Written by Danielle E. Pasqua
Copyright © September 12, 2017
Spending my Saturday afternoon, raking leaves was an order issued from my mother. But she didn’t leave my sister Lacey and I alone to do the intended chore. She helped us out, as we cleared the yard. But I waved at my both my friends Xavier and Ian who were doing the same thing, gathering pyramid-shaped piles of rich-colored leaves, to reveal what was left of the earth’s vibrant green grass.
Then all my family’s phones began to vibrate at the same time. I knew it couldn’t have been a weather alert for the skies were clear or even a missing child’s alert, though I couldn’t doubt that. But I watched my mother study her phone, shaking her head and said,” Just another hot air balloon went down.”
“What? A hot air balloon? Were there people in it?” my interest caused me to drop my phone. I then kicked the rake aside to avoid from tripping on it.
“No, they’re testing them. Getting ready for the big “Ride,” my mother explained,” It’s for safety. There’s a festival next week.”
“Then why did we get that alert?” I asked.
“We’re all connected to your father’s phone,” my mother stated putting her phone back in her coat pocket. Then she stared at me only to say,” He’s part of this you know.”
I just stared back at my mother and then at Lacey. My sister only laughed and continued to rake. I gathered a ball of leaves in my gloves and threw it at her. She shielded it with her elbow, only to throw another batch of leaves at me, but her batch didn’t reach me because the wind took it the other way.
“So, what is Dad doing with this hot air balloon?” I asked my mother, still believing I would receive a straight answer.
“Like I said it’s for the festival,” my mother answered, not looking at me in the eye, but rather focused on gathering her pile of leaves into a star-shaped pattern, which I found quite odd. But I knew with the answer she gave with me about the hot air balloon, she wouldn’t allow no explanation for her bizarre molding of nature. The only other people who saw it were my sister and me. My friends were on the other side of the street.
Then I looked above me.
Maybe someone up there could see it.
But who?
“Now it’s getting late. I have to check the roast in the slow cooker,” my mother changed the subject. She then turned to both Lacey and I,” Lacey go in the garage and get some trash bags. Noah don’t forget to lock the back door when you come in. There are strange creatures roaming this town.”
“Like what?” I asked noting the concern in my mother’s eyes.
“When you see one, you will know,” she warned.
Then my mother walked up the deck’s steps to the kitchen.
My sister took her trip to side of the house.
I was alone.
Then I looked across the street at my friends.
It was amazing how our minds were connected.
It was like we were triplets at birth.
Maybe we originated from a lost era.
Then I helped my sister gather the leaves in the bags.
I dragged the last bag to the garage.
But before I locked the back-sliding door, I turned around and there were my friends.
“After dinner, we must go on a pursuit,” I explained,” There’s a missing hot air balloon.”
“We know,” Xavier agreed, as both Ian and him, held up their phones. There was a picture of a hot air balloon on their screens.
“How can that be?” I was stunned.
“Somehow, we are connected,” Ian explained,” A detective brotherhood.”
“Always meant to be together,” Xavier accepted our friendship.
Then I patted my friends on the back. They agreed they had to eat too, before we would set out on this extravagant hunt of ours, to be fully prepared for any absurd confrontation.
But at the dinner table my father wasn’t there.
I knew he was at work. Even though it was Saturday.
I had no appetite since I told my mother I was going with friends.
“Be back by nine. If you go on “The Ride” you must plan time accordingly.”
“Then what happens?” I asked, but my mother’s eyes appeared to be frozen glass.
My sister just laughed.
Then I jumped up from the table.
I knew I had to run.
I was glad I had my friends.
I grabbed my backpack and took off like a bandit.
Not a bandit of jewels or money, but a bandit of defining humanity.
Xavier, Ian and I met at the end of the cul-de-sac. I couldn’t help, but to turn back to look at my house. All the lights were off, except for the living room and the sensor light above the garage. Under the moonlight the three of us searched our phones for the local balloon festival. Strange enough, it was located on the town line, past the area where we found “The Rock” and the location of my father’s job.
“There’s a soccer field over there,” Xavier realized and then questioned,” We could never have a game there. We were always told the fields were wet.”
“But it hasn’t rained for a week,” Ian had brought up a good point.
