“So how do I get these things to work again?” Anna looked down at her antigravity boots. “What button do I push?”
Mara walked over and poked the tip of her index finger against Anna’s forehead.
“This one,” Mara laughed.
“Huh?”
“There is no button. You control your boots remotely using your iCom and this.” Mara poked Anna on the forehead again. “Your mind. Trust me. It’s a lot easier than you think.”
“My mind. How?”
“Relax. Take in a deep breath like I taught you.” Mara breathed in deeply herself and exhaled slowly. “Now see the fuzzy faint light in the center of your glasses?”
Anna made out the small, diffused dot of light that seemed to float in front of her. “Yeah, I see it.”
“Focus on it.”
“Okay—focusing,” Anna said. The minute she focused on it, the light became more distinct and locked into place. When she took her focus from it, the light became fuzzy again.
“Now picture lifting that light with your mind, just like the game we played.”
Anna focused in on the light again and pictured it rising from the ground by several degrees. The light instantaneously followed her commands.
“And that’s it,” Mara said. “You’re flying.”
“What?” Anna looked down at Mara and realized she was floating several feet in the air. “Aaagh!”
Anna lost her focus on the light and plummeted three feet to the ground, like someone had pulled a trap door from underneath her. She lay in the grass for a moment and looked up at the sky, which was now darkening with large thunderclouds. The wind had picked up and blew Mara’s hair across her face as she looked down.
“I thought you said this thing had a safety,” Anna said.
“My mistake. I forgot to set it.” Mara reached out and helped Anna stand back up. “Not bad for your first time. Let’s try it again.”
Anna shook her arms out and took in a deep breath to relax. She focused on the light in front of her again, and this time the light snapped into focus immediately. She envisioned it rising a couple of degrees, but now she was ready for the sense of weightlessness and held steady as her feet lifted off the ground. Her heart raced and the world grew silent around her as if all her attention had collapsed in on this one moment. Timeless. She could feel the breeze against her skin, the blood rushing through her body. She’d never felt more alive. She was flying.
She stopped her ascent at twenty feet and took in this new view of the world. Mara was running just beneath her, trying to keep up and laughing the entire way. Anna could now clearly see the other side of the lake and the thunderclouds rising across the horizon. She found that she could turn easily if she shifted her weight. Wherever she directed her center of gravity, her boots would follow. In seconds, she was spinning gracefully like an ice skater until her eyes filled with tears from laughing.
“Yes, I think you have the hang of it!” Mara shouted from below.
“Come join me!” Anna shouted back.
Mara looked up and nodded. She took one step forward and then glided up silently to meet her. Anna reached out and grabbed Mara’s hands and the two began to spin slowly in the air. Anna let go and the two spun away from each other, tumbling and rolling in midair.
“This is magic.” Anna smiled so hard it almost hurt.
“No, just science,” Mara said.
“What if someone sees us?” Anna asked as she looked out across the lake.
“Don’t worry. I’ve extended the cloaking device to cover the surface of the lake,” Mara reassured her. “Okay, so it’s obvious you’re a natural at this. Let’s see what you can really do.”
Mara glided to Anna’s side and lightly tapped her on the shoulder. “Tag! You’re it.”
Anna floated back, surprised. “What?”
“You’re it! Now see if you can catch me,” Mara laughed as she bolted out toward the lake, leaving behind a thin trail of blue light.
Anna took off in pursuit. Or at least she tried. She had quickly mastered navigating up and down and side to side, but she wasn’t so sure how to do the pursuit part at all. She focused on the light in front of her, but the fastest she could go was a leisurely pace. Mara stopped about fifty feet away and floated in midair.
“Listen. I’m going to take a nap. Let me know when you’re getting closer,” Mara shouted over the wind that had turned to gusts.
Anna tried leaning forward and felt herself gain momentum. The more she leaned, the faster she moved. It was a sensation she’d felt once before, two summers back, when her parents had taken her to Hawaii and she’d spent the entire month of June learning to surf. She remembered that feeling between falling and speeding forward as her surfboard rode the crest of the wave. It was a balancing act. A controlled fall that lasted as long as the wave carried her forward. She remembered it felt like flying at the time. Now that she was flying, she realized how right she was.
“Ha! That’s more like it,” Mara shouted back encouragement and took off across the lake.
Anna leaned forward like a ski jumper catching air, instinctively finding the right body position for speed. Within seconds she was gaining momentum and making up ground. Twenty meters from Mara. Fifteen meters. The blue target in her glasses calculated the distance as she flew.
Mara looked back, her eyes open wide in surprise. She leaned back and slowed her pace just a bit as Anna barreled forward.
Twelve meters. Ten. Anna wasn’t sure how fast she was going now. The world was a blur, but she knew she’d catch Mara before she reached the end of the lake. Anna reached her hands out. She was only a couple of arm’s lengths away when Mara stopped suddenly in front of her—so suddenly that Anna had no time to react. She continued to barrel forward with just enough time to see Mara give a small wave and a smile as she flew on by.
Anna had no idea how to stop.
“Aaaaagh!”
Anna instinctively threw her hands out in front of her but it did nothing to slow her trajectory. The trees at the far edge of the lake were rapidly approaching. She had just enough time to elevate the fifteen feet required to clear the tops of the trees. As she passed the first line of branches, Anna locked eyes with an eastern bluebird that blinked once at the strange object flying by.
Partly out of instinct and partly because she remembered seeing the same thing in a cartoon years ago and it seemed to work then, Anna leaned back, put her feet forward and dug in her heels. She decelerated so fast she almost cartwheeled midair. Anna adjusted her center of gravity and managed to stay upright until she came to a complete stop. She floated midair for a second to catch her breath then looked back across the lake. Mara was several hundred feet away and doubled over in laughter.
“Looks like you figured out how to stop.” Mara’s voice faded in and out in the swirling wind. “Sort of.”
Those who knew Anna well would have instantly recognized the look on her face. Her eyes narrowed. She clenched her teeth until muscles popped in her jaw. It wasn’t anger but a sense of inevitability. Anna would simply never give up.
She focused her iCom’s blue target on Mara again then took off like a shot. Eighty-one meters. Seventy-five. Instead of going straight, Anna swooped down just feet above the lake. The wind was swirling in the air above, but down at the water’s surface it helped to oush her forward. She reached down and dipped her fingertips into the lake, leaving a spray of water in her wake. Twenty-five meters.
Mara barely had time to respond. She laughed out loud in surprise and veered back toward her house. Anna could see where she was heading and changed direction to cut Mara off. Ten meters.
Anna was almost directly beneath Mara now, close to invisible at this angle. She aimed for a point just ahead of Mara and jetted upward toward her friend. Five meters. Three. Anna stretched her arms out. Mara must have sensed the movement, because she looked down a split second before impact, her expression a combination of surprise and joy. The next second the two were tumbling in the air, Anna’s surprisingly strong arms wrapped around Mara’s legs.
“Ha! Got you. Now you’re it,” Anna laughed. She let go of Mara’s legs and floated to a stop. “Not bad for a first try, huh?”
Mara smiled. “Not bad at all. But let’s see how you do tonight when you’re out on your own.”