC hill was just ahead! Jimmy ran faster still, because he knew that he had to reach the special spot before the sun had set completely, or the magic would be gone for another day.
As he came to the foot of the hill, he reflected that only he knew about the special spot and the magic it contained. It was for this reason that he held in his growing excitement and made no sounds that might give away the secret. Almost silently he ran up the darkened, grassy slope. When he couldn't see the sun for a few moments, he thought he was too late and the magic was gone.
As he reached the top, he saw that the sun had not set, but that it was just another hill blocking out the sun. Jimmy looked hard at the grass beneath his feet for the different shade of green that would show where the special spot was. He searched the grass on his hands and knees, nervously trying to find the spot before the sun's light faded completely to the darkness of night. As the remaining light faded away, it became harder to tell the grass apart and soon it would be imposs...
He found it!!!
There was just enough time to stand up in the middle of the spot, in order for the magic to start. As he stood there, the magic was beginning. He looked all around. It was night now and the city was far away.
The air was warm and crisp and exciting. There was perfect silence, except for the sound of the blood rushing about in his head. He gradually became aware of another feeling... almost a sound. He was looking up at the stars when he heard the call.
The call was almost like a woman's voice, but not really. The sound was almost like a flute, but it wasn't really. It was almost like the sound of a ringing, crystal bell, but the were no spaces of silence between rings. It was music without rhythm, instrument or measure. It was singing, without words, voice or rhyme. There were no words but it was certainly calling him... not by his name, but by who he REALLY was on the inside. It was calling to him and he knew that he must follow it to a distant star.
As Jimmy looked up at the stars, he saw more stars than he had ever seen... ever seen in pictures... ever imagined! There were so many stars, that he could see round about himself by their light. They seemed so close, it was as if he could reach up and touch them! He looked straight up, looking for the exact star that the call was drawing him to. The call grew stronger and seemed to fill the entire night sky. Jimmy thought that others might hear the call, but then he knew they wouldn't, because the call was for him only.
Jimmy stretched out his arms, up to touch the stars, stood on his tiptoes, up on one tiptoe, stretching harder, harder, higher... "Just a little bit more..." he thought. "Maybe, if I jump..." No sooner had he thought it, than he began to feel his weight slowly slip away. He was up on his toes, then the grass was the last thing his toes touched as he lifted off, diving upward into the starry night sky.
He looked down to see the hill fall away, far below his bare feet. He looked down, and saw the lights of the city spreading out around the hill, then getting smaller and falling away, far, far below. He saw the lights of neighboring cities, like webs covered with dew, spread out on a piece of black construction paper. The webs were connected with long necklaces made of diamonds and rubies, he thought, as he looked at the highways between the cities. These too, fell away from his sight as he flew higher into the night sky. He kept going up as he saw the sun coming up over the ocean, though dark, dark night still covered the city he left behind.
He kept going up as the sky grew darker. As it grew darker, the stars grew brighter and clearer. As the stars grew brighter and clearer, He flew faster and higher! The sky was blacker than Jimmy had ever seen. He took one last look down to see the world like a big, blue and white ball, clinging to a black velvet curtain. As the Earth grew further away, it seemed smaller and smaller... until it disappeared completely!
Jimmy looked around and saw the other planets... Mercury and Venus on the right. Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and Pluto were to the left. He not only saw the planets, but all of their moons too! They hurtled toward him as he veered to the left and started going faster. He saw Mars and its moons spinning toward him so fast that he thought he would certainly crash into one of them! Planet after planet, moon after moon flew past him at unimaginable speeds. He was safe, though. They came very close sometimes, but always just missed. Jimmy kept going faster as he saw whole galaxies spinning ever so slowly around him.
The stars were no longer just tiny white pinpoints high above him, but different-colored lights all around him. No two stars looked quite alike now, and there were BILLIONS of them! There were stars of every color he could imagine... and even some he couldn't! He heard the call again and began to go faster and faster still.
The sky was so filled with lights now, that it hardly seemed black to him any more. The star-light colors were so distinct now, that no two stars looked ANYTHING alike. The call drew him on. He flew faster through space. Faster, faster, and faster still until the lights began to stretch out, becoming bright lines instead of dots of light. The lines grew longer as he came near them. In fact, they seemed to stretch out to fly past him, as he flew faster still. He looked behind him and saw that the lines did not fly past him, but actually ended at the edge between forward and backward. There was nothing but his feet and empty blackness behind him... No stars... not even plain, white, tiny ones. "Hey! Where'd all the stars go?" he thought for a while. As he thought it, he slowed down a little bit... and the stars came back! They were points of colored light again.
He stopped to look around and then he heard the call, like a voice without words, compelling him again to fly faster. As he flew on through space, he could hear the call growing clearer, stronger, drawing him on... The call was so beautiful that he couldn't resist it. He HAD to find out what, or who it was coming from. All he knew about the call was the direction that it came from and that it seemed to be far away and yet just in front of him at the same time. He wanted-- no NEEDED to get closer to it... closer to wherever it was leading him. He went faster again. Faster and faster as the stars once more stretched out to become colorful lines! The lines then started to grow in number until they joined to become a brightly colored, shimmering tunnel of light! Just as the lines had disappeared behind him before, so did this tunnel. It was like a billion rainbows were woven together in a way he had never imagined possible!
The call began to tell him more than he had heard before. He now knew where he was going. His attention was now fixed on a specific star... A lone blue point in a sea of lines. He looked straight at it and flew even faster toward it.
He flew even faster as the colors began to blend, making the tunnel a brilliant white! The tunnel was so bright, Jimmy had to blink his eyes until they adjusted to the brightness. Jimmy stopped looking around and only looked ahead, where lay the star. Only the star shone now, in the brilliant whiteness of space. He wanted to slow down, so he could see the colored lines again, but the call beckoned him even more strongly than the colors.
He could see the star growing nearer... but so slowly, that it seemed like it would take forever before he reached it, so he went faster until even the whiteness began to run and fade away to utter blackness. The blackness was so complete, that he couldn't even see his hands in front of his face! He only saw the star... and NOTHING else. The darkness went on for what seemed hours, when he began to slow down again... He could see something... It was blue... He heard something... It was the call!
The call was DEFINITELY coming from that star! He KNEW it! He looked around him and saw a bright flash of white, the trillions of star-color lines shrinking back to points of color. He could now just barely make out the many planets circling it... Now he knew not only the star, but the exact planet he was going to. Now he could slow down and look around again. He looked ahead and saw the planet, shining blue, in the black of night. The call was coming from the blue planet, and not the blue sun... and he was almost there...
As he came nearer, he could see vast, blue seas, with huge, white icebergs below him, rising quickly to meet him. For the first time since he left the Earth, he felt himself falling. Finding himself in a perfect diving position, he passed through what turned out to be clouds and not water like he expected. Instead of a wet splash, he began to fall faster! He slowed down, until he was floating, instead of falling. As he passed through the clouds, he saw a dim, blue, twilight world coming up to greet him...
