Zero to One

Davi found the kite in the cupboard behind the towels, folded around a bundle of string and a tail made from strips of green plastic. The paper was creased but not torn.

“That’s mine,” said Mari.

“It was in my cupboard.”

“There is no your cupboard. Mum puts towels anywhere.”

The wind had been knocking seed pods along the pavement all morning. By lunchtime it was strong enough to lift the washing from the line and slap it against the wall. Davi carried the kite up the hill behind the flats before Mari could take it back.

She arrived with the string spool tucked under her chin.

“You have the tail wrong,” she said.

“It is a tail.”

“It goes underneath.”

“It goes at the end.”

Mari pulled one of the green strips. The knot came loose. The kite opened in the wind like a startled bird and smacked Davi across the face.

Mari laughed so hard she dropped the spool. It rolled downhill, unspooling behind it.

“Catch it!” Davi shouted.

“You catch it!”

They ran in different directions. Davi chased the spool while Mari held the kite above her head, which made it pull harder. The string caught around a scrubby bush. Mari tugged once, twice, then both of them tugged together.

The bush gave way.

Mari fell backward into the grass with the kite on top of her. Davi landed beside her, still holding the string. For a second neither of them moved.

Then a gust lifted the kite again. It dragged across Mari’s knees, bumped over Davi’s shoes, and rose just high enough to pull the spool from his hand.

“It’s going,” Mari said.

“I can see that.”

The kite skimmed the hill, dipped behind a row of garages, and disappeared.

Mari stood up first. “You had it wrong.”

Davi brushed grass from his elbows. “You let go.”

They ran after it anyway.