I'm Lava Barton and this is Lava Burton Reads.

In every episode I hand pick a different piece of short fiction and I read it to you.

The only thing these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope you will too.

I have a dreamy little piece of fiction to read today and it comes from the Pulitzer Prize

winning author Stephen Millhauser.

Stephen currently teaches at Skidmore College and you probably encountered his writing

before.

It's been translated into 15 languages and one of his stories became the movie the illusionist.

This story of his comes from the collection The Knife Thrower and Other Stories published

by Crown in 1998.

It's called Flying Carpets and while it's told from the point of view of a man reminiscing

about his childhood, it sort of seamlessly flips between looking in the rear view and experiencing

these childhood moments as they happen.

And while you're listening I'd like you to think about the outer edges of comfort and

familiarity and the advantages perhaps of exploring those places.

So if you're ready let's take a deep breath.

And begin.

Flying Carpets by Stephen Millhauser.

In the long summers of my childhood, games flared up suddenly, burned to a brightness

and vanished forever.

The summers were so long that they gradually grew longer than the whole year.

They stretched out slowly beyond the edges of our lives, but at every moment of their

...