Some days it felt as though the entire Earth was pulling on Adelaide, holding her fast to its surface even as she strained against it. Other days there was only the barest of cords tethering her down. Regardless of how the Earth held her, she yearned to break free. Always there was the tension, the pull and the push back, and it threatened to tear her apart.

   Whenever the strain became too great she’d go out for a walk to clear her head. Logically, she knew it was all in her head. There was no actual waxing or waning in the Earth’s gravitational hold on her. Unfortunately, for as long as she could remember she’d felt that undefinable sensation of resistance against the Earth. Some times she worried that if she ever broke free from the Earth’s grasp that she would simply lift right off the ground and fall forever into the sky. Other times she mused that she would actually be able to fly if the Earth would only let her go.

   Adelaide sighed, long and slowly through her lips and cleared her mind as her psychologist had taught her. Today had been particularly stressful and sitting at her desk at work, constantly feeling like she was about to fall upward out of her chair was making it impossible to concentrate. Fortunately her boss was a little old fashioned in just the right ways and supported his employees taking a full lunch hour break. On days like this, Adelaide used her lunch hour to walk around the nearby park, eating while she walked, and that was usually enough to calm her enough so she could finish her work.

   The park was a beautiful greenbelt that wrapped around a shallow lake. She’d heard that the lake was man-made but had never found any proof of that claim. It was a fun story, nonetheless, involving corrupt politicians and crime bosses coming together to make a place where they could dispose of…things. The shallow nature of the lake, however, was the first red flag that Adelaide had seen when she first heard the story. At its deepest, the lake was maybe a couple meters deep. It was pretty common for people to wade out into the lake and her taller friends assured her that they had never found a place in the lake that was deep enough for them to go all the way under the water.

   Adelaide skipped a step even though she never broke stride. Her right foot just slid through the air above the ground as though she was walking on air. Her left foot landed heavily on the ground, threatening to throw her off balance, but she was able to steady herself and keep walking. This was not the first time she’d had this sort of thing happen to her. When she explained moments like that to her psychologist, he said showed her short videos of mimes pretending to walk over some invisible object, their one foot seeming to hover in the air while they walked. He suggested that her mind was probably having her do something similar without her realizing. It made sense. Still, feeling like the Earth was letting go of her was not a pleasant one. Not today at least. She didn’t mind it when she felt like she would fly, but today the sky felt like a bottomless pit she would fall into if the Earth let go of her now.

   She sat down on one of the many park benches that dotted the perimeter of the lake and closed her eyes. She cleared her mind, relaxing her body and bringing her heart rate and breathing back down to a calm rhythm.

   I am a stone, she thought, imagining its heaviness and how easily it rested on the ground.

   The scene from The Empire Strikes Back, where Luke Skywalker was levitating rocks flashed into her mind and she grimaced.

   Gravity is a chain I cannot break, she thought instead, this time imagining heavy chains running up from deep within the Earth and binding her ankles and wrists. She raised her right hand ever so slightly to focus on the downward pull. Except, there was no downward pull. She relaxed her arm muscles and waited for her arm to drop back into her lap.

   It didn’t.

   She opened her eyes and stared in disbelief at her floating arm. It was obviously just her mind playing tricks on her gain, just like with her floating step, and she pushed her hand back down into her lap.

   Perhaps it was time to get a psychiatrist? She’d resisted seeing one for years, hoping she could manage things without medication, but she had to admit she wasn’t getting better. Admittedly she didn’t even know if there was medication to treat whatever it was that was wrong with her. There was also the concern about the side effects she might experience from medication. She didn’t want to just trade one struggle with another.

   She checked her watch. It was time to start walking back towards the office. Her walk that day hadn’t been exactly calming, but when she got back to the office she was able to concentrate enough to get her work done for the day.

   The rest of the day was uneventful. Her commute was long and she microwaved some leftovers for dinner. Once in bed she repeated her mantras of being a stone and how gravity was a chain until she fell asleep.

   Adelaide always remembered her dreams and she only ever had two types of dreams. She was either falling or flying. The flying dreams were wonderful and she relished every moment of them. They were, unfortunately, fairly uncommon. Most nights she dreamed she was falling and it was terrifying, falling forever into the sky, out of the atmosphere, passed the moon and stars until everything streaked passed her at such velocity that it all merged together into a horrible blur. Sometimes, in her falling dreams, she would be able to catch onto something and then would spend the rest of the dream dangling above the foreboding sky until she awoke.

   That night she dreamed she was walking around the lake. It was a lovely fall afternoon. The leaves had already abandoned the trees but it wasn’t so cold yet that she needed a heavy coat. The first snows were still a few weeks away. The last few ducks who had yet to fly south before winter were paddling around the edge of the lake, occasionally turning bottom up as they foraged for worms or who knows what along the muddy lake bed.

   She paused beside a tree to watch the ducks. They were such silly creatures and she wondered why they hadn’t left yet for the winter. Maybe they weren’t going to leave in time and get stuck here for the winter. Maybe there were ducks who didn’t fly south at all. She really didn’t know.