“The league somehow found an excuse,” Xavier admitted, but then guessed,” Unless they were using that field for something- “
“An experiment of some sort,” I smiled at my answer, yet chilled at the thought of my nutty conclusion. The neighborhood had grown into a quiet and peaceful place, just like a planet of people that wanted to be left alone from any kind of encounter.
But this time instead of leading the way, I let Xavier have his turn, since he had an idea of where the sporting field had lied. Using the lights on our phones, we went about our masquerade. We passed the turkey hunters, who were now done with their autumn excursion, but didn’t question what we were doing. They only packed away their artillery and the game that they had caught.
We then came a across to the field, but below us lied a slope, too steep to walk, so we sat down and took a ride, as the earth’s gravity took us down to a creek, that was the entry to the neighboring town.
Then we crossed the widened flow of shallow water, only to climb another hill, though not as steep as the first. But above our heads, there was the vast soccer field, clear of any recreational activity, yet lit up from one goal cage, to the next. Then across from where we stood, next to the bleachers, we saw a big neon sign nailed to a barn that said, “The Ride: Hot Air Balloon Festival.”
“What’s so creepy about this?” Ian didn’t understand. In his mind, I knew he thought it was just another hot air balloon festival.
“That,” Xavier pointed to the hot air balloon besides the barn, whose basket stood straight up, as well as the balloon itself.
Then the basket door popped open.
The three of use looked at each other. Then Xavier said to me, “Noah, lead the way.”
“O.K.,” I agreed as my friends walked behind me, just enough to give us a triangular-shaped distance. But as we stepped into the basket, I froze only to complain,” I don’t know how to operate it.”
“Just Google it,” Ian started his search, but the Wi-Fi wouldn’t connect.
“I don’t think you need to,” Xavier forewarned as he fell backwards, but into a cushioned seat, whose buckle automatically strapped him. Then Ian and I were also forced to sit down by the strength of this peculiar gravity.
Then the hot air balloon took off. I knew this was “The Ride” my mother was talking about. But this was only a little bit of the mystery, not counting my other adventures. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see what would happen when we hovered above in the skies. But then I opened my eyes, still holding on to the basket, not just for fear, but for the certainty I had come to believe about my family and our purpose on Earth.
The odd thing about this flight is that we kept traveling across fields. To me and my friends had to agree, something was connecting all the playing fields in the local area. Because just when we came to the end of one field, there was a slight bump and then we ended up on another field. I thought we might’ve been somewhere upstate, since there were no buildings and that the country had been endless. But how did we get here? Were we in another dimension?
“Look down there. There’s another hot air balloon,” Ian pointed out, tilting his head over to see the orange-colored balloon.
“There’s one up there, to our east,” Xavier pointed to the blue-colored hot air balloon that looked small, but they knew it was the same size.
“The FFA must be having a hard time keeping track of these,” Ian mentioned.
“Being that it is night time,” I agreed, imagining that we were in some lantern show, on another world, where hot air balloons were designed to be a technological challenge, that I was meant to discover.
“You are going to find something crazy, Noah,” Xavier read my mind, “Am I right?”
“Oh, sure,” I mildly agreed as we past a barn, but this time the hot air balloon slowed down, as if it wanted me to read the sign that said, “Designing Footprints in the Sky.”
“What’s that about?” Xavier asked.
Then the hot air balloon took a sharp angle around the barn to the back. Even though we were buckled in, my friends and I felt like we were on a spinning ride at an amusement park. It didn’t give us a chance to make a stake at this crazy “Ride” we were on. But below us there were many footprints on the ground, that seemed to have climbed steadily up, leaving a dusty residue like rocket fuel.
“Just like footprints in the sand,” Ian commented.
“These are no angels,” I warned as I pointed to the creature on the ground, gray and lanky, with pointed ears and large dark eyes, that seemed to have no clue of our presence.
“That’s not human,” Xavier gasped,” What in the world?”
“They’re testing gravity,” I explained.
“Can they see us?’ Ian asked.
“Probably not,” I tried not to scare my friend. Then I took my binoculars of my backpack. I then zoomed in on the creature and read his left arm, ’High Tech Star Gateway Machinery.’ Then I scouted the perimeter of the basket,” He works with my father, but, where is he?”
