One day your little red balloon will pop with a bang and you will be jolted awake. You will blink your eyes and stare around you. You will shut your eyes tightly and hope that you can go back to your dream. When you open again, you will rub your eyes and get up, turning around and staggering. You will fight and you will try not to believe, but the balloon has burst and it cannot be put back together.

You find it difficult now to talk to the others. You get nervous and you find it difficult to look them in the eyes. They still talk to you a little, hoping that maybe you’ll become acceptable again. They are worried though and sometimes you hear them talking in hushed tones. You want it back. You want that little red balloon again. You have the pieces and you try to put it back together, but it doesn’t work. You’re becoming an outsider. You lose your job. No tie now. You sit at home wondering what to do while you watch television. You turn on the computer and you search for acceptance, but you can’t find it.

You keep trying…

You can’t afford to see your friends now and they don’t miss you anymore. You’ve changed. You’ve lost yourself and your little red balloon.

You fall…

Sometimes you walk to the beach and watch the waves rolling into the shore. You ignore the world when you’re there and you feel a little bit alive again. Then you go back home and you watch television and exchange words with strangers on the internet.

You’ve lost your little red balloon and you can’t get it back. Maybe your little red balloon was only an illusion.