Hello Kitty

Pink and blue, her favorite colors. That she was herself pink she knew. She wore pink. She was a girl. Girls are pink and pretty. The blue sky was bigger, but the pink balloon stronger. It was so strong that she could not take her eyes from its pink, even though she had to squint to see it. The blue faded into the background until she hardly noticed it, but the pink was strong in her eyes, and shiny.

The pink face was Hello Kitty’s. She was swollen and smooth, but there was no mistaking Hello Kitty, her favorite. It was, of all the nice gifts, her favorite, and it hadn’t really even been a gift at all, but only “an accessory,” Mommy said. “All of these expensive toys and things and she plays with the balloon?” All of the old people laughed when Mommy said it, but even so, it was her favorite.

It was Granny’s house. The party was small. There were no children in Granny’s town, only old people, but there were lots of nice presents, and a pink cake with four candles. Mommy had unwrapped all the nice presents while she played with “the accessory”, jerking its ribbon as she ran through the house with it following her.

When she ran into the courtyard with “the accessory” she had seen how it reached for the blue, straining against its ribbon. She wondered why it wanted the blue so badly, instead of wanting to be here with her. She needed a friend here, and Hello Kitty was her favorite. But Hello Kitty looked at her with excitedly wild eyes, with eyes longing for the blue.

She wondered, “What would happen if she let the ribbon go? Just for a second? Just long enough to see if Hello Kitty would really leave her.” She could let go very, very quickly, she thought. So quickly that she could grab the ribbon back if Kitty tried to get away. She opened her hand. The string shot upward with amazing and unexpected speed. She jumped for it, but it was already too high. Hello Kitty’s eyes bobbed toward her as they rose, then toward the blue, then back toward her again as they raced upward on their mylar rocket.

Her stomach tickled nervously as the balloon rose. It rose very fast, unbelievably fast. She had let her only friend go, and her favorite gift. She knew she could not have it back, but she waited and watched, hoping against hope. She could cry, but crying would not help. The deed was done. She wondered if she would be in trouble? Would Mommy be mad? Or worse, Granny? She loved Granny, and would never make her mad, but this might be the thing that did. She felt herself as blue as the sky, and no longer pink.

It was a hot day, with the breeze napping peacefully in the afternoon sun. The balloon flew nearly straight up, with the slightest of eastward bends, climbing through the air exactly as an air bubble would climb from the ocean’s depths, bouyant through the heavier liquid-gas environment. Could Hello Kitty’s eyes have seen, they would have watched the girl in the courtyard reaching for her, leaping too slowly, and with pitifully little spring in those tiny legs. Kitty would also have seen the girl wave. To Kitty it would have seemed as though it was the girl racing away, and the courtyard, and the house, and the town. Kitty would have felt her own stomach tickle nervously, as her gaseous guts began moving faster and faster inside her shell, and expanding outward against her mylar skin as the atmospheric pressure decreased. She would feel her upward speed slowly decrease the higher she climbed, even as the atoms inside her sped faster and faster, ever expanding as she rose.

And could Hello Kitty’s ears have listened, they would have heard nothing. She offered no resistance to the gaseous air, being little more than gas herself, so there was naught to even whistle in those gentlest of breezes that she rode upon. Silently she climbed, still wanting the blue, and boldly chasing after that which she wanted.

Up and up Kitty went until, at five thousand feet, the pressure of the gas inside her became greater than the pressure surrounding her. Her thin metal skin, swollen now to its limit, could contain it no more, finally letting go a “pop”.

But did it really? Did Kitty really “pop” all alone in the great blue sky she so desperately wanted? The girl’s ears could not hear it, nor could Kitty’s. If there is none to hear it, can it be?

Kitty’s ears couldn’t hear it, so was there a sound?

Can a balloon go “POP” with no ears around?

Too high to be heard by the girl on the ground,

As she watched Hello Kitty come dying down.