When I Was Five I Could Fly

When I was five years old, I could fly!

I learnt this when I leapt off the roof of the indlu (house) that stood in our back garden, and landed some distance from where I had been standing when I jumped. This meant that I could fly.

Well, not fly exactly, more like glide.

Like the large, brown ‘chicken hawks’ that drifted effortlessly over our garden looking for opportunities to grab one of the fluffy yellow downy balls that followed our mother hen, as she foraged for food inside the chicken coop in the garden.

I tried again, and glided even further than before. I learnt that the harder I pushed off with my legs, the further I could glide. I also learnt that waving my arms up and down as I jumped off the roof, didn’t really help me to fly further, so I stuck to gliding.

I don’t know how many times I climbed onto the roof and leapt off, to glide to the ground, but I perfected my glides and my landings in a very short space of time.

I wasn’t sure how my parents would take the news about my gliding, so I didn’t tell them.