The Kite That Flew in the Wrong Wind
by Namu Marupudi
At the annual Maple Field Kite Festival, a diamond-shaped kite named Zephyr waited eagerly with dozens of other kites.
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About this story
At the annual Maple Field Kite Festival, a diamond-shaped kite named Zephyr waits with dozens of others — but Zephyr is built a little differently. One of his wooden struts curves slightly to the left, giving him a lopsided, wobbly shape, and the whispers travel fast: 'That one will never fly straight. Poor design. Should have been thrown out at the shop.' When the festival begins, Zephyr wobbles, spins sideways, and crashes nose-first into the grass, again and again, while the sleek kites soar overhead. 'Maybe I really was built wrong,' Zephyr thinks. But his kid, a boy named Diego, studies the curved strut and says the words that change everything: 'You're not broken. You're just different. Maybe you need a different wind.' And at the far edge of the field, where the breeze swirls and twists around the oak trees in gusty little spirals — the wind every other kite avoids — Zephyr tilts, banks, and rises, dancing through the air like he was born for it. A soaring story about being built different.
- Strut — the wooden rod inside a kite that holds its shape
- Lopsided — uneven or crooked on one side
- Design — the way something is built or shaped
- Headwind — wind blowing straight against you
- Swirl — to twist around in circles, like the wind near the oaks
- Bank — to tilt and turn smoothly, like Zephyr in the air
- Discouraged — feeling like giving up
- Delighted — happily surprised, like a kite finally flying
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