It would be incredibly dishonest of me to say that I was friends with Carrie. We were passing acquaintances, who simply shared a class together. But this does not mean that I am not some coward, using the struggles of a near stranger for my own monetary gain. I am a documentarian, and I’d like to use my connection to the story to inform the public about the nature of the incident, which has been shrouded in mystery. It is difficult to get a grasp on what happened. You can thank fake news for that. I’ll start with the story, the story that made its rounds on the front page of every newspaper and the home page of every news site.

I write this on May 6th, 2019. Three years ago today, May 6th, 2016, a girl in Connersville, Indiana began to float away. I know, stay with me. It was slow, just a foot or two that first day. For a week, people in town would flock to watch her drift further up, right outside the Walmart. They often came with ropes and ladders, but she’d insist that she was fine, and just wanted to be left alone. That girl was Carrie Raymond, and she was in my intro to journalism class. I always thought she was nice. One time she ordered a pizza for all of us who were staying late to work on our research papers. But this Carrie was floating, just floating, like it was no big deal. She occasionally talked to friends on the phone. She’d complain about the weather, all normal Carrie things. When she still wasn’t too far off of the ground, her boyfriend, Daniel, would sit on the roof of the Walmart to talk with her. Everyone in town just let her be. Until one day someone from out of town took a video and put it on Reddit.

It was like in action movies, when someone knocks over a big red barrel full of gasoline, or oil, or whatever, and then someone lights a match and drops it, and like magic, it just lights up effortlessly, completely. News vans and helicopters, and women in pantsuits talking in a monotone voice, the whole nine yards. Some scientists, who were no doubt ecstatic to find an excuse to wear their lab coats in public, were underneath Carrie with big beeping machines, which clearly made her very uncomfortable. In that moment of history, we weren’t just another town in another fly over state, we were Connersville, the town with the flying girl. Everyone called her a “flying” girl, but I still attest that “floating” is the more appropriate term. You wouldn’t believe how much money that one Walmart made. They doubled their staff size to keep up with the tourists, and they’re still selling t-shirts with a silhouette of Carrie on them.

The three or so months after the news people showed up are when most of what the public knows about the Connersville incident came to light. Scientists claimed it had some vague connection to magnets, priests said she was possessed, and there was a psychic or two that said anyone could float if we just connected to our phantom selves. Carrie declined to answer any questions regarding her floating. She did answer several questions about her passion for photography, her controversial thoughts on Pink Floyd’s “The Wall," and how funny her friend Jenny is. They actually interviewed Jenny. They interviewed everyone even slightly related to Carrie. I ended up in a Vice News special. In the clip, I’m wearing a beanie because I hadn’t showered in three days, and my hair got really gross. Everyone said pretty much the same thing, we didn’t know what was happening, we were a bit concerned, but what could we do? Eventually the attention shifted to the next big story, a floating girl wasn’t so remarkable propped against the existential terrors of global warming and terrorism. So the girl floating away just became another piece of the collective subconscious. Late night TV hosts use her as a punchline. I think they referenced it in that year's YouTube Rewind. The last time she made the news was when she got high enough to be in the path of planes, and Sean Hannity tried to argue she should be shot down. After that, everyone moved on. But not the people of Connersville. In the past two years I’ve conducted dozens of interviews, and documented as much as I could. Here are the highlights.

May 6th, 2017, the one year anniversary, and approximately where I begin documenting the case. The town gathers in front of the Walmart, which was making bank. People sing songs, talk about Carrie, and fly a high altitude drone up to video chat with her. It’s nice. They did this again last year, and will be doing it again tonight. I’m excited.

July 12th, 2018, I interview Carrie’s Mother. Her Father is almost famously dismissive of journalists. Carrie’s mom is a loud, caring, and insanely funny woman. She talks about some of her favorite things about Carrie, and says she almost isn’t surprised that out of all the teenage girls in the world, she started floating. She always knew her daughter was special, and special and supernatural aren’t that far apart. With the help of the college's astronomy students, Carrie’s mother sent up a box of her favorite chocolates attached to a small rocket. Whether or not Carrie received the chocolate is unknown.

November 18th, 2018, Carrie's boyfriend, Daniel Francis, commits suicide by jumping off the roof of the Walmart. His death sends shockwaves through the town. I only had one interview with Daniel. He stormed out when I asked if he thought Carrie’s floating might be voluntary. In his suicide note, he revealed that Carrie told him what she was going to do, but he didn’t know what she meant until she started floating for real. That’s the most he reveals. He says anything else would be a disservice to Carrie.

Shortly after the funeral, Carrie is unable to be found by telescope, satelite, or any other means. Nobody knows what happened to her. Her parents hold a funeral. The energy in town is noticeably different for weeks. Carrie had become a figure for us to sort of rally around, a thing that defined us. It was a difficult time.

You can attempt to attribute significance to the disappearance of Carrie Raymond. It’s proof of some greater power; it’s indicative of deception in news media; it is an undeniable sign of our world just being a simulation. I don’t know if I’m confident enough to claim anything crazy like that, but it does remind me of something Carrie once told me in passing, something she said a lot. She said it many different ways, but here’s how she said it to me. “There’s not an artistic meaning to it." We were talking about the 2016 election. We were journalism students after all “- it’s all reality, which is directly opposed to art, but it fills people with these strong, violently passionate feelings, positive or negative, and isn’t that what art is?” I bring this quote up because I can’t help but feel the true meaning behind what happened isn’t literal, but metaphorical. As much as it flies in the face of journalism, I just see her as this floating Moby Dick, but I still haven’t cracked the meaning.

I’ve just returned from the annual event dedicated to Carrie, I say “Event” because “Celebration” feels wrong, as does “Memorial." It was more somber than previous years. It was really touching. As the crowds shuffled out of the parking lot, and the Walmart closed early, I heard a faint thump behind me. Turning around, I saw a slightly burnt and battered box of Ghirardelli Chocolate.