The sun beams, making the wisp nearly transparent, with sunlight shining down to whatever was below. I stand before the smoke, adjusting my floaters that were obstructing my arms from going down to my side. My parents always want me to wear floaters in the smoke. I don’t get it though, my brothers can go in the smoke all they want, even far out or below the wisp. I’m sure they’re down there doing tricks and having a ball. I started to toe into the wisp, it feels lighter than usual, and it’s warm. I can’t believe my parents are actually making me wear these, it’s ridiculous. I’m 16 for chrissake! I rip off the floaters and start wading through the wisp of the smoke. The warmth of the smoke slid up my leg, and my hairs stood on end as a chilling breeze pushed me into the smoke even further. I looked up, ‘nd saw that the source of the gust was the goddamn helicopter that drops the packages into the smoke, they probably gots some good food ‘nd   I wound up to my neck in the smoke, ‘nd I couldn’t see my feet when I looked down. I took a last look back at the coast line, ‘nd I saw some stupid kiddy kicking around in the smoke. I woulda yelled at him but I had more important things on my mind. I was thinkin’ how the hell I was gonna see down there, or find my brothers or anything down there, or if I was gonna be able to find my way back up. Then I went and tripped, b’cuz there wasn’t any ground where I stepped. I had reached the little kiddy ridge. My mouth got really dry, the heat from the smoke was really no joke here. It made me think of when my dad used to smoke in the car, it got so damn hot and stuffy. I could never breathe in that damn car. Even when he wasn’t smoking it would damn stink of it. But there wasn’t none of that smell in the air around this smoke. It smelled like some really bad eggs or like someone just ripped a mean one. Anyways, I stored away my nerves and stepped down into the smoke. Head-to-toe I was surrounded by the smoke.The damn smoke was burning the hell outta my throat, honestly I'm surprised I didn’t yack right there and then. My parents woulda been pissed if I yacked too, since they saved all their money so they could get us some cakes ‘nd cookies. I don’t know what really came over me, but I swore if there’s any snacks down here, I'd snatch some to bring back to them. Even if they didn’t like it they could probably sell it to someone else for a pretty penny. I ended up adjusting to the feel of the smoke, ‘nd while I couldn’t see clearly I could make out the shapes close around me. I moved real slow down there since it was so hard to see, but also because the smoke felt real heavy, like I was chained to the floor. It kinda dragged too, when I was walking around there, I actually ended up seeing a few fellahs, but I couldn’t really make out their features too much. I ended up coming to a street, which eventually led me downhill into what I think was a run down town, probably for tourists to eat n get souvenirs at or somethin’. I figured that was my best chance at gettin’ something for my parents. So I walked into this real dodgy joint, which was pretty much empty. I took a look around ‘nd figured out pretty quickly that nobody was here. It sure as hell smelled a lot better in here though, kinda like waffles? Gosh that threw me for a loop, waffles in a place like this. So I started going through doors for a while, there was a lot of damn door by the way. It was like a damn labyrinth that someone made for like those little mice where they gotta get the cheese, except I ended up being the mouse. Anyways I eventually found something real odd, it was like a factory sorta thing. It had that same waffle smell and there were a bunch of people here too. They were all shoulder to shoulder next to each other n kinda just shifting their weight around from what I could see from there. I figured that they were makin’ waffles or somethin’ over there, so I walked up to this one guy, real tall ‘nd kinda pale looking, ‘nd kinda tugged at his pant leg. 

“Hey mister, whatcha making?”

He didn’t even acknowledge me, he just kinda groaned, the creepy bastard. So I figured if he wasn’t gonna tell me I’d take a look myself. I forced myself through him ‘nd the man next to him, and there it was! A goddamn feast just laid out along the longest goddamn table I’ve ever seen. I felt kinda rude, cause well I was standing plain on this table now, but most of the people at the table didn’t seem to mind. Except the one guy that I pushed through, he sounded like he was crying while I was on that table. I got on my hands and knees to get a real good look at what food I could find. I ended up picking out this one strudel that looked damn good. It had that kinda sugar coating on top that kinda shines when you put it to the light, not like there was much light there. Just then, I got jolted off my knees and planted right on my face. It hurt like hell, but I knew I was moving  somewhere. I turned onto my back and I swear on my mother I saw my brother right there, it turns out he was the guy having such a hullabaloo. He didn’t move or anything, he just gave me like this look of shame. I didn’t really move off the moving table either, there were a lot of those dodgy looking people along the table giving me the same look, they were damn scary. I must’ve been on like a belt or something because they weren’t touching me but I was moving pretty quick. I don’t know why the hell they woulda needed to use a belt though, unless it was one of those diner places where you pick dishes up off the belt. I’d never seen something like that with pastries though, it was kinda cool but we weren’t making turns or anything like a sushi belt. I was just going straight somewhere, and pretty quickly too, I doubt anyone would wanna grab a plate that was coming this goddamn quick at them. I was thinking all this through right, where I was going ‘nd all, and I guess the belt just ended real abruptly, ‘cause I ended up falling ‘nd tumbling down into what I thought was like a thing to dispose of dishes or like a dumpster or something. Well to my goddamn shock when I got up I was in just about the bougiest goddamn place I’ve ever seen. It was a gigantic mess hall with all kinds of old ass architecture. I love that kinda building, with the old churches ‘nd stuff, it really makes me happy, knowing there’s still those artists ‘nd experts that still can do that kinda stuff. But anyway, that wasn’t really what caught my eye. I was staring at this table of 3 old farts who were sitting at this really tiny table ‘nd were eating. They were having all those pastries that were coming down this way. One had this dinky crown, another had some kinda white robe on, and the last one had a helmet on. The helmet one actually got up and shambled over toward the pile I was on top, which was honestly surprising given how fat this grubby bastard was. Not only did he shamble to this side, but he also went to grab my goddamn pastry that I was holding! It was my goddamn pastry and he was just mad about it, the greedy schmuck, so I kicked him square in the nose! He took a bit of a tumble and ended up on his butt, and started wailing his little eyes out. The other two kinda turned toward me and gave me this real bad look, and started to get up. I didn’t wanna stick around for that, so I started clambering my way back up the pile. It must’ve been one of the biggest goddamn wastes of food, because I made my way all the way back up the pile onto the belt ‘nd ducked past the creepy men. I jetted through the doors, running from the sweet smell and heading back to the vulgar gas. I quit running once I got out the building, ‘cuz it didn’t seem like there was anyone chasing me, and my lungs were burning like hell. I found my way up the slope, back to the light wisp. I took a deep breath, my airways aching from the caustic coating the smoke had left me. The sands of the beach greeted me back to the sunlit, unobscured world above. The sun was on the brim of a cloud, leaving heavens beams piercing through down onto the ocean of smoke. I wondered if my brother was gonna be back to have some of the pastry, but it didn’t matter, I got it for my parents anyways.

The end