Floating

Aura dreamed she could float. She came back to her bedroom. Gravity, it turns out, is fast.

Aura was reading about astronauts.
The book was about people who go up into space, where there is no air, and where the rules of being on Earth do not apply. The pictures showed astronauts floating in their spaceships. Tools floating around them. Hair sticking straight up like they were underwater.
Aura looked at the pictures for a long time. Her eyes got heavy. The book slipped from her hands.
In her dream, she was in space. And the rules really had changed.
She lifted her hand and it just stayed there. She tried to put her foot down and there was no down. She tucked her body and spun, and she did not stop spinning. Her hair flew. Her socks flew. She laughed and laughed.
This is what astronauts feel. They float because nothing is pulling them. On Earth, there is gravity. Gravity pulls everything down to the ground. It pulls Aura. It pulls the cat. It pulls the rain. It pulls everything.
In space, gravity is far away. Astronauts get to be light.
When Aura woke up, she was still mid-somersault. Except she was on her bed. Except gravity was very much still here.
She landed on her pillow.
"Aura? What are you doing?"
"Practicing gravity."
Daddy did not stop laughing for a long time.