Davina Dupree's Bizarre Birthday Balloon Ride

by SK Sheridan

  Giles made the most DELISH.COM lasagne, one of my all-time favourite meals, and the side dish already laid out on the table was a giant salad platter in the shape of a hot air balloon. Green lettuce leaves made the upside down egg shape of the balloon, with slices of red tomato, black olives and small sprigs of spring onion scattered all over them, making rows of yummy decoration. Cucumber sticks stuck downwards beneath the lettuce leaves formed the ropes attaching the balloon to the cabin, which was made from sticks of red, green and yellow peppers, with square pieces of celery forming tiny windows. It looked too beautiful to eat, a true work of art, but we were all so hungry that both the lasagne and balloon shaped salad were demolished in minutes.

  Mr Duffy smacked his lips together loudly when he’d finished, raised his glass of fizzy grape juice and said,

  ‘I’m sure you’ll agree that was a triumph of a meal, everybody. Let’s toast the chef!’

  We all nodded and agreed and toasted Giles with our tall, fluted glasses of fizzy grape juice, and Giles went red and beamed round.

  ‘I’m glad you all enjoyed it,’ he grinned, standing up to collect the plates. ‘I only hope you enjoy the dessert just as much!’

  ‘Ooh goodie, pudding,’ Arabella said, her eyes gleaming. Her eyes followed Giles to the kitchenette and she squealed as he turned back towards our table, holding a giant bowl full of meringues covered in cream, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and blueberries. Honestly, that girl has such a sweet tooth, although I have to say my mouth watered as Giles brought the bowl closer and I saw the brown sugar topping everything. YUMSTERS.

  It was even more delicious than it looked, and there was enough for us all to have seconds. Then we all said goodnight to each other, and Arabella and I went back to our tiny room with very full tummies and gazed out of our window. It was pitch black outside now but when we looked down we saw that the ground below was peppered with golden lights from people’s houses.

  ‘I never realised towns could look so beautiful,’ Arabella breathed. ‘Like hundreds of pieces of glowing jewellery scattered over black fabric.’ I nodded, then jumped on to my bed to write in you, Diary.

  Our beds are actually very clever, because they are squashy and comfy with rectangular, sturdy bases, that are held in place by four ropes that go from all four corners up to the ceiling. This is very handy, because if the balloon shudders at all, or tilts slightly, our beds just go with the flow.

  Yawn.com. I’m going to have to go to sleep now, Diary, I don’t think I can keep my eyes open for one second longer. Can’t wait to see what adventures tomorrow brings! Night night.

  Early Morning, Friday, 19th March

  You’ll never guess what, Diary...

  I’ve just had breakfast on the balcony in the red light of dawn, looking down on to the stunning view of a harbour!

  I’m not sure where we are but we’ve clearly reached the sea because there are such a variety of boats below us. Giles brought the balloon down a bit so we could get a better view, and there are giant oil tankers next to passenger ferries, with all sorts of yachts and rowing boats crammed in between.

  Everyone seemed to wake up early this morning, partly the excitement of being on board the balloon and partly the fact that we could smell the freshly baked croissants Giles had made. I wonder when he manages to sleep – he seems to be either flying the balloon or cooking – but he looked cheerful enough so I suppose he must have napped for a few hours.

  ‘What time is it?’ I said, yawning, as I took a big bite of my warm, crumbly croissant.

  ‘Half past five,’ Amy muttered, staring at her phone. She’d managed to stop looking at it long enough to sort Hugo and Hattie out with some croissants and fresh orange juice. ‘Too early, if you ask me.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ old Mr Duffy croaked from the next table. He was sharing his croissant with Crackers, who was sitting up on a chair next to his owner. ‘Wouldn’t want to miss a second of this glorious trip would you, young lady?’

  ‘I’d rather be going to Woodlands Festival,’ Amy muttered.

  ‘Eh? What’s that you said?’ Mr Duffy leaned closer. ‘You’ll have to speak up, my dear. I’m afraid my hearings not what it used to be.’

  ‘I said,’ Amy said loudly, snapping her phone shut and placing it on the table. ‘I’d rather be going to Woodlands Festival.’

  ‘Oh I see,’ Mr Duffy scratched his chin with one hand, and popped the last piece of flaky pastry into Cracker’s mouth with the other. ‘What’s that all about then?’

  ‘It’s a music festival,’ Amy sighed. ‘My cousin’s band’s playing there and I really wanted to go. But my mum said I should be kind and go on this trip with Hugo and Hattie, seeing as their parents had to pull out at the last minute due to work commitments.’

