inflated greetings

On arrival at my home, the birthday balloon sat in the kitchen, tied to the wrist of a small teddy bear. It soon escaped and, for a week, bounced around the kitchen ceiling, greeting me from a different angle each morning. Making me smile. 

Somehow it wandered into the living room in time to subtly greet my guests on the first day of September.

When I came downstairs on Sept. 2, I couldn’t see the balloon. It couldn’t have just disintegrated, could it? No. Later, I was sitting where one sits in the upstairs bathroom. Something peeked from the stall shower. Guess what? 

After that, it wandered into the study. Then mysteriously, it was gone again; this time into my bedroom, eventually settling in the bedroom window.

My cat Herbie sometimes noticed our visitor. Once, the balloon bounced around in front of him trailing a small piece of white ribbon. He swiped at it a couple of times but gave up when the balloon floated up toward the ceiling. [Herbie is an old cat.] 

For a while, the balloon hovered near the floor and I thought it was on its last non-legs. But it has been a month! It is still sort of viable. It cannot last much longer but it has been a good friend. And a great present.