And then, as if by some miracle, a breeze rustled the leaves of nearby branches. Hannah felt it touch her face. A hush fell over the field, and everyone rose to their feet in anticipation. The row of boys and girls tensed and moved in unison, handing off their kites to a friend.

Tyler’s friend accepted his kite. The line stretched tight between them as he paced a hundred feet. At a signal from Tyler, Tommy raised the kite with both hands. In an instant, the wind caught the kite and it lifted. Tommy stepped aside, and Tyler reeled in the line to facilitate the kite’s climb, ten feet, twenty, higher, then higher, joining the rising kites, their long tails streaming against the deep blue sky.

Hannah found it hard to keep her head bent back, and yet how else but lying flat upon the ground could she see the kites swirl and dip as they climbed up and up? Her heart leaped in her chest when she saw that Tyler’s kite was flying too close to the kite of a girl near him, and she watched him take in line and turn his kite away in another direction. Then two kites tangled and their owners walked toward each other. Hannah shaded her eyes and watched as the tangle moved down the line and became undone. A boy lost control of his kite, which dipped, rolled, and dived to earth, eliminating him from the competition. Hannah’s heart went out to him.

The wind held steady. Some kites soared higher than others, some dove in a different direction from the others. Kites performed in ways she had never seen. She watched Tyler’s kite give a quick spin, a hard flip, and drop fast and sudden before leveling. Later, Tyler explained that it was a free-style competition with few rules and regulations, and the moves she had watched him do included barrel rolls and backflips.

Overall it was lovely to watch, a balancing act between boy, kite, and wind, a dance with gravity. But Hannah’s neck ached. Miss Lurina, in a chair nearby, had fallen asleep and was emitting light snores. Her head hung forward on her chest. Grace and Bob had moved farther back into the shade of trees. She wished Amelia would pay more attention to the competition and less to Ben and Miriam. The three of them were whispering together. Hannah turned back to the kites.