“I’m taking pictures,” Ian took his phone out.
Xavier only laughed.
“I must be dreaming,” I thought I was going dizzy as I focused my attention back into the basket. I rubbed my eyes believing I would wake up. But I took my friends on this adventure and I knew I had made sure to get them back home safe.
“I’ll prove it to you,” Ian promised as he snapped pictures of the creature. I would’ve grabbed the phone out of his hand, but I didn’t want it to drop in this time warp field. The creature stared at us, but he didn’t charge at us. Instead he walked down again in the air.
But as the hot air balloon made a circle around the barn, ahead there was another hot air balloon with the same creatures. They then opened their baskets and walked out into the air, leaving trails of fiery soot beneath their feet. I eyed the opening to the basket. Xavier and Ian both saw me but warned me of this foolish idea. I pulled the latch to open the balloon, but it wouldn’t budge at all.
“They won’t let us,” I figured.
“Who?’ Ian asked.
“High Tech Star Gateway Machinery,” I answered.
Then the hot air balloon zoomed us into reverse. My friends and I fell head back in our seats, despite the fact we were strapped in. We raced like a time machine, where the world surrounding us was a just a whirlpool of colorful light. The other hot air balloons were nowhere to be found. They were ahead of us, testing the future of this planet or even other worlds. Then I felt a large bump.
I woke up.
The basket door was opened.
But we were no longer in the air.
We had returned to the old barn.
I then nudged both my friends.
“I’m achy. I want to go home,” Xavier moaned. I knew it wasn’t like him.
But as soon as Ian had awoken, the sooner he searched his photo gallery.
“Let’s look,” I suggested as Xavier and I studied Ian’s pictures, of the odd creatures walking in the air, without fear, but rather pride in their abilities. Then the pictures dissolved into nothing. We could hear an owl’s hoot, but we couldn’t make out where it was coming from.
“Maybe we should go,” Xavier advised.
“Before the coyotes and bears find us,” I agreed, as the three of us unstrapped ourselves, grabbed our backpacks, each taking a rather large leap out of the basket, right near the edge of the creek. But was we turned around, the hot air balloon was gone. Although the sign there still read, “The Ride: Hot Air Balloon Festival.”
“This is ridiculous,” I shouted.
“Did you put us in a story?’ Xavier asked.
“No,” I denied, knowing that maybe somehow, I did. As we crossed the creek, I stared up at the hill,” How are we supposed to get up there?”
“I know another way. It’s a little safer and more residential,” Xavier suggested,” That way we can avoid any wild animals.”
Ian and I followed Xavier, as we took a longer, yet less challenging direction back to neighborhood. I knew I’d never forget, that hot air balloon. It was too strange to be a dream. Then again dreams are strange.
Instead of ending up at the end of the cul-de-sac, we found ourselves across the entrance of the development. Our street wasn’t that far down, but when I reached my driveway, I noticed all the lights inside and out were on. I knew my father well enough, that he would know exactly where I was, including my mother and probably Lacey as well. Then my father walked from the backyard carrying an ax.
“You’re cutting more wood for the fireplace? At this hour?” I asked.
“I’m busy. I’ve been putting in a lot of overtime,” my father answered swinging the ax around.
“We went on a hot air balloon ride,” Ian mentioned.
Xavier punched him in the back, not to hurt him, but to warn him.
“So, you got a taste of another world boys?” Noah’s father asked.
“My friends and I were scared, as we waited for the answer.
“That world is yours,” my father then laid the ax at his side only to say,” I hope you enjoyed “The Ride.” It’s not a story after all, right Noah?”
Then my father walked away to go back to cutting wood.
“Are you going to be alright?” Ian asked.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I muttered.
“Until something else happens,” Xavier said.
My friends were right.
“The Ride” was an eye opener.
Dreams that we have. The one we fear. They could be reality.
Than I thought Should I start a journal?
Just like Ian’s phone, his pictures would be erased.
My writing would be erased.
So much for recorded history.
“The Ride” was magical, but I believed it was real.
That’s the hint I got from father.
Creatures testing gravity. Why not?
Don’t be a fool, Noah.