By: Lexton Lee

June 21, 2021. It was a sunny afternoon. Aaron’s birthday party was blasting out of the backyard. The party was almost done except for the pinata. The birthday boy was blind folded and given a bat. He swung one time. Missed. He swung again, harder. He heard a crack but no sound of the candy falling. Then he heard an adult scream “quick, grab those balloons” but when Aaron took off his blindfold he saw 9 grape sized dots in the sky slowly becoming smaller.

Approximately 4 days after the incident, in Ohio, a man named Julio woke up, got his coffee and went out to the garden to check his herbs. They were doing fine. He looked out into the sky. No sign of rain today. But there was a strange glimmer in his persimmon tree. He checked and saw eight or nine birthday balloons hanging among the fruit. Julio carefully untangled each string off the tree. A tag hung on, half torn. An address was written in blue cursive but all that’s left of the phone number was a six. He took the balloons, untied them, took off the strings and untied the balloons so that they deflated. Julio packed them all in a box and wrote a note saying “I don’t know who I’m giving it to but if these are not your balloons send them to the address on this card.” He closed the box and taped the box shut and sent it on its way.

3 days later, in South Carolina, Aaron was moping in his room, looking over his birthday balloon scrap book. There was a one faded white balloon for his first birthday, and more and more for each year. The scrapbook stopped with eight green balloons arranged in a little circle. Now there would always be an empty page. He couldn’t collect his 9 birthday balloons.

Aaron’s mother offered to buy him more but those balloons were special. Aaron was so desperate that he had even hung up posters in the neighborhood. He went downstairs. There was a box on the front porch. Aaron’s heart leaped. “ Had grandpa or grandma found the balloons. He seized the box hard and ripped the tape off, his face lighting up when he saw them. Indeed there were glorious balloons. but it said that it was from Jackson, Ohio. Aaron never knew anyone there. He took out his balloons and put them under nine and after that he took a sheet of paper and wrote “ my name is Aaron and thank you for returning the balloon back I really needed them.” He couldn’t think of anything else so he folded it back and sent it back to ohio.

In Ohio, Julio got the message. He took a sheet of paper and wrote “you’re welcome” and sent it again, with a smile.