A Letter on a Leaf

Rana was eight years old, and she loved the sky very much... from a distance.

She would lie in the garden for hours, gazing at the clouds and trying to guess their shapes: this one looks like a rabbit, that one looks like a ship, and that one looks like Granny when she's cross. But if she went up to the third floor at school and looked out of the window, her knees would wobble and she would cling to the wall with both hands.

Her big brother used to tease her. "You love the sky, but you're scared of the stairs?"

"I like looking at it," Rana would say shyly. "Not being in it."

Then one spring morning, Rana woke to a gentle tapping on her window: tap... tap... tap...