Two tales of a city

ONE:

There’s a city where all the roads and rivers are streams. Streams of the clearest blue you’ll ever see. Everyone either travels by sail boat or hot air balloon. They sky is just full of big rainbow colored balloons and the waters are Full of big white sails. Do you want to runaway to this city with me? It’s beautiful. I think you’d love it there. There is one drawback I must tell you if I am being honest. Rush hour is a mess, boat to boat for miles, everyone creeping along. So what do you say? Will you go? We’ll see the rest of the sunsets of our lives from the sky. Closer to the pinks and oranges than you’ve ever been. Do you want to kiss the moon goodnight from a little wicker basket with me. Please say you will. I don’t know how much loner I can survive here.

TWO: There was a city where all the roads were rivers and streams. All the people that lived there either traveled by sailboat or hot air balloon. It was a lovely place to live. People kissed the moon goodnight from little wicker baskets in the clouds. It was a lovely place to live, or at least it was until the people got the itch. The itch was something that started in peoples ears and slowly crept down. It was an itch that couldn’t be scratched. It made people hate the sky and the water. It made them crave green grass, but there was no grass in the city, just water and sky. People sat in there floating homes and floating offices and the itch began to spread. Sometimes it hit them at the floating supermarket while they were reaching for a can of peas, or it them at the floating gym when they were reaching for a free weight. It started in their ears and made its way to their toes. It was deadly once it got to their toes. Once it got to the toes the urge to feel blades of grass under ones feet became insatiable. They wanted to know how dirt felt. They wanted to know what walking on land was like. They wanted shoes with no souls. They wanted mud and pebbles. Once the itch reached your toes it was only a matter of time. Two weeks after the itch blew into town every member of the city had plunged from their hot air balloons into the water below. Down down they sank until they were able to dig their heals in the silty sand below. The surface of the ground under the water was not enough to scratch the itch so deeper and deeper they dug their heels. Soon every member of the city was up to their knees, but the itch persisted so deeper and deeper they dug until nothing but their heads remained above the sand. Little heads poking up here and there, a human flower garden under the sea. They city is a tourist attraction now, like Pompeii or a ghost town. People fly over the city in rented balloon and tour guides point out where the mayor’s head is and the chief of police. People strap on snorkels and masks and dive down to see the people garden. It’s quite popular.