   As though by some signal that Adelaide couldn’t detect, the ducks all rose out of the water and flew away. A yearning to follow them surged within her and she found herself suddenly running along the ground to catch up to them. They weren’t very high in the air yet, still skimming above the water near the shore, and Adelaide struggled not to fall behind.

   The ducks arched and rose into the air and Adelaide leaped to match them. She rose along side them and she exulted in the joy of flight. The freedom and control that–

   WHAM!

   Pain erupted in her face and Adelaide awoke with a start. Her nose and forehead throbbed and, as Adelaide’s eyes focused, she found that she was inches from the wall. Her bed sat in the corner of her room and it wasn’t uncommon for her to wake facing the wall, but she’d never headbutted it before. She must have lunged in her bed, just like she’d jumped in her dream, and struck the wall.

   The faint light of dawn was just beginning to filter into her room and she figured her alarm would be going off soon. She might as well get up. Adelaide rolled over to check the time on her cell phone but instead she came face to face with a light fixture sticking out of the wall. The problem was she didn’t have any fixtures on her walls. The other problem was that as she continued to roll over she found herself looking down at her bed, several feet below her.

   Some quick thinking later and she figured she was still dreaming, she must be. At least it was a flying dream. She pushed gently off the ceiling and wafted down towards the ground. She didn’t land, but rather skimmed above the ground. Her flying dreams only ever lasted until she landed and she was in no hurry for it to be over.

   There didn’t seem to be any other plot line to this dream, though. She usually had some adventure to go on in her dreams, or else would be more like an observer as she just flew around but nothing was happening. When her morning alarm went off she decided to just get ready for the day and go to work. She decided to hover throughout the day and see if anyone in the dream would notice. It was tricky at first, making sure she wasn’t too high to raise suspicion, while still maintaining enough space between her and the ground to avoid touching it accidentally but she eventually found that about ten centimeters was enough.

   She hovered above her seat in the bus on her way to work and then again she hovered in her chair at work. It was probably the best day she’d had at work in years. There was no distracting pull from the Earth, no fear of falling into the sky, no missed steps or unexpected hovering hands.

   As the work day drew near to its end, her phone buzzed with a reminder that she had her appointment with her psychologist that evening after work.

   Strange, she thought. Her dreams hardly ever included so many real world things, especially her appointments. Still, it would be interesting to see how the dream version of her psychologist reacted to her flying. In fact, why was she even hiding it in the first place? This was a dream, after all.

   Adelaide rose up higher at her desk and peeked over the divider towards her coworkers. She was never one for scaring people, and even in a dream she didn’t want to scare people. So instead of flying around the office like a ghost or something, she decided she would instead just walk higher in the air and see if anyone noticed. She was already hovering near her usual head height so she lifted herself another head and shoulders higher before turning and walking out of her cubical.

   At first no one noticed, as they were mostly busy gathering up coats and backpacks, so Adelaide strode up to Eno, the tallest guy in the office, and matched his height. He did a double take at her when he first noticed her standing beside him at the elevator.

   “Oh you startled me!” he laughed deeply, still not looking at her feet. “I’m not use to people being at eye level.” Eno shook his head, still laughing a little. “Are you changing a light?”

   “Nope, just waiting for the elevator, same as you,” Adelaide tried to sound as innocent as she could but it was difficult to keep a straight face and she couldn’t help it as she glanced down.

   Eno followed her gaze and finally noticed that she was almost half a meter in the air.

   “What the—!

   Eno shot back against the far wall much faster than Adelaide would have though possible and his dark face blanched.

   “How are you doing that?” Eno asked as he recovered from his shock and began looking all around her as though expecting to find some set or wires or else a hidden stand that was supporting her.

   The elevator dinged and the doors opened.

   “I just woke up this way,” Adelaide said, honestly, and walked into the elevator. The doors began to close and so she held out her hand to keep them open. “You coming?”

   Eno, his face full of confusion, amusement, and a slight amount of concern, poked his head around to look into the elevator.

   “No,” he said finally. “I think I’ll take the stairs.

   Adelaide smiled and let the doors shut.

   Down in the lobby more people began to notice, but like Eno they seemed to think it was a trick. Several people were busily looking for hidden cameras while others pulled out their cell phones to take pictures or record videos of her.

   Adelaide beamed at them all. This was everything she ever wished for, and was by far her favorite dream yet. She didn’t usually write down her dreams but she was pretty certain she would try to remember to write this one down if only to remind herself of how freeing it felt.

   She didn’t bother with the bus and instead flew above the sidewalk. She rose high enough that she didn’t have to stop at the crosswalks and just sailed through the city towards her psychologist’s office. Below, people continued to be shocked by her passing. She heard a few people below call out that it must be a drone or something.

   As her destination came into view she hesitated. Why was she going there? Her dream was already much longer than most other dreams and she was surely going to wake up soon. Why was she going to waste the last bit of time she had talking to a dream version of her psychologist? Instead she did a somersault midair and soared off through the air. She swept through the city streets, spiraled up and down around the skyscrapers, and waved at the people inside whenever she caught them staring at her.

   The sun was setting and it was getting cold when she finally flew down to her apartment building. It was so strange, she never noticed things like the cold in her dreams before. She was also extremely tired, another odd thing to feel in a dream.

