Another Surprise At My House by Tony Rauch It's been a bad day. Suddenly a leaver swings up from the floor. I look down to its base. A floor board has sprung open as if on some tiny hinges, and out from the void the tall leaver pops up and into place. The leaver stands chest high at my side. I am so bummed-out and discouraged about a lot of things that I figure I might as well give it a good tug. I mean, what else could go wrong today? So I reach to it. There is a black rubber grip and a clutch to press. The clutch is like a larger version of the brake grip on a bicycle. I put my hand on the leaver and feel its stiff tightness. I open my fist to grip the clutch and slowly pull the clutch back. There is a clicking sound and this allows the long leaver to be eased back further. It is a stiff bugger, so I really have to lean all my weight into it. As I lean back on the leaver there is a grinding sound, as if some large gears under the floor and up in the attic are slowly grinding away. It sounds as if some gears in the wall are activated as well. And then I hear other strange noises - metallic groans, stretching, and rattling sounds. Finally the leaver locks into place, about fifteen degrees from being upright. I let go and it stays in place. I stand and listen, my eyes looking around, following the unusual noises in the walls, floor, and ceiling. I begin to walk around, trying to follow the sounds, trying to isolate where they are coming from - pinging and more turning of wheels of some sort - but I can't figure out where. They seem to be all around, as if my little old house is actually some great, strange machine - some machine just barely disguised as a house. Then, from the corner of my eye, I catch a glint of something out the window. I look out and a shadow slowly swoops by overhead. I rush to the window and slide it up to open it. I peer my head out. The shadow swings past, looking like the wing of a glider passing overhead. It is low, as if trying to land on the roof, and going real slow. I stretch my neck to see that a panel in my roof has slid down and the fabric wing is telescoping out of it. The large wing flaps in the breeze as it folds into place. The wing is made of a metal tube frame of some kind. Then, out of the roof extends some more tubes. They telescope into the air and from them unfold some huge propellers. The propellers seem to snap into place and then begin spinning. At first slowly, but quickly building until their whirling purr creates quite a gust. Leaves on the ground whip about in great swirls of wind from the several propellers sticking out from the roof. Suddenly I feel the house shake and a series of ka-chang sounds pierce the air. The house begins to move a little. I look about as the structure slowly twists to the side, then it rattles to shake back and forth. I look out the window to find swirls of dust and blades of grass and leaves spitting up from below, and I notice we are turning to the side even more, then rocking back and forth, then tilting one way, and then back the other, and slowly lifting from the ground. I look back inside. That "ka-chang" sound must've been the house being dislodged from the foundation and set lose to be lifted into the air. An elaborate system of gears must've activated it all. That must be it - that hidden leaver that popped up must have initiated some sort of getaway mechanism and I am now starting to lift off - the entire house detached from some sort of moorings and beginning to rise off the foundation. I look back outside, sticking my head out again, the gust blowing on my face and whipping my hair about. The house and I rotate a little until the propellers really start to kick in and grip the air. This pulls us higher and straightens us out. I look back inside. The entire structure is rattling and humming a machine-like rattle. And I hear a faint engine, a slight, rhythmic chugga chugga chugga sound that matches the vibrating of the house. This must be what's turning the propellers - some hidden engine propelling this machine. Maybe it is a wind-up engine, or maybe powered by the oil in the furnace's old oil tank. I grip the window and watch as the other houses drop away below. I don't know how all this started or what activated all of this actually - I mean other than that leaver. But what caused the leaver to be revealed from its hiding place under the floor boards? I mean I really don't know what made that damn fool leaver pop up out of the floor like that. Like did I unknowingly tap a special spot in the floor with my foot or something? Did I inadvertently lean against some panel on the wall that started all of this? I don't know. It looks as though all this stuff was built into the house originally and I didn't know anything about it until just now. I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know how all this happened, but here I am, flying in the air in my house, the trees getting smaller, the houses toy-like and moving away. I don't know how to steer this thing or where we're even going. Maybe I didn't do anything at all. Maybe this flying house machine is being called back to its factory for a check-up or something, and I just happened to be caught inside at the time and thus am just along for the ride. I don't know. I search all around - down below and in the sky, but don't see any other houses lifting off the ground or any drifting in the air or anything. Maybe this was a unique custom job. I don't know. But I sure feel lucky to be, for a reason yet undiscovered, riding along in my house in the sky on a nice, calm, blue day.