***
Saturday morning, I came in from watching the sunrise and Dad and Devon were already eating together.
“Do you mind if I have a cup of coffee?” I asked. Brewing it always smelled so good and I wanted to taste what adults so needed in the morning. It wasn’t as if it would stunt my growth. Even if I didn’t die, I was already five foot eight.
“Help yourself.”
I poured a cup and sipped. Bleah! Liquid pencil grinds. I spat it out in the sink.
Dad didn’t look up from his smartphone.
“Hey, if you like, I can go to work with you guys,” I suggested. “Help out.” More time together would be great.
“No, thanks. Nothing for you to do. Devon will be delivering. I’ll fix a logo and get through some paperwork. You just enjoy yourself.” He stood up. “We better leave now, Devon.”
“You could clean up around here,” Devon suggested with a grin and then off they went—together. It was a good sight even though I felt a pang of loneliness. Maybe if Mom had been alive, it would have been the two of us having fun somewhere else. I felt a bit better knowing that she and I would be sharing lots of together time soon— forever even.
“Just you and me, Oreo.” I went into the fridge and got him some yogurt. He limped over to me. “Legs sore?” He nodded as he lapped at the small yogurt cup. It was early for a Saturday but I already felt bored and lonely so I texted Scratch.
U up?
Now I am, he replied which seemed kind of grumpy for Scratch.
What do u want 2 do 2day? I texted back.
Y? U free? he asked.
What kind of question was that? We had made plans to hang out. I leaned back on the counter looking over his words on the screen. Tone is funny in text so instead of answering on the keypad, I called him. “Hello, Scratch? I thought you said you were coming over today.”
“I came over yesterday and saw you in the car with Aiden.”
“Oh.” Oreo finished his yogurt cup and batted the container towards me. “So?” I finally said.
“So if you’re going out with him now I thought you wouldn’t want to do stuff with me.”
I sighed into the phone. “I’m not going out with him. Scratch, I went indoor skydiving.”
“What? Without me?”
“Well, you can’t go with a cast on. And you were with your Dad. Besides I needed a lift.”
“So you went skydiving with him.”
“No. I went skydiving all by myself. Aiden videoed.” Dead silence on the other end. “Don’t be mad, Scratch.”
“I’m not mad,” he grumbled.
“Good.” But clearly he was and he’d been my best friend since we were little kids. I owed him more of an explanation which I just couldn’t give him under these circumstances. “Scratch, did you ever feel like you just had to experience everything right here and now?”
Chapter 23
DEAD CALM
I waited. Did I have to tell him more? That this might be our last chance to do anything together? That I was going to die in a couple days?
At the other end of the receiver, I heard a sigh. “I totally get you. When I want to do something, I want to do it instantly. I don’t want to wait till I’m “mature” the way Mom wants.”
“Well, then! Tell me, if you could do anything today, what would it be?” I walked towards the patio window and peered out at the sky. It looked sunny, no clouds. Another hot day.
“I don’t know. Waterslide?”
“Yes. Let’s do it!” For a second I got distracted watching Oreo drop his hind quarters which reminded me about something else. “Wait a minute, you have a cast on.”
“So what? I’ll put a garbage bag around it. My mother doesn’t have to know. I’ll call Dad and he’ll drive us.”
“Are you sure?”
“Dad will go along with it. I’m sure.”
“See you later then.” I felt a lot better when I hung up. I smiled. Scratch was great for understanding. Someone to be with—something exciting to do again! It made me feel alive which, technically, I wasn’t sure I was.
I scooped up Oreo. Mreoow! I tried to massage his hind legs but he squirmed.
“Okay, you just go lie in the sun. It will make your joints feel better.” I cleared all the dishes from the table and even cleaned the coffee maker. Then I picked up all the clothes off the bathroom floor and threw them into the hamper and scrubbed the bath and sink. Cleaning up the place, just as my brother had suggested, was all I could do for Dad and Devon right now.
