Little did he know...

Little did he know what was going to happen next.

He was probably the best football player in his town. He was only 14 years old, but he was very talented.He wanted to be part of one of these famous teams he watched on TV, so he decided to go to the capital to try passing the test.

At that moment, he was totally exhausted. Previously, he had been told to do a written test. It had two parts. At the first one, he ad to explain why he wanted to get into the club. The second was a general knowledge questionnaire. He had spent three hours writing.

After that, they drove him to the swimming pool. there, he had been swimming for an hour, mainly at crawl-style. He supposed he had made good times, because he had felt very tired.
Then, they asked him to do another test: A running one. He had been running for half an hour, around one of the buildings. He couldn't still prove his quality as a proper football player.

When he was wondering what would happen next and if more tests would be needed, a man shouted at him: Hey, come here!

He hadn't previously realised that the man was behind him. He felt so tired that he walked quietly towards the man.

While he was in his way, he inspected him carefully. That guy didn't seem to be part of the club. In fact, he was dressed in jeans. he wore a fashionable white shirt and a black cup. He was much taller than him, and should be in his middle-forties. he carried a small yellow notebook on his left hand, where he had been probably taking notes.

The boy finally reached the man. After a while looking at each other, the man started to speak. He asked him whether he was interested in joining his team.

What team?, he said. The situation was totally unexpected for him. He was pretending to get into a team, and that stranger wanted him to be part of another.

He asked the name of the team. The man said: "Altair" But the boy didn't know it. The face of the boy showed surprise and curiosity. The man explained that it was a baseball team, and that he could be a good baseball player.

Two days later, he got in touch with baseball. He enjoyed playing it more than football, so he ended being a professional player.

Nowadays, he is one of the best baseball players all over the world. Would he had been so successful if he had remained at football? Nobody knows.

Far above the clouds

A plane travelling to somewhere. Outside, the air is around -70 ºC. Althought I´m comfortably seated looking through the window, I can feel the cold by touching the glass. When I realise that I have never experimented such a low temperature, I say to myself that it will be better to avoid it. (Today, I´m not carrying my cup and winter gloves!)

I´m getting bored, and I have to be still one more hour inside. If I could sleep, I would, so time´d get evaporated, the plane´d arrive and I would be happy. But today, a little one year girl, doesn´t want to get asleep. She is very curious, and looks at me constantly. I tried reading a newspaper, and she wanted too. I suppose that she must be some kind of genious, because althought she didn´t speak, she seemed to be reading it!

I was thinking about that, when the mother asked me to take care of her while she went to the bathroom. Ok, I said. (Without having a remote idea that a storm was near.) I picked her in my arms, but at the moment the baby realised that her mother had left, and started to cry.

She wasn´t heard by the pilot, but the rest of the passengers did. She thought that mom had vanished, and feared not to see her again.

I did my best to stop her crying. At first, I explained her that mummy wasn´t lost. Then, I rocked her. After that, improvised a song. But my efforts had no reward. She continued shouting more and more loudly. And finally, after five endless minutes, mom came back, picked her, and calmly, she said:

And the man in the rain picked up his bag of secrets, and journeyed up the mountainside, far above the clouds, and nothing was ever heard from him again, except for the sound of Tubular Bells."

Mike Oldfield - Far above the clouds.

And the little girl (and I), felt asleep.