The Little Blue Balloon

• Danielle Roberts, Grade 10, Lithgow High School
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'The Write Track 2015' competition

It had started on the sixth anniversary of a child's birth. The wind had been too strong, the little boy's clammy fingers too weak. Had the mother given her attention to the weather, she wouldn't have hired the balloon man to make an appearance. But alas she had and so the little blue balloon had left behind a little crying boy.
It was from there that the blue balloon had started its journey. Had it a voice, the balloon would've oohed and ahhed at the magnificent view its elevation had granted. But it had none so it simply swayed along the wind's course, its string a mischievous tail.
Many a time the tail caught on fences, branches, and other obstacles before being saved by a passing breeze and swept off to continue its journey. The most recent gust, however, had carried the little balloon far beyond civilisation's boundaries and higher than the balloon had ever been in its personified life.
Above the cloud line, rays of Sun danced on the blue balloon's shiny surface in a waltz of gleaming heat. Unfortunately, among the glee the high altitude had put an uncomfortable amount of pressure on the little blue balloon. The balloon's skin soon became too tight to hold its existence any longer, and so, with one last flick of its tail, the little balloon burst in a figure of farewell before its remains fell back through the clouds and to the ground in silence.