Writers Around the World - Anthology (Volume One)

Chapter 2

  Soon, we are up in the air. Sera is chattering about nothing in particular. I really don’t know, since I haven’t been paying attention. My mind is elsewhere… Evan-land. Man, I can’t wait for tonight. The music, the atmosphere, just everything. It’s how I should be spending my summer. Concerts, skateboarding, shopping, just hanging out and being a teenager. Not spending all my time out on a farm. A farm! Me and farms, we don’t get along very well. Me and nature in general don’t get along. I’m a city girl through and through.

  “Ava? Ava, are you listening to anything I’m saying?” Sera inquires.

  I’m snapped back to reality then. “Huh? What were you saying?” I ask, trying to save face.

  “You haven’t heard a word I’ve said since we left! I was thinking that field over there would be a nice place to have our lunch.” She points over the side of the basket. I get up and peer down over the edge.

  She’s right. It does look pretty. The grass is so green. And the wild flowers. Just, wow! And that stream. Too bad I didn’t bring my bathing suit with. It’s nice enough for a swim. Maybe another day.

  “That looks perfect,” I conclude, then look at my watch and realize we have been flying for quite some time. “I’m sorry I haven’t been paying much attention to you today. I’ve got a lot of stuff on my mind.”

  “Evan?” Sera guesses.

  “Yes.. I’m so nervous about tonight,” I admit.

  “Aww, Ava! It’ll be just fine. Remember, he’s the one who invited us to the show,” Sera says, reassuringly.

  “Yeah, true, but why hasn’t he asked me out already then?” I ask, puzzled.

  “Well… Umm, I don’t know. You know how boys are. They’re…”

  “Weird!” I interrupt.

  “Haha, yes. Weird, indeed. You ready to land and have some lunch?”

  Yes, please!”

  We land safely in the field. Sera climbs out of the basket and lays the blankets down on the grass. I hand her all of our lunch gear, and climb out after. We then get everything situated on the blankets.

  “How about we look around a bit first and stretch our legs? I want to take some pictures, since it’s so pretty here.” Sera is standing there, holding her camera up.

  “Sounds good to me.” This is her day, might as well let her enjoy it. Because the rest of the summer, it’s all about what Ava wants to do.

  After what seems like hours, we sit down on the blanket and have a nice lunch. Sandwiches, chips, and my favorite, Mountain Dew.

  “Thanks for making our lunch. I wouldn’t have even thought of it,” I tell Sera, sincerely thankful for her over preparedness.

  “No problem. I’ve had this day planned out for weeks.” I don’t doubt that for one second.

  “You have entirely too much time on your hands. We need to find you a boyfriend,” I say, with a laugh.

  “Maybe Evan has a cute friend for me?” Sera suggests, hopefully.

  “We’ll ask him tonight!” I grin at her. Maybe we’ll both get boyfriends tonight. If Evan doesn’t ask me out soon, I’m just going to do it myself. I’m so sick of waiting on him. “I think I’m going to ask Evan out tonight. I can’t stand waiting on him any longer. He likes me, I just know it. So, why not?”

  “Ooh, that takes guts! I don’t think I could do it. You’re a lot braver than I am. Have you decided what you’re going to wear tonight?” She is clearly baffled by my bravery.

  “Sure did. It’s in the trunk of my car. I figured I could just change at your house, then we could leave right away, instead of me wasting time dropping you off, going home, and then coming back to pick you up again. I want as much time with Evan tonight as I can.”

  “Always thinking, you are. I’ll call my mom when we get back to the farm and let her know you’re having dinner with us. She won’t mind. Then we don’t have to stop and eat o the way to the show.”

  “I love you Sera!” I exclaim.

  “I love you to Ava. You are having fun aren’t you?”

  “You know what? I actually am. I didn’t think that I would, but it’s not as bad as I thought.” And it’s true. The fresh air, all the sights, and best of all-I get to spend the day with my best friend. We don’t have adventures anymore. We never have the time. It’s always about school, or boys, or family or work. We needed this.

  Sera looks at her watch, “We should probably get packed up and head back. It took us a few hours to get here. With all we have to do before we go to the concert tonight, it’s best we get going.”

  “Right you are. You know how long it will take me to make myself look presentable for Evan. I need perfection!” I start putting all the food and utensils back in the cooler and the basket. Sera folds up the blankets and we put everything back in the balloon basket. Before long, we are up in the sky again. This time, I try really hard to check out the sights, but my mind wanders again. The time is drawing near for me to see Evan, and I lose all sense of everything that is going on around me. I am off in my own little fantasy world, playing out in my head how I want the night to unfold after I ask Evan out, but Sera’s shrieking snaps me back to reality.

  “What are you screaming about? Is there a spider in here or what?” I ask, trying not to sound annoyed.

  “Ava! Look around you, there’s fog everywhere. I have no idea where we are or where it came from. I can’t see anything! How are we going to find the farm? How are we going to land this thing? We can’t keep flying like this, and we can’t just hover and wait for it to clear up. We don’t know how long it’ll be here. It could be all night. I’m completely freaking out. Uncle Mat never told us what to do if this happened. What are we going to do Ava, what are we going to do?” Sera says, panicking.

  “Sera, relax. We’ll think of something. Calm down.” I reach for my cell phone in my pocket. “We’ll call your uncle and he can tell us what to do.” I hand her my phone.

  “You’re right. That’s the best thing to do.” She tries to dial the number, but it doesn’t work. “Shit! We don’t have any reception up here. Any other bright ideas?”

  “Maybe if we go a bit lower we can see better and find some place to land? At least then we’re safe on the ground. Then we can try calling again or find a house and use their phone,” I suggest.

  In retrospect, maybe I should have been paying more attention to what was going on. Oh, please don’t let us die. Here’s to hoping we can find somewhere safe to land.