Flight

Theme: Real Life

The story ends with Icarus' fall. Not the actual fall, mind you. Just a declaration that he fell. When hubris has been shunned, and the virtue of moderation exalted, and the kid listening to the story has learnt his lesson - to always heed his parents' advice - the story ends. What they don't talk about, is the actual fall.

A limp body fell through the sky. The supple flesh struck against the jagged, rocky mountainside, and erupted in a mass of bone and guts. And then it lay there - still, in a pool of blood. Nobody bothered to come near. Nobody, except the maggots. They came in large numbers, feasting on his innards. Until it was so putrid that even they didn't want anything to do with it.

But they don't tell you that.
Because that's not an image you want in your kid's head.
Because real life is ugly.

His brother slapped him on the back, breaking his chain of thought, and asked, "What are you thinking about, Will?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all."
Then Wilbur Wright crawled into the tiny compartment, and strapped himself in.