STORY: Ten Thousand Feet

"The cloud people looked less unusual than he expected."

The cloud people looked less unusual than he expected. He saw three. One woman. Two children. The girls had their hair in braids roped down their back. Their clothing was amorphous, white as cumulonimbus in a summer sky, in stark contrast to bronzed limbs, to purpled surroundings. The mother was bent at the waist, seeming to chastise or comfort one of t…