About the work

The kite was a birthday present for his niece, though he'd always promised himself he’d buy one just like it. He’d seen a photograph once of a girl in a red dress, running along a beach, with a kite of the exact same shade soaring behind her, and it had stuck with him. He bought this one on a whim, on his lunch break, and took it straight to the alley, hoping for a gust, any gust. The wind came, but it was too strong, too sudden, and the string snagged almost immediately on the jagged metal of the fire escape. He spent the better part of an hour trying to dislodge it, but the kite stayed there, a stubbornly bright flag against the grey. Now, he often wonders if the girl in the photograph ever lost her kite.