For a few short minutes yesterday, I watched footage of a silver spaceship-shaped balloon twirl in the air far above the earth somewhere in Colorado. You probably did, too.

I had just heard on the radio that there was a 6-year-old boy on board a helium balloon contraption and found live footage of the ordeal online. As I watched, I wondered if it was real (someone had commented on the video that it looked like a publicity stunt by Disney/Pixar) but I also wondered if the boy was cold or dizzy, if he was aware of how far above the ground he was, if he was crying or praying or unconscious. And I know I’m not alone. It was wild and strangely inspiring. Haunting, yes, but also thrilling. The quiet spinning and lofting and the hope that if he was in there, he would have a soft landing and live to tell the tale.

I pictured him on Oprah – the audience beaming – the Mighty Opes gently asking him if he would ever ride in an air balloon again. I pictured a shy kid – an ordinary kid – who just had an amazing experience. Once the excitement had passed, he would go to school and play baseball and work part-time as a grocery clerk. As a Freshman in college, his friends would introduce him to girls as ‘The Balloon Boy’ and he would accept it good-naturedly. Maybe one of his parents would be on As It Happens, with Carol Off and Barbara Budd, later in the week.

And then I thought of the news I received only moments before hearing about Balloon Boy – that my sister-in-law had just had her first baby. I was an aunt! And I thought of the future and how I would tell Manuel Antonio that on the day he was born, a boy had climbed into an airship and flown 50 miles across Colorado. That as he arrived, another boy had left. Suspended in the ether of the unknown.

I wish that my story was the real story.

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Today I found news of another ‘Balloon Boy’ in Buckinghamshire, England. Five-year-old Charlie Castle’s balloon was found by the Queen while she was walking her dogs at Windsor Castle. She sent him a note – and the balloon – to tell him she had found it.