The friendly wind

I began to walk home from school by myself around the later years of elementary school. My parents didn't want me to, but there weren't many options for them. It was not a long walk by any means, but long enough for an adventure.


All my friends either took the bus, were picked up by their parents, or lived in a different direction than I did. In order to entertain myself on the walk home, I made friends with the wind. There were three distinct characters, with the extremely clever names of Air, Airy, and Aero. I was conflicted about the spelling of the last but decided on it due to my affinity for the word aeroplane and the chocolate bar.

A cool breeze, a harsh gust, a light tickle of warm air; the different types of wind characterized their moods and were the way they communicated with me. They flitted around as I walked home, sometimes dropping by to say hello, at times intensely present, other times silently absent. As I grew older and entered high school, the influx of new humans in my social circle meant there was less time, and need, for such friends. It wasn't until my mom brought it up one day that I remembered my old friends, ones who still danced around me even as I had slowly began to forget about their existence.