Test Flights

By Michael Slagle

Icarus buzzed my frigging lawn again, his shadow momentarily eclipsing the mid-day sky. It’s my fault for introducing him to ornithology. I’d hoped for a bird-watching partner but never imagined an obsession with avian aerodynamics.

He convinced his dad to design a pair of wings. (The old man’s always coming up with crazy inventions.) I thought they were using all the wax and feathers to build a glider. Then, last month they began test flights, higher and higher, some flights so high the wax started dripping.

I swear, one of these times he’s going to fly too close to the sun.