"Every now and again take a good look at something not made with hands -a mountain, a star, the turn of a stream. There will come to you wisdom and patience and solace and, above all, the assurance that you are not alone in the world." -Sidney Lovett
Dana casually stretched out on her back on the grass and stared serenely up at the late afternoon sky. Beside her lay her best friend, Eric, who was tossing a baseball several feet in the air and then catching it in the mitt he held close to his face. She lay there quietly for a while and tried very hard not to look bored watching him. She'd invited him over to take his mind off sports, but Eric's attention was focused completely on his ball and glove, neither of which held any interest for her.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she finally asked hesitantly.
"No," he replied sharply.
Dana sighed impatiently and snatched Eric's baseball as it descended toward his glove for what seemed like the hundredth time.
"Hey, give it back, Dana!" he cried, sitting up quickly. "I have to practice."
"Why?" Dana shot back, rolling up on one elbow. "You have a whole year to practice now that the season has started."
Eric flushed angrily and lay back down on the grass.
"Sorry," Dana amended softly, placing the dirt-encrusted ball back in his old glove. She hadn't meant to remind him about the tryouts. "Look, Eric, it's really no big deal. A lot of guys didn't make the team this year, and I hear it's a pretty competitive league."
"It doesn't matter," Eric insisted, throwing the ball higher and harder. "If I hadn't struck out I could have made it. I should have been able to score a hit easily against that pitcher."
Dana opened her mouth to reply, then changed her mind and lapsed into uneasy silence. She would never admit it to her friend, but she had seen Eric play many times and knew that he would never make the high school baseball team, no matter how much he loved or practiced the game.
"There's more to life than baseball," she said finally. "You have so many other talents that are more important anyway."
Eric sighed and paused to wipe sweat from his forehead and brush his blond bangs away from his eyes. "It's the only thing I'm interested in," he insisted. "Nothing else matters."
Dana rolled her eyes in annoyance and gazed up at the sky.
"Look up, Eric," she said suddenly. "What do you think that cloud is?"
Eric looked up at the sky curiously for a moment until he realized what she was talking about. Finding shapes in the clouds was an old game the two of them had played when they were younger.
"Don't you think we're a little old for this, Dana?" he asked wearily.
"I'm just trying to cheer you up," she replied sullenly.
Eric turned his head to look at his friend and smiled sheepishly.
"Thanks," he said quietly. "It looks like a cat, I think."
Dana smiled and nodded as she watched the fluffy white cat drift lazily across the sky, its cirrus tail curling and stretching out behind.
"Your turn," she coaxed.
Eric looked up at the clouds, but to him they were simply shapeless balls of fluff or tufts of cotton. He'd never remembered being very good at this game.
"I guess I see some birds," he said finally, shrugging his shoulders and flexing his fingers inside his glove to prepare for another toss.
Dana concentrated hard on the cloud bank Eric had been looking at and shook her head slowly, deciding it was time to really get her friend's attention.
"Not quite," she said under her breath. As she concentrated, the clouds twisted and stretched like clay beneath imaginary fingertips, reforming into a flock of large, elegant birds in flight, whose wings briefly eclipsed the bright, late afternoon sun.
Eric's baseball landed in his mitt with a dull thud and stayed there, forgotten, as he stared up at the shapes.
"That's amazing," he said, "They look just like..." his voice trailed off as he began throwing the ball and watching the clouds at the same time.
"Cloudbirds," Dana finished for him, giggling as she watched the wind play havoc with the birds' wings and misty, vaporous feathers.
Eric, absorbed with watching the spectacle, threw the ball wide and out of reach of his glove.
"Watch it, Dana!" he cried out in warning as he reached out to try and catch the ball as it came down dangerously near her.
"Relax," Dana said calmly, and the ball stopped moving in midair to hover just inches in front of her nose. The clouds overhead gave in to the pull of the late summer wind and broke up into shapeless fluff once more. "Now look what you've done." Dana sat up, shaking the grass out of her brown hair. With a flick of her wrist, she sent the baseball drifting over to the ground in Eric's lap.
"Dana, did you really do that?" Eric asked breathlessly, afraid to believe his own eyes.
Dana nodded and playfully twisted a blade of grass around her finger.
"I don't spend all my time playing baseball," she said with satisfaction.
"Well, do you think I could do it too?" he asked curiously.
A slow grin spread across Dana's face as she stood up and stretched.
"Maybe you could," she replied carefully, "You never know what talents you have without exploring and trying new things. But you might have to take time out from your practicing." She turned away and began walking toward the backyard of her house.
"That's all right," Eric called hastily after her, tossing his glove aside and scrambling to follow. "Really, I don't mind."
Forgotten, the baseball rolled out of the old mitt onto the grass, and the clouds continued their lazy course across the sky.
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