Childhood Miracle

I was about 10 or 11 years old. At the time, we lived in a two-story apartment in Hungary in the 1970's: the lower floor was the living room, kitchen and dining room, and the upper level had the bedrooms. We all traversed those wooden stairs many times a day. It had a turn and landing halfway. There was a full-length mirror on the wall of the landing.

On this day, I was alone upstairs, and I was about to go downstairs, when a voice inside my head told me this:

“Instead of taking the steps down, you will jump off, but you won’t fall. You will float over the stairs and safely touch down in the landing, because the laws of the world will be suspended for you for this brief time. No one will believe what happened to you, and you may also question this memory when you grow up. You must make a commitment here and now that you will never write this off as something a “silly child” made up. You must promise to remember this as a miracle — because miracles are possible.”

The voice was not alien to me, it was like I was talking to myself. I agreed to all this in my head and pushed myself away from the stairs. I sailed slowly, gracefully, in what I perceived as a smooth elliptical trajectory over the stairs and downwards. As I approached the landing, I turned my eyes to the mirror. In it, I saw myself. I was erect as I gradually descended onto the floor of the landing. I watched my reflection: in slow-motion, my toes touched the carpet of the landing first; then the rest of my feet followed, smoothly, inch by inch. I don’t know how long this took, but it seemed like it was about as much time as it would have taken to come down the stairs the usual way.

After touching down in the landing, I ran down the lower flight of stairs and burst into the living room. My mother was there. I told her quickly, excitedly, what happened to me — that I jumped off the stairs but instead of falling and breaking limbs, I gracefully floated. My mother shrugged. I could tell she didn’t believe me, or that she considered this a product of my imagination. My excitement evaporated and I was reminded of my promise to myself.

This memory has come up a few times in my life, but it has been on my mind more and more lately as I get older. There is a huge temptation to not believe it, but I feel I must stay true to the promise I made myself as a child.

This is the first time I am sharing it publicly.