Valley Of The Window

Daxter stood at the edge of the cliff thinking, one more time and this could be it. His thick goggles were designed to break the force of the wind. His suit was thin enough to provide comfort and well padded to protect him from the windchill. This was his sixth time on this same cliff. This same exact spot. Every year for the past six years, he managed to convince the entire village that his perfectly welded contraption would take him past the valleys and gates of the city, beyond the clouds and into the great remote yonder. Five attempts, five trials, five failures, five times and this would be his sixth. For two hundred years, nobody in all of Shamrock had ventured beyond the valley. The village, Shamrock was lonely and isolated hidden within the ridges, headlands and uplands that formed the Valley of the Window. The valley kept them safe. Safe within their own little world and jurisdiction. Safe from what was on the other side. 

Daxter was nine years old when he first thought about human flight. His father Alexus, a lecturer and inventor, thought the idea was silly. He shut the idea out of the boy’s mind. To Alexus, science was the only thing real. So Daxter dismissed his silly childish imaginations. After all “if humans were meant to fly they would have been born with wings'' according to Alexus. But As he grew older the need to see what was on the other side of Shamrock grew stronger. It would take another Ten years later before he constructed his first widget. It was a hilarious dumbfounding spectacle: chicken feathers glued together on both sides of a plastic blade from a fan. The other villagers laughed and jeered. “what on earth is that thingamajig?” But with his naivety and optimism, he endured. And of course, the wings were too weak to withstand the force of the wind so young Daxter came plummeting down to the earth and full speed, landing on his safety net supported by a trampoline. His first big failure. But he didn’t stop there. His next contraption was lighter and more ingenious: a light wooden slate carved into the shape of eagle wings. It was strapped to his back like a rucksack. He bragged to the other villagers that it was strong enough to withstand a storm. But the gentle breeze toppled his wings and down he came again spiraling into the world of mockers and doubters. “I told you so!” they said. “ shoulda listened to yer old man!”. The old man Alexus had no time to waste on nonsense. After the third attempt, he stopped coming to watch his boy Daxter try to take flight. The idea just didn't seem plausible to him. It sounded like a childish imagination or something from a children’s fantasy. 

Nevertheless, young Daxter came back for the fourth time, the fifth and the sixth. The sixth time on this same cliff drew the biggest crowd so far. Watching the young inventor fall pathetically became a source of entertainment for a handful of Shamrockians. So they all gathered, prepared to witness him plummet to the dust once again. Every year they all came with the expectation of watching young “humpty dumpty” show off his silliness. Only one person in the crowd had high hopes for him. Rexha. She and Daxter grew up together and she knew him too well. “ do you really think you can make a sail fly so high it’ll take you into wild blue yonder?” she asked. “Yes. I’m gonna cross that window over to the other side of the world” said Daxter.

Rexha was his best friend. As always, she came out to support him even though the thought of him falling was tough to bear. This time she felt a little more confident in him. His latest design was made from silicone. Thin and light like an umbrella but broad enough to amass enough air resistance. The thin fabric of his full-body suit was stylish and well woven with Rexha’s help. His wings were connected to his arms through a handle linked to a lever. And like every year, he took the exhausting walk up the hill to his favorite spot in the world. All he needed to do was jump. One more time and this could be it. So he took a few steps back and ran to the edge of the cliff spreading out his arms. For ten seconds he hovered in the air. The best ten seconds of his life. But it was interrupted by a fault in the system- the wings couldn’t compensate for the weight of his legs. And down he came again into the net bouncing on the trampoline. The crowd walked away. Everyone except Rexha. She brought him a piece of his wing which broke off in the process of falling. In an attempt to console him she placed a hand on his shoulder. But Daxter was speechless. He lost the spark in his eyes. What am I gonna tell father? He thought to himself. He couldn’t bring himself to explain to Alexus how he fell for the sixth time. With a deflated chest, he gathered his belongings and took the painful walk home. His stomach could barely contain the devastating feeling.  

