Transhumance

It was another late autumn day, the creek quietly ran through the pasture, the sun was already covered by the cliff face of the valley. The brief reprieve of warmth that the sun had provided was already gone and a cold wind blew down the mountains and through the valley. The old barn stood alone in the field. The church bell rang from away, signaling the time of day, 3 O’clock in the afternoon. Four short gongs rang through the valley followed by three louder ones.
 Karl was alone in the old barn, cleaning it out from all the years of accumulated filth. He didn’t understand why he had to clean the barn, it wasn’t like his uncle was using it. And why did his cousin, Marisa, get the easy job of setting up the electric fence posts? If he cleaned the barn fast enough, then maybe he could help out with setting up the fence posts. It was nearly 5 PM by the time he was done. Marisa was nearly finished setting up the fence posts. He walked over to her and asked how he could help. Together they quickly finished the rest of the work that needed to be done on the pasture.
 “You ever wonder what it’s like to see the valley from the sky everyday, like a bird?” Marisa asked.
 “You could go live in one of the villages up on the mountain if you wanted to see the valley,” Karl replied, “besides, we’ve been up there before many times for skiing or school trips.”
 “It’s not the same thing. I mean, to have the ability to do it whenever you wanted; fly.”
 “Do you think you’ll take over your dad’s helicopter business? Then you could fly everyday.”
 “I’m not sure. My dad says women shouldn’t be helicopter pilots, and he’s the smartest man I know so he’s probably right,” Marisa said.
 “Yeah, maybe he is…,” Karl mused. “Hey! How high do you think you’d need to be to see the whole valley?”
 “Uh, like 100 feet.”
 “No way, it’s gotta be higher. Like, 200 feet at least,” Karl exclaimed.
 There was a sickening loud thump off somewhere in the distance, like something heavy hitting the ground.
 “Did you hear that?”
 “Yeah. What was it?”
 They both stood up and looked around perplexed. They couldn’t see much since the grass had been allowed to grow out in anticipation of the cows.
 “I think it came from somewhere over there,” Karl said pointing beyond the old barn.
 They spread out and walked in the direction of the mysterious sound. It took them some time to find something until Marisa called out to Karl. He rushed over and in the field they found a man in a strange suit with a large backpack lying in the field. He didn’t respond to them, seemingly asleep.
 “This is an odd place to sleep. Right?” Karl asked, but Marisa didn’t answer.
 “Karl, can you go get my dad? He should be at the helipad. You remember where it is?”
 “Yeah, just past the mini-golf course.”
 “Good, go get him and tell him that a man is… sleeping in the field. I… I’m going to go get my m-mom,” Marisa said. Karl later found out that the man was not sleeping but had died while parachuting, apparently his chute failed to deploy. He died instantly.