Oobi’s Uncle Ullie and Aunt Maude had brought Oobi a gift from one of their trips. It was long and rectangular with no shaking parts inside. And when Oobi held it to his ear he could hear no noises. What could it be? It could be one of those dorky gifts that his aunt and uncle would sometimes present to him. And then he’d have to stand in front of them with a stupid smile on his face trying to show some sort of joy when really he wanted to take it and bury it in the backyard with his time capsule. This time when Uncle Ullie gave Oobi the present, Oobi held it in his hands for a long time. “You don’t have to open it now Oobi,” said Aunt Maude. Her face showed the fine lines of an older person with the white hair that was wrapped like a white cinnamon bun on the top of her head. “Take it outside and see what it is,” she encouraged him.
Without a second sound of encouragement Oobi swung open the screen door and sat on the front stoop. Cannubi came wagging his tail as soon as Oobi sat down and started licking the package. “This is a thin one,” Oobi thought. “I hope that it’s not broken.” He remembered how his Aunt had given him a glass snowman that was leaking because it had gotten broken. He was very careful with the wrapping paper and made sure that it didn’t tear into the present itself. Although he suspected it was going to be a goofy present, it was still a present, and presents could be anything. As soon as the plastic was exposed, Oobi slide the prize out of its wrapping paper. It was a kite. A kite huh? Oobi never thought of a kite before. He tried to rescue one from a tree, but he never went to the toy store with a particular purpose of buying one. He thought it was kind of useless thing to have really. I mean it just sat in the air, didn’t really do anything except maybe swirl around and then get stuck in a tree or something. “Oh well,” he thought. “I better go in and thank Aunt Maude and Uncle Ullie for the kite. He mustered up a false smile and walked back in to thank his relatives.
It wasn’t until about two or three days later that Oobi put the kite together. He had other things to do: ride his bike, play baseball, go over to Mrs. Winslow’s house and play with Groucho the kitty. He played a great game of hide and seek with Jessica Handy, but she had to go to some girl thing meeting and she couldn’t play with him. The Woo kid from across the street went to San Francisco to visit relatives, and Tyree Jefferson was home and grounded for a week. So Oobi lay on his bed looking out the window completely bored. His eyes drifted from tree to grass, then back into the room at his toys that were waiting for him to play with. He looked at his closet that had things pushed in for no known reason and then he saw the kite package that was leaning against the door like a new kid daring him to play with him. Oobi hopped off his bed and picked up the kite and opened it up. The sticks and the skin unraveled on his bed along with a small white paper with instructions.
Oobi read the instructions and looked at the picture until he had finally put the kite together. It looked like a bird kite, a hawk, or an eagle, as it lay on the bed on one side daring Oobi to take it outside. He cocked his head to one side, then picked up the kite and ran downstairs. Uncle Ullie was reading the paper in the kitchen when he saw Oobi looking through the drawers. “What’cha lookin’ fer Oobi?” Uncle Ullie dropped the paper enough to see the boy rummaging through the drawers.
“String for my kite.” Oobi said it with little conviction and more effort looking for string.
“Oh? I thought I gave you some with the kite.” Ullie mused, then got up and went out to the travel trailer.
Oobi hadn’t heard a thing and now was down in his dad’s tool room looking for some string. When he had exhausted that place, Oobi gave up and went back up towards his room. Uncle Ullie had already come back and was again sitting at the table reading the paper. In front of him sat not only kite string, but also kite string on a special green holder. “Is that for me?” Oobi asked.
“Oh sure boy. You can’t fly a kite without string can you?” Uncle Ullie chuckled into his paper as he kept reading.
Oobi gave his uncle a quick kiss on the side of his head and ran outside with his kite, his string and a hope of knowing how to do something like this.
Now before the field, there was an open lot, and before the open lot there were tennis courts and parking. When Oobi got off his bike, and Cannubi was already sniffing around, he wondered where would be the best place for him to let the kite fly. If he took it to the parking lot and it crashed, it would break on the asphalt. If he took it to the field it might stray over the trees and then get tangled up in one of them.
The field seemed like the better choice, and Oobi had figured that if he flew the kite high enough, then he’d never let it get caught in a tree. Oobi put the kite on the ground and walked off paces with string let out. Cannubi came sniffing. “Cannubi get away from the kite!” Oobi shouted. And when Oobi started running with the kite hopping up in the air, Cannubi barked like a dog chasing a bird. Oobi ran and ran until the kite was dancing in the wind. Up in the air it swirled, and letting out more and more string, the kite got smaller and smaller as it climbed up towards the clouds. Oobi pulled the string and the kite flew up higher, he let out string and it would drop lower. He watched how the shape of the kite made him think that he was flying a bird. A giant hawk he thought, and then it would swoop down and attack, then he let the bird float and hang in the clouds, and Oobi thought that now he was the bird floating high above the ground looking down at the earth below. He imagined that he saw people playing tennis, and saw how small the cars were, and the trees looked like broccoli on his dinner plate, and even he and Cannubi looked like small fleas on the back of a giant green dog.
Oobi sat there for what seemed hours and continued to let his imagination drift, just like the bird kite in the sky.
And when he got home, and saw that it was almost time for dinner. He ran in and washed his hands and came back out. There at the table was Uncle Ullie, Aunt Maude, Manubi and Pannubi. Oobi slid into his seat and saw what was in front of him. Meatloaf, potatoes, and broccoli, Oobi laughed and stuck his fork in the food. “That’s what the trees looked like today.” He said, and everyone smiled as the house took on a nice rosy color.