Weather balloon - a story
Once upon a time, a very long time ago, a young woman named Sparky cultivated mushrooms for fun and profit. Sparky had a tendency to eat up her profits. Sparky also enjoyed nature, the outdoors, hiking, and backpacking.
One day, Sparky took a bag of dried mushrooms, a couple of oranges and a water bottle, and set out for the great outdoors. She drove away from the congestion of the city, to a state park far away on the Perdenales River. Sparky parked her car, ate some mushrooms, and started hiking back into the woods. She stopped along the way to play in streams and enjoy the sights, and she ate a few more mushrooms and an orange.
Sparky was feeling pretty good, the fresh air, the silence of the woods, the various streams and waterfalls. Sparky took off her clothes and laid down in each body of water she crossed, baptizing herself in the name of the Bandia.
Eventually, Sparky reached her destination, a lively little creek with hollowed out holes and tubs of various sizes in the limestone of the creekbed. The water was cold and invigorating, and there were lots of trees nearby offering respite from the sun. A short distance from the creekbed there was an inverted c-shaped limestone wall with a soft sandy floor and more trees near by.
While Sparky was lying in the water, she saw up in the sky a small silvery disk that hovered over her. The silvery disk seemed far away, yet strangely close. It seemed to change relative position in the sky by only a couple of degrees of arc. Sparky thought she was seeing things and tried to dismiss the sight.
The wind started playing with Sparky and she climbed a tree to be closer to the wind. While she sat in the tree, she noticed that the silvery disk still seemed to hover overhead, but the wind was now enticing Sparky, inviting her to participate in . . . sex. The wind caressed and teased Sparky. The wind and Sparky spent several hours that afternoon making love with one another and all the while, they had a silent voyeur - the silvery disk. Sparky thought THEY were ready to come and get her but it didn't matter. She had a new lover.
Evening came. The sky darkened and Venus appeared. The silvery disk stayed overhead. Sparky put her clothes back on and started walking out to her car, convinced that THEY were going to take her any moment. When Sparky reached the car, it was full dark. She ate her other orange and drank some water. She could still see the faint outline of the silvery disk.
On the drive back to the city, Sparky turned on the radio. Her disappointment was two-fold. THEY didn't take her away, and she never saw her new lover again.