The Tether - A Short Story

On a green hill, on a sunny day, there stands a woman.

“I’m feeling stressed” she says. “Stressed!” And there is a big rain cloud above her, pouring, pouring, pouring rain down on her head. The rain cloud is tethered to her, roped around her middle, with the rope extending up, up, up to the cloud, where it disappears.

“This is my stress!” She said, pointing up at the rain cloud.

The sun appears in the sky, sidling out from behind the rain cloud. 

“Oh I see!” Says the sun, “lets brighten up your view, so you don’t feel so stressed!”

 The sun calls to the wind, and the wind blows on the stress cloud.

“Wait!” She says. “Wait! I need that. Without it I will float away!”

The sun does not listen and the wind does not listen. The wind blows, and the rain cloud dissipates. The rope holding her to the cloud falls limp, cascading to the ground.

“I did not float away!” She says. “I didn’t need that stress cloud after all.” And she waves to where the cloud was. “Goodbye stress!”

And then the hill opens up beneath her feet, and she falls down, down, down into the earth. There’s a quiet splat, and then silence. The earth closes up. The wind blows away. The sun turns around and looks for someone else’s world to brighten.