…which causes several traffic accidents in town
The Doclopedia #326
Tiny Folk & Their Big Friends: Oola Flyer and Casey Mullins
Oola and Casey first met when they were both 10 years old. Oola, who was obsessed with the concept of flight, had been watching Casey and his dad fly model airplanes at a park near their home. On a whim, she decided to follow them home to get a closer look at their plane collection, which she was engaged in doing at midnight that night when Casey stepped into the room and saw her.
The First Rule of the Tiny Folk Code of Secrecy is: Never Be Seen!
The Second Rule is: If You Are Seen, Run Away!
Oola did neither. She stared Casey right in the eye and said “I love your planes. They’re so beautiful.”
Casey, a painfully shy boy around girls, was speechless. Here was a girl…a 4.5 inch tall girl…in the back bedroom that served as “The Hangar”, and she was talking to him as if nothing was strange about it.
Oola decided to go for broke and asked Casey to close the door and come talk to her. Introductions were made, Oola told Casey about her people and eventually the chatting turned to the subject of flying. By then, Casey was less gobsmacked and started warming to discussing his favorite thing.
That was 20 years ago and for the last 15 of those years, Casey has been building working models of everything from Montgolfier style hot air balloons to solar powered planes to jet fighters…and Oola has been flying them. Not just riding in them, oh no, but sitting behind tiny controls and actually piloting. She has even gone up twice on model rockets. If there is anything more fun than flying, Oola couldn’t tell you what it is.
For his part, talking most nights and weekends with Oola helped Casey get past his shyness. Growing up to be 6’2, handsome and a Navy pilot didn’t hurt, either. Nowadays, Casey is an aeronautical engineer working with NASA on space plane design. In fact, he recently designed a working model of one that would be just right for a 5.5 inch tall pilot. At first, he and Oola didn’t know how they might get it into space, but then they saw a YouTube video of a camera that was attached to a balloon and reached the edge of the upper atmosphere.
Casey and Oola are awaiting delivery of a similar, but larger balloon any day now.
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