   She ate her dinner and then fell onto her bed and was taken by the darkness.

   She briefly thought she was flying again but then her alarm was going off and she blinked awake. The pull of the Earth was back, though it was not as aggressive as it had felt before and she thought she could cast it off if she wanted, like removing a heavy coat.

   She got ready for the day, surprised to find that she had some minor bruising on her face. She must have actually hit the wall in her sleep. Fortunately it wasn’t anything that makeup couldn’t cover and she finished getting ready for the day without thinking more about it. There wasn’t enough time to write down her dream that morning and she decided she’d write it down over her lunch hour. The dream itself was still incredibly vivid and she wasn’t concerned about forgetting it.

   As she got onto the bus her phone began to buzz. It was her psychologist’s office.

   “Hello?” she answered.

   “Adelaide,” the receptionist said in that almost fake cheery nature that most receptionists seemed to have. “We missed you yesterday when you didn’t make your appointment. Would you like to reschedule?”

   Adelaide paused. She would have sworn her appointment had been set for today.

   “Adelaide?” came the receptionists voice again.

   “Yes, sorry, I must have put it down wrong on my calendar,” Adelaide said. “I thought I was scheduled for today.”

   “Not to worry,” the receptionist laughed in her pseudo earnest manner. “I do have an opening this afternoon, though I know you usually prefer the evenings. I have one tomorrow evening at your usual time.”

   “Tomorrow will be fine,” Adelaide said.

   The rest of the call was just the usual formalities. As soon as it was over Adelaide opened her phone’s calendar. She added the reminder for her appointment for the following evening and then checked her reminders from the previous day. There was the reminder for her appointment after all. She must have just missed it, somehow. It wasn’t the first time she’d missed a reminder, but it was certainly uncommon for her.

   The weight of the Earth pulled against her a bit more strongly and she found herself wanting to cast it off again, like she had in her dream, and strangely it still felt as though she could if only she willed it so. She shook her head as the bus reached her stop and she got off.

   Work was slow that morning, but not in a bad way. She answered emails, worked on a couple of projects, and was just beginning to think about what she wanted for lunch when Eno poked his head into her cubical.

   “Hey,” he said.

   “Eno,” Adelaide replied and suppressed a smile as she remembered how startled he had been in her dream. “What’s up?”

   “I was just, you know, I mean,” he was stammering all over himself and Adelaide wondered if he was going to ask her out or something. “How did you do it?” he finally asked.

   “Do what?” Adelaide asked uncertainly.

   “Oh come on, don’t give me that,” Eno said, though he was clearly in a good mood. He was acting as though she’d played a trick on him and he was wanting to know she’d done it. But she hadn’t played a trick on him, and there was no way he could know about her dream.

   “Is this about yesterday’s reports?” Adelaide was trying to think what this could be about.

   “No!” Eno grinned but Adelaide was nonplussed. “Yesterday with the thing, you know? You in the air?”

   Adelaide frowned. Could it be she was still dreaming? But how could she? Dreams didn’t last this long. And still there was the strange way she could feel gravity, wrapped around her instead of tugging on her. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she thought she might have a panic attack if she didn’t get away soon.

   “I’m sorry,” she said abruptly, “I need to go take my lunch break!”

   She pushed passed him and rushed to the elevator. Thankfully Eno didn’t follow her. As soon as the doors closed she pulled out her phone. There was an easy way to prove it was all a dream. She’d seen countless people taking pictures and making videos of her flying in her dream. If it had been real then those would be all over the internet. She was about to begin her internet search when the elevator dinged and the doors opened to the lobby. Not wanting to stand around in the lobby on her phone Adelaide put it back into her pocket and began walking to the park. She’d check it there once she’d gotten something to eat. No need to rush. She worried more when she rushed.

   She bought a hot dog from a street vendor and found a bench facing the lake that was a good distance away from the walking trail. As she ate, she pulled out her phone and finally began her internet search. Almost at once videos of her flying through the city began to pop up in her search result.

   How was that possible? Maybe she was imagining all of it, like a hallucination. Maybe her phone wasn’t actually finding anything and her mind was just making her think she was seeing them. But then what about Eno? He’d asked her about her flying. Was he a hallucination as well?

   Gravity tugged at her, almost like a nagging child, wanting her to acknowledge it, as though her flight the previous day had insulted it. But she knew gravity didn’t care. It wasn’t aware of her, it wasn’t aware of anything. It was just gravity! And yet it was there, tugging at her. Sometimes tugging on her shoulder, sometimes on her knee, but always there. Her whole life it had been there, bothering her, needing her to pay attention to it and she was so tired and sick of it.

   The more she tried to ignore it the more insistent it became. She tried meditating, thinking about being a rock, about wearing heavy chains, and yet now she saw that those were just more ways for her to be forced to acknowledge gravity and she hated it! She hated the constant nagging. Hated that she couldn’t ignore it. Hated that no one else seemed to be troubled like she was by it.

   “Enough!” She shouted and in her mind she cast off the burdensome weight of gravity.

   There was a moment of stillness. Of wondering whether she would fall or fly.

   And then she knew.