An hour later, Scratch’s father honked and I ran out with my suit and towel in a bag. When I got in, Scratch showed me a blue-skinned sleeve. “It’s a waterproof cover for my cast. Dad bought it.”
“Cool,” I answered.
His dad drove us to Confederation Park on the Hamilton side of the lift bridge. He paid for all of us to get into the Waterworks, then slathered sunscreen on himself, and hopped on a pink air mattress to float on the Lazy River. “You know where you’ll find me, kids. Have fun.” He pulled his baseball cap over his eyes.
Scratch grinned at me. “Last one up is a rotten egg.”
Of course you can’t run in a pool area—whistles will blow, lifeguards will yell—but you can have a walking race. It’s way harder and funnier. I was laughing too hard to win as we wound around the ramps leading to the top of the waterslide. I could see Lake Ontario from where we stood, a large, dark blue slice in the distance with little, white, triangle sailboats dancing across it.
I shook my head. How could I leave this world? Two days and a bit left and I had only just realized how beautiful it all was.
“There’s more to see than can ever be seen; more to do than can ever be done.” Mom sang me that Lion King line in my head and I felt better instantly.
“Hasta la vista, sucker!” Scratch called as he leapt down his slide.
I sat down in the watery tunnel closest to me and let go. Fast up one side for a while, then down the middle for a longer time, then up the other side around a bend and whoosh! into the pool at the bottom, water shooting up my nose.
“Beat you!” Scratch said as I climbed out. We went again.
Over and over. My knees quivered from walking up the incline so often.
At lunch, we stopped for hot dogs on his Dad’s tab. The rest of the afternoon we surfed the wave pool. Not exactly the hot destinations I always wanted to travel to, like Hawaii or California, but pretty darn good.
It was a perfect day, another sparkling gem on my weeklong bracelet.
At the end of it, Scratch came over to my house and we ate leftover spaghetti. “I better get going,” he said. “Did your father really mean four-thirty in the morning tomorrow?”
“Yeah, well, if we’re fishing, I guess the fish bite then.” Just thinking of a fish mouth being hooked through the lip made me feel queasy. Still, if that’s what it took for us all to be together, I knew I would find a way to enjoy the voyage.
“So early. But my mother loves going out on the lake in a boat. They may just hit it off.”
I smiled. Maybe I could save Dad from himself these last couple of days. “Do you want to stay just a while longer? I think we have some cookie dough ice cream.” I didn’t want to watch the sunset alone.
“Sure.”
Together we emptied the container and carried our dishes onto the deck. Scratch pushed his chair close to mine. When we finished our dessert, I put the dishes down for Oreo to lick.
Scratch twisted a little and before I had a chance to be nervous, he leaned over and kissed me. Wow! His lips felt cold and tasted sweet from the ice cream and my mouth just dropped open naturally. Unlike Aiden, Scratch didn’t try to swallow me. His lips just lingered and caressed mine for an extra moment.
The sensation tingled.
Mom, I can’t die now. I just fell in love.
***
“Wake up, Jade!” Dad shook my shoulder gently. It was Sunday. For one moment I hoped he had shaken me out of
some long, strange dream. My room was still dark, and I bumped into Oreo as I stumbled out of bed. I pulled on jeans and a top.
“Sneakers not sandals,” Dad told me as I flip-flopped into the kitchen. I found some socks in the dryer and put them and my runners on. Then I joined Dad at the table.
He poured an extra cup of coffee, topping it with a generous pour of chocolate milk. “You’ll like it better with chocolate in it. Tastes like a mochachino.” He set it next to my cereal bowl.
“Thanks,” I said. “Mmm, this is yummy. Hey, wait. Wouldn’t sandals be better in a boat than sneakers?”
“I know you’ll be disappointed,” Dad winked, “but we’re not going fishing today.”
“What? Dad, Scratch and his mom are up already and the weather is perfect!”
Devon wandered in from the bathroom. “You better not be cancelling. You guys woke me from a dream about Andrea Weston in a string bikini.”
