A little tale, told in three parts, of the beginning of the fulfilment of a dream. The next instalment will be next month, but in the mean time you can find my other fictions under the tag « Tales« . (I need to tidy up a bit more the categories and articles.)

 

Once upon a time, there was a little hedgehog who wanted to fly.
When people asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up, he always replied:

“Piloting a dirigible!”

And everyone answered:

“But hedgehogs don’t fly!”*

To which he answered:

“I’ll be the first one, then.”

Little Hedgehog lived in the countryside. There were fields and a lot of trees. It was really green, but what attracted his eyes was the blue of the sky.

“One day, I’ll be up there”, he thought.

Once old enough to work, he left his family and went to Paris. All the main companies flying dirigibles were there and little Hedgehog, now an adult, was determined to make his dream come true.

 

In Paris, people were a bit more open minded than in his countryside, but they were still very surprised to meet a hedgehog who wanted to pilot a dirigible. It had never been seen before.

He went to the big field from which took off all the dirigibles and started asking everyone he met if there was a job for him.

First he asked a rhinoceros, who didn’t even bother answering.
Then, he asked a monkey, but he didn’t understand what he said.
Finally, he asked a greyhound, who asked him what he was ready to do.

“I’m ready to do anything, I assure you.”

The greyhound looked at him for a little while, then said:

“Ok, I’m willing to give you a chance. I need a luggage carrier, one of the usual ones hurt his back. Be at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning by the “Travelling rabbit”. It’s the one with a dark red balloon with a rabbit painted on it, over there.”

“At 8 o’clock tomorrow morning. I’ll be there. Thanks!”

His work consisted of bringing passengers’ luggages to their cabins. He made a few mistakes at first as he needed to learn the layout of the airship. He had trouble remembering which side was port and which one was starboard.

Whenever there weren’t any luggages to carry, he helped with loading the goods or bringing the food supply on the airship. Since he was always ready to help, he was quickly liked.

When the flying crew and the others workers weren’t on board, they would often go to have a drink together , and they all told many amusing or surprising stories.
Hedgehog was looking forward to living some himself.

 

To be continued…

 

*(Sometimes people say something can’t be done without any reason or because they forgot the reason why.)