Riding On Air

SEVENTY! How on earth did that happen?” Jenny laughed as she clung on to the string of the helium balloon bobbing against the ceiling.

The table was littered with presents and cards, but her gaze sought out the envelope she knew there would be from Neil.

The familiar vocals of Status Quo drowned out the voices and then the music stopped as Karen brought out the cake.

Jenny watched, thinking how it was like seeing herself at the same age.

The party-goers broke into a toneless version of “Happy Birthday” and Jenny blew out the candles before they dripped too much wax on to the immaculate icing.

Karen ran her own cake-making business.

Something she definitely didn’t inherit from me, Jenny thought with a smile. Her own cakes were something to behold, but not in a good way.

Once the cake-cutting was over, Jenny turned her attention back to the table.

Most of the presents she would save until they got home, but she couldn’t wait that long for Neil’s.

She found it, then read the clue she knew would be attached.

Lighter than air. Includes an envelope. You sit in a gondola. Hot like you.

Visions of Venice swirled inside Jenny’s brain.

She imagined eating ice-cream as a gondolier propelled them under the bridges, along the canals.

“Hot like you” might mean they’d go in the summer. But “Lighter than air”? “Includes an envelope”? Neither of those really fitted.

She thought for a few moments longer. Then, defeated, she opened the card.

Inside it, as she’d guessed, was a voucher. Hot-air balloon ride, she read.

Neil stood nearby, his white hair sporadically lit by the flashing disco lights.

Jenny flung her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek.

“I’ve always wanted to –” “I know!”

They laughed, because they both knew she hadn’t always wanted to do anything of the sort.

Until he’d made her skydive at sixty-five, she wouldn’t even have gone up the Eiffel Tower, but since overcoming her fear of anything exciting, there had been no stopping her.

Every year she received a different voucher.

Last year, they’d had a hovercraft experience, piloting one each over a lake in Leicestershire.

They’d stayed overnight in a hotel and treated themselves to champagne.

The night had seemed both to go on for ever, yet pass too fast, and at one a.m. they fell into bed, with Jenny’s sister and her husband already asleep in the spare room.

The kids all lived close enough to go home by taxi.

Two of their grandkids had travelled, but Ian was working in Canada and it was just too far to come.

Jenny had so looked forward to taking the hot-air balloon trip with Neil . . .

****

“Mum! Are you ready?” Jenny grabbed her bag from the kitchen counter, making sure everything was inside.

“Ready,” she replied. The trip to Bristol took over an hour.

“Thank goodness the weather’s fine,” Jenny remarked as they pulled into the car park. “It’s not too windy, either.”

“It’s just about perfect,” Karen agreed, locking the car. “Shall we find somewhere to eat a light lunch first?”

Jenny nodded and followed her daughter

Within your pages, hopes and dreams Are voiced where none can see, My deepest fears and secret thoughts Held safe with silver key.

Each entry, I make sure to note Three things which make me smile: A sunny sky, a friendly word,

The laughter of a child.

One day, with fondness I’ll look back At what’s recorded here –

An honest view of how life was

Back in a previous year. to a picnic bench nearby.

“I never knew the basket was also called a gondola,” she said, unwrapping a bacon roll. “That really threw me.”

They sat for a moment as Karen poured orange juice and doled out sandwiches.

So much had happened since Jenny had opened that envelope. Life was unrecognisable.

“All done, Mum?”

Jenny looked at her for a moment, squinting against the glare of the sun, and thought how lucky she was.

Her children had always been there for her.

Motherhood hadn’t come naturally to Jenny at first, and after Tom, who’d been a nightmare in every way, she’d often wondered if she’d done the right thing.

They’d become easier as time passed. She couldn’t imagine how life would have been without them.

Especially now, when a new one had to be forged.

“All done.” They packed the wrappings into the basket and put it in the car.

Arm in arm, they made their way to the venue.

Laura Tapper.

Before long they’d been given safety instructions and Jenny was thrilled to discover they could all take part in helping to inflate the balloon.

The launch was bittersweet. Excitement bubbled in Jenny’s chest, yet there was the inevitable sadness that Neil wasn’t there to enjoy it.

It had taken her seven months to get around to booking the flight, but she was glad she had done it.

Neil wouldn’t want her to miss out just because he couldn’t be there as well.

Jenny was surprised to see that a fan was used to inflate the envelope, then a burner flame heated the air until it began to lift off the ground.

“It won’t be cold up there,” the pilot announced. “You can leave your coats behind.”

There were 15 of them inside the basket. The ground crew held the basket down until everyone was inside, and Jenny noticed the balloon was also attached to a vehicle.

When all was set, the balloon was released and they learned they would rise to around 2,000 feet.

Karen’s eyes nearly popped out of her head and Jenny laughed.

The smoothness of the launch was a surprise.

“We don’t know where we’ll land,” the pilot told them as the landscape diminished. “We’ll drift around for about an hour then find somewhere safe to come down.”

The peace was astonishing. They could hear the bleating of sheep and goats on a farm somewhere nearby.

When Jenny closed her eyes, it barely felt as if they were moving.

Everyone in the basket seemed to appreciate the near silence. There were no chatterboxes ruining the moment as the craft soared higher, at one with the gentle wind.

At last, Jenny knew it was time. Reaching into her bag, she took out a tiny plastic container and glanced at Karen.

“It’s a bit of your father,” she whispered, not wanting people to hear.

“Mum! What on earth are you doing?”

“It’s OK,” Jenny went on. “When we scattered his ashes in Cornwall, I saved some. I didn’t want him to miss out.”

Jenny removed the lid and furtively tipped a sprinkling over the side.

Together they watched them drift down, then disappear from sight.

“Sorry you missed it, Neil,” Jenny whispered, breathing deeply the freshness of the air and the beauty of the country below.

“Next year we’ll try abseiling. I know you always wanted to.”

“What do you mean ‘we’?” Karen asked in surprise.

Jenny replaced the lid and slid the container back into her bag.

“I’m taking your dad with me. I’ve got four of these little containers at the back of the cupboard.

“Oh, Mum!” Karen laughed.

She kissed her and pulled her closer, gazing over the glimmering Bristol Channel.

“You really are something else.”

The End.