“Oh, no. It’s a whole different adventure. Something none of us have done before. You know the client, Devon. Just don’t say anything though. It will be one last birthday surprise for Jade.”
Hurray! No fish flopping, no glassy black eyes staring up at me, and yet we were still going on a trip together.
If I closed my eyes I could remember another surprise: being five years old and getting up this early to drive to Disneyworld with my entire family, Mom included. This would be our first family excursion in a very long time. It didn’t even matter what we did—anything had to be better than fishing.
When we arrived at Scratch’s, Devon squeezed into the back of the jeep so Mrs. Chalms could take shotgun.
“Hi, Scratch,” I said as he squeezed in beside me and I shifted to the middle bump. “We’re not going fishing! We’re doing something else. A surprise!”
“They’ll let me do it with a cast on, won’t they?” he asked my father, letting his good hand rest on top of mine.
“You won’t be needing your arms much,” Dad answered.
I was really curious now.
Dad drove us up and down country roads in the darkness. I could see Mrs. Chalms bracing herself against the door when he turned into a curve. She didn’t trust his driving, which couldn’t be a good thing.
After about an hour, we pulled into a parking lot in front of a building with a barn-shaped garage next to it. We’re full of hot air the sign on the garage read and the logo of a hot-air balloon was formed using the o in hot.
“You’re kidding!” I said.
“Let me get this straight.” Devon said. “Skydiving was part of a death wish that I gave Jade when I gave her the skateboard. But you’re okay with hot-air balloon rides?”
Chapter 24
DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN
Dad’s face flushed. “They allow ten-year-olds on board. You don’t need lessons or certification just to try one excursion the way you do with skydiving.” He got out of the jeep.
“Steven told me we were going fishing on a boat,” Mrs. Chalms said as she stepped down.
“Just a little joke on Jade. She hates fishing. We wanted to keep this a surprise so we let her keep on thinking that’s what we were doing.”
“But is it safe?”
“The owners are experienced, licensed pilots,” Dad answered. “They have an accident-free record.”
“Awesome,” Scratch said. He slid out so I could too.
“This is the client we had to get the rush shipment for?” Devon asked.
Dad nodded. “Balloon trade show. Come on. There’s some paperwork to fill out.”
Dad introduced us to Lacey Adams and her brothers, Mike and Stew, who were packing things onto a trailer at the back of a van. Lacey, a tall woman in skinnylegged jeans and cowboy boots, stopped to give us each a clipboard and pen. By the time we filled out the same scary insurance waivers that I had for indoor skydiving, Mrs. Chalms wanted to back out. I could tell.
“You’re afraid of heights, aren’t you, Scratch?” she said as she held the pen over the paper.
“I’m not afraid of anything,” he answered.
“That is a problem.” She frowned as she signed.
Lacey directed us into the van. We all piled in and, still in the dark, we bumped across an open field. We stopped in the middle of nothingness and got out.
“Part of the fun is helping with the prep work,” Lacey said, turning on a portable lantern. “Would you grab an edge of the skin?” Scratch and I lifted out the nylon balloon and unrolled it while Dad and Mike hoisted a huge gondolier-shaped basket off the trailer.
Mrs. Chalms paced alongside of us. “Can we all fit in that?”
Lacey didn’t answer. At that moment she yanked at a pull-start handle which turned on a fan. “We fill it with cold air first,” she shouted over the motor. “Hold that open for me.”
Scratch and I lifted the top of the balloon so that the air could go inside. Bit by bit the balloon skin began to fill out into a floppy blob. “Stand clear.”
We stepped away as a burner roared on, shooting a tall flame into the large hole at the bottom. I felt the heat against my face and hands.
“That’s gonna heat the air so the balloon will rise,” Lacey shouted. She grinned a big toothy smile. Not exactly beautiful, her blond hair was a little faded, her skin wrinkled around the eyes, still she looked outdoorsy and happy. I glanced from Dad back to her, hoping for some connection. Lacey or Scratch’s mother, I didn’t care with whom. I didn’t see any.
