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“All right, ladies and gents,” he announced. “Time to board. You and you, please.”
“Oh! We’re flying!” someone cried a few minutes later, once everyone was aboard and the basket floated at about my eye level.
I’d been so busy, I’d barely noticed the sun rise. But, wow. The sky was glowing orange and gold, colors echoed in the landscape and in the balloon fabric.
“It’s so quiet!” someone else exclaimed.
It really was. Quieter than dragon takeoffs, even.
My inner beast scoffed.I can be quiet. Like when I dive from a cliff.
True, but taking off from a flat surface took powerful wingbeats that flattened every bush, flower, and blade of grass in a ten-yard radius. The balloon, on the other hand, lifted smoothly, silently.
I couldn’t help grinning as it rose higher.
“Pretty cool, eh?” John murmured from my side.
I nodded. My dragon side had pooh-poohed the whole balloon/propane/basket arrangement, but I had to admit… Pretty cool was right.
* * *
Working ground crew was a strange gig, I decided twenty minutes later in the parking lot of the Circle K convenience store. Work started at 4:30 a.m. with a flurry of activity to get the balloons aloft. Then we piled into the van, blasted the heating tofull, and roared off to take up the chase — only to pull over at the Circle K.
That must have been a little ritual, judging by thebuy ten, get one freecoffee cards Chico and John pulled out to get stamped. Erin added a chocolate doughnut to her order, munching on it on her way back to the van.
“Come on, everyone.” Her nostrils flared. “The wind is picking up.”
I moved toward the back seat, but Erin shook her head. “You’re riding shotgun, so you can watch and learn.”
It was more grunt than invitation, but hell. That was fine with me.
As we drove off, John leaned into the space between the two front seats.
“So, you were in the Marines, huh?”
Good thing I’d leftSpecial Forcesoff the resumé. But I wouldn’t be mentioning that any sooner than I would mention the job I’d taken afterward.
“And a pilot, no less,” John went on. “What do you fly?”
I sensed Erin stiffen. I did too. Some civilians avoided talk of military duty like the plague. Others pried too much.
What did I fly? I held back a dry,Myself, in dragon form, and stuck to the part he could understand. “Helicopters.”
“What’s a helicopter pilot doing on ground crew?” He cackled. “Did you get suspended or something?”
I clicked my jaw. Suspended? Yes. But not from that job. Not that I said that aloud.
“Just taking a little break. I’m happy for some mindless work for a while.”
Erin shot me a withering look. Oops. I didn’t mean to imply her job didn’t take skill. Just that the rest of the ground crew could afford to kick back.
Especially me. No decisions, no responsibilities. My new mantra in life.
John chuckled. “Amen, man.”
“Oh! It’s beautiful!” a voice squeaked over one of the handheld radios Erin had placed in the cupholder between the front seats. Through it, we could hear both pilots as well as the guests.
“We keep that one on transmit,” John explained. “That way, we can monitor them without the pilots having to call in. This second radio is set to a different channel if we need to hail them. We usually don’t have to, though.”