For weeks he couldn’t eat. He sat at his desk in the garage with his head buried in his palms. Nothing seemed to lighten him up anymore. Not even Rexha’s perfect smile. The listlessness of staying indoors and evading sunlight imbued his skin with paleness. Alexus came to notice this odd behavior. It was peculiar not to hear a sounds of machinery blasting from the garage. Daxter was usually working on a new gadget or vehicle. So Alexus peered through the door and saw the dejected Daxter curled on the floor staring through the window into space. “It is June,” said Alexus. Daxter looked up with puffy eyes as if he’d been woken from a nap. “Yes, father,” he replied. “You’ve locked yourself in here for a month,” said Alexus. “I fell again, father” Daxter confessed remorsefully. “I heard” replied Alexus. Seeing Daxter with his head down shoulders low made Alexus pity him so he relaxed and sat next to his son. “You know before I became an inventor I tried make trains out of bicycle wheels,” he said. Daxter is shaken by the sound of this. “You never told me this” “I was embarrassed. I failed. I was no good” said Alexus. “So you see my son, hiding in here won’t get you to the other side of the valley. There’s a world out there with new things to try. Let the good win. Don’t let bitterness win.” and those words kept ringing in Daxter’s ears. “A world out there”, “the other side”. He affirmed in his mind there was a world outside the valley - the world he dreamed of reaching. So he dusted off the chalkboard. A new plan emerged. His former design allowed him to float for ten seconds in the air. This meant with slight tweaking it could fly for maybe five minutes then ten. Maybe his arms weren’t strong enough to drag the lever connected to the wings. The air resistance was too great for his arms to withstand and the wings were heavy. If he could make the wings a little bit lighter and find a more efficient way to drag the wings, he could be on the right track. Hence, he came up with the idea to transfer smaller pressure into greater pressure which will be applied to the wings using a valve connected to the handle. So he went to work immediately on the shaft bearings that made up the valve. To properly harness air resistance, the shape of the wings was altered to give it a slight curvature. Week after week, he worked on trying to find the perfect weight for the wings. Spending nights on calculations, drawings and revisions, eyes became red from lack of sleep. It got the point were he forgot to eat. The only contact he had with another living being was with his cat. Whilst the young villagers wiled away time in the outdoors, picnicking, backpacking soaking in the summer air, and he stayed indoors. Rexha tried to get him to leave the garage even for just a day but he refused. The thought of sailing in the skies was so attractive to him he would rather stay in and work day in and day out with his mind flying over the valley before the end of summer. Daxter was driven by the need to make his father proud.

Alexus didn’t admit it but he admired the boy for working so diligently and with great dexterity. He reminded him of himself in his younger years-erratic and gritty with his study. Needless to say, he was worried about his son’s social life. Whether or not he would finally get a girlfriend or make new friends. But seeing Daxter work with so much force, concentration and passion made Alexus smile in his heart. As the weeks went by he would peep to see how his son was coping. Reluctant to offer a helping hand for fear of distracting him, he watched from afar. 

The mid summer rains came and Daxter was only halfway done with his project. The sleepless nights had brought him to exhaustion. With drowsy eyes, his head fell to his desk. A nap that was interrupted by turbulence outside the window. The wind flung a tree branch into collision with his window. He got up to see what the fuss was about. People were in their clusters hiding behind large posts to protect themselves from the wind. He observed the force of the whirlwind as it swayed pedestrians off the street. A light bulb came on in his head. The windstorm was provided the perfect opportunity to test his project. 

Daxter packed his apparatus and ventured into the village. While others were running from the wind, he was running towards it. Back through the same journey up the cliff, he trekked. Against the sheer force of the wind, he pushed. With his handle and valve in place he braced himself and took a deep breath. With his eyes closed Daxter let himself free fall through the atmosphere. He let himself go. This free fall was different. The blasting air supported his wings. This glide lasted longer than expected so he opened his eyes to the world beneath him. He was indeed sailing through the atmosphere but he had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. His wings worked! The young man wasn’t just flying. He was soaring: gliding effortlessly between the cirrostratus clouds with his feet in the air. Enraptured by the feeling of being aloft, his bosom could not contain the joy. 

Alexus was in the middle of a lecture when something flew past the window. A villager burst into his lecture hall yelling “Yer boy is up in the air, Alexus! Daxter, he’s sky-high ”. The entire classroom rushed to the window to behold the wondrous phenomenon. A tear rolled down Alexus’ cheek as he watched his son smooth along the wind making his way through the territory he longed to be for years. Daxter was completely free.