YOU NEVER KNOW
THE LAST TIME
On July 25, 2020, I knew I had to write about hot air ballooning after a pilot landed in our yard. For the longest time, a character had been knocking on my heart. I knew her initials were EEW, and now Evelyn’s voice is much clearer through the clouds of my imagination.
Fourteen-year-old Evelyn, old enough to become a hot air balloon student pilot, learns how to fly hot air balloons with her grandfather by her side. But when he talks her into joining him for a hot air balloon race, it’s in the clouds that she realizes the reason why Grandpa has been so different lately: his memory is slipping. In the air, she realizes she must save grandpa and herself.
Beginning the Summer of 2022, I reconnected with the pilot who landed in our yard. Researching hot air balloon racing, drafting, and revising, the story is unfolding.
I never knew about hot air balloon racing. I also did not know that 14-year-olds can be a student pilot, 16-year-olds can pilot on their own as a private pilot, and 18-year-olds can be commercial pilots. The YA audience is evident within this range, and I cannot wait to share this book with readers!
A surprise to my writer’s heart, the stand-alone companion title evolved first: SCRAP WISHES.
SKY SURPRISE
We stood at the window,
our ears strained
to make sense
of the fiery sound.
What is that?
my whisper harsh
with fear.
You shake your head
and then smile.
It’s a balloon.
We rush outside
feet bare
teeth unbrushed
PJs mismatched
hair snarled.
And there,
in the field beside
our home,
the hot air balloon
trapped.
The ballooners
(Is that what you call them?)
wave
their voices drowned
by the fire.
Get the kids!
We rush to wake
their Saturday sleep.
Half a dozen
bare feet join us.
We stand
in the backyard
our eyes strained
to make sense
of the balloon
brushing our roof.
Are they going to land?
I shake my head.
It’s a balloon.
Squeals fill our ears.
Three smiles
light their faces
as red as the balloon.
The ballooners
wave us over.
Three little heads bop
up from inside the basket
as the pilots
skip the balloon
to the longest stretch of yard.
After the balloon deflates
our hearts inflate
with the memory
of the moment
of the story
of the magic.
~Danielle Louise DeFauw, April 2021