Aldus Issue 2 - Web Version

A L D U S , A J O U R N A L O F T R A N S L AT I O N He tried it again, helping out with his arms, as though he were swimming; now he flew a good eighteen meters high, in a neat semi-circle, and landed as neatly as a dragonfly. He was about to try it a third time, but a ray of light fell on him and a hard voice asked: “What’s all this, then?” It was a police officer on patrol.

Mr. Tomšík startled terribly and stammered that he was in training. “Look, move along and train somewhere else,” the patrolman snapped, “just not here.” Mr. Tomšík didn’t understand why he could train somewhere else but not there, but he was an obedient man and so wished the patrolman good night and left immediately, full of fear that he would take off again.

That might have been suspicious to the police.

Scarcely had he reached the National Institute for Health than he again jumped into the air, lightly clearing a wire fence and, with the aid of his hands, he flew over the institutional yard right to the other side, to Korunní Avenue, where he landed right in front of a waitress carrying a mug of beer. She cried out and took flight. Mr. Tomšík guessed that flight at two hundred meters; it struck him as an excellent start.

He trained diligently in the next few days, only at night in out-of-the-way places, of course, especially in the vicinity of the Jewish cemetery over in Olšany. He tried various methods, starting from a sprint or with a dead jump from one spot, for example, or playfully, just waving his legs. He attained heights above a hundred meters, but could get no higher. He developed further landing techniques; from a gliding touchdown to a slow vertical landing, which relied on the work of the arms; he also learned to control his speed and change direction in the air, to fly against the wind, to fly with cargo, to rise or fall according to necessity and similar things. It was simple and easy; Mr. Tomšík was all the more astounded that people hadn’t discovered this yet; perhaps it was as simple as the fact that no 106