Lit up from the inside by that flame, the balloon looked like an oversized, orange light bulb with rainbow strips of colour down its sides.
I smiled. Rainbows always gave me hope.
“Just want to go over some safety things. This is the brace position. You crouch down and bend your head.” Lacey demonstrated. “If we run into some bad weather and make a rough landing, this is the position you should assume. When you get in the basket, I want you to hold onto the handle as we take off. The balloon does not get steered the way a car or plane does. We bring it up or down to take advantage of air currents. Landing’s not an exact science. Mike and Stew follow in the van so you won’t have to walk back. Get in everybody, leave that spot for me,” Lacey told us, pointing to a space, in the centre below the flame. “You, over there. Jade, over there.” She positioned us along the sides of the basket facing out. “Keep your arms in at all times.”
I hoisted myself over the side of the basket. By the time Dad helped Mrs. Chalms in and climbed in himself, the balloon was bucking and straining.
“All set?” Lacey asked.
“Yeah,” Scratch called out.
I gave her a thumbs up and Dad nodded. Mrs. Chalms said nothing, but I saw her gripping her handle so tightly the colour left her knuckles. Finally, Stew and Mike released the balloon.
We rose up at the same time as the sun. Swiftly but not so fast as to get the sickish elevator-feeling in my stomach. Pure magic. My mouth dropped open. It felt like a trip up into heaven.
The roar of the burner stopped abruptly and we floated in perfect silence. The edges of the barns and farmhouses lit up, then the hill and the fields. As we drifted by, I noticed the shadow we cast against the ground. Wow, that was us. We were really riding this thing. It was amazing. Pink and gold and orange sunlight painted the sky.
Mrs. Chalms began snapping pictures furiously.
Scratch nudged me and pointed down to a clearing in the brush. A deer and her two fawns stood there nibbling at the grass.
The roar started again and we floated up and turned. We were sailing on a breeze high enough for a sensation of flight, low enough to have a detailed view. Over the road we saw the van chasing after us. The roar and heat stopped again and we drifted along a stream which led to a mirrorlike lake.
A fish leapt up, silvery in the sunlight. Splash! I could see the ripples.
The roar began again and I felt the lift. I watched as a falcon soared and then dove, snatching up a small wriggling creature in its beak.
“Dad,
this is the best surprise I could have ever imagined.”
“Yeah,” Scratch agreed.
Devon gazed out, not even saying a word.
Thank you, Mom, for this extra week, I thought.
Too soon the balloon circled. We had full daylight now but here and there some clumps of grey cloud drifted.
We began to sink. Slowly, quietly, smoothly.
Suddenly the basket shook hard.
Mrs. Chalms shrieked.
The burner started up again. We lifted and then the roar stopped. We drifted for a bit, down and down. Another gust shook us, then tossed us in the opposite direction.
“Electric wires—there!” Mrs. Chalms yelled, pointing to a pole.
It was so close, I could have reached out with a broomstick and touched it. The roar started but time stopped. We didn’t seem to be lifting. Faster and faster we flew toward the pole. We couldn’t clear it at this rate.
“Everyone move to the back,” Lacey directed.
We quickly shifted over.
“We’re going to hit!” Mrs. Chalms cried.
We were all going to die up here in this basket, I thought. My brother, my father, Mrs. Chalms, Scratch and Lacey— all because I had relived my last week, altering the course of destiny.
“Everybody, lean back,” shouted Lacey.
We squeezed over and the basket tipped. The burner roared.
“Now over there.” We shifted over to the other side. The basket floated over the wires now. Would we clear them?
“Back to your places!”
No clunk, sizzle, or pop, no burning sensation. The burner shut again and the ground rushed up towards us.
“Brace yourself!” Lacey cried.
I bent my knees and bowed my head, all the while tightly gripping the handle in front of me.
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