Dreamland

Flying Our Saucers to Big Bear

I’m with my wife and son, we’re each flying a saucer. They are about the size of those metal saucers that kids use to go sliding down snow covered hills in the winter. They are not quite the same, though, they are concave on the top and the bottom, sort of lens shaped. The inside holds some type of magnetic levitation device that powers the saucer. They have no seats or belts, you just sit on top and hold onto the edges, if you’re not careful you can easily fall off. You control them by leaning in the direction you want to go, leaning forward causes you to dive towards the ground, backwards makes you climb.

We are maybe 1600 feet above the ground, flying over the LA basin, headed towards the mountains below Big Bear. As we get to the foothills, Nick starts fooling around, diving his saucer towards the hilltops and skimming the trees. I pull up next to him, tell him to cut it out before he gets hurt. He ignores me, dives towards a hilltop. He skims into some bushes and loses control, falls off the saucer and lands on the hillside. I land next to him, worried that he might be hurt.

Nick is fine, just a few scratches. I scold him, tell him he’s lucky he didn’t fall of when he was higher up, he could have been killed. He says he’s sorry, but I can tell he’s really not concerned. We take off, hurrying to catch up with Viv, who has gotten ahead of us. I’m worried about Nick, he’s not taking his flying seriously. I’m afraid he might fall off his saucer again, maybe next time he won’t be so lucky.