  ‘Well that was kind of you,’ Mr Duffy said. ‘But a shame you had to miss out on your fun. Oh well, I’m sure there’ll be other festivals. And those two monkeys need someone to watch over them.’ He nodded in the direction of Hugo and Hattie, who were trying to climb up the side of the balcony.

  ‘Get down this minute,’ Amy yelled, standing up. ‘Do you want to fall overboard?’

  Hugo and Hattie jumped backwards and shook their heads, giggling.

  ‘They try and behave with a tiny bit of common sense for the rest of the trip,’ Amy said. She sighed. ‘Look, why don’t we all go to my cabin; I’ve brought some art and craft activities with me, let’s go and choose one to do for the rest of the morning.’

  I leaned back in my chair as the trio traipsed off down the stairs. As I watched the crimson sky magically turn purple then blue, I felt so peaceful and thought I could happily live up here forever.

  But seconds after that thought had floated through my mind, Giles, let out a loud yell and the balloon shot upwards!

  Arabella and I jumped up and turned round, to see the usually calm and smiling Giles tugging on the clasps at the ends of the burners, his brow furrowed.

  ‘Can we do anything to help, Giles?’ I asked. The poor thing was beginning to sweat.

  ‘The burners are jammed, I can’t turn the fire down,’ Giles said through gritted teeth, pulling on one of the clasps with all his might. ‘I just don’t understand. This balloon passed five different safety checks before we set off; there’s no way this should be happening.’

  ‘What happens if you can’t turn the fire down?’ Arabella walked over to where Giles was standing and stared at the clasps.

  ‘Then I won’t be able to control the hot air that takes us up or down,’ Giles panted. ‘Basically, the balloon will keep rising up and up.’

  ‘Oh no,’ I said, looking around wildly. ‘Can anybody help?’

  ‘Eh?’ Mr Duffy shouted from his table. He wore his usual toothy grin and was dusting millions of croissant crumbs off his old coat. ‘What’s the matter? Speak up girl.’

  ‘Giles can’t turn the burners down,’ I shouted, aware that my voice was coming out as a scream. ‘Can you think of anything that might help, Mr Duffy?’

  ‘Oh yes, I think I might just have something that will help,’ Mr Duffy cackled as he held on to the table edge and heaved himself up. ‘Hold on there, I’ll be back in a tick.’ He tottered off towards the staircase, Crackers close behind him.

  ‘Where’s he going?’ Arabella said. She’s usually quite calm in a crisis but even her voice sounded strained; the idea of floating up and away into outer space was clearly freaking us both out.

  Time seemed to slow down as we watched Giles get a hammer from his tool kit and bash a clasp side-on. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more helpless in my life, Diary. I wondered if Mr Duffy was losing his marbles and had actually gone for a nap. But I shouldn’t have doubted him, a few minutes later his white crop of hair appeared at the top of the stairs and before long he was hobbling towards us.

  ‘Here you are Giles, spray a bit of this on the clasps,’ he said, Crackers close at his heels.

  ‘What? I don’t have time for silly ideas
at the moment, Mr Duffy,’ Giles sounded much more short than usual. ‘This is a real crisis.’

  ‘Which is exactly why you should spray some of my magic gel on your clasps, you young fool,’ Mr Duffy retorted.

  ‘Fine,’ Giles snatched the bottle Mr Duffy was offering in his outstretched hand. He pumped a good amount onto one of the clasps. ‘If we go up much higher we’ll start losing oxygen, so I suppose I should try anything at this stage.’

  I gulped and looked over the side of the balloon. We were so high up now I the world below just looked browny-green, I couldn’t make out any of the features like roads, houses and rivers.

  There was a tense pause, as we all stared at the clasp. Then –

  ‘Wow,’ Giles said, his shoulders slowly going down. He gave the clasp a firm tug and it moved! The fire in that burner reduced at once. He quickly covered the clasp of the other burner in the gel, and a few seconds later managed to turn that one down too.

  ‘This really is magic gel Mr Duffy,’ he turned and pumped the old man’s hand up and down. ‘Thank you so much, you’ve saved all our lives. What on earth is it?’

  ‘Used to be a scientist when I was younger,’ Mr Duffy cackled, and suddenly I noticed a gleam in his eyes I hadn’t been aware of before. Hmm, he’s a lot more intelligent that we realised, I thought. ‘Worked for the government on top-secret missions, making substances I can’t possibly tell you about. But I also made a few things for myself, one of them being this gel that loosens my reading spectacles whenever they become too stiff. I can’t stand it when they won’t open properly when I’ve settled down to read a good book, so I always carry a bottle of magic gel with me wherever I go. You might want to wash your hands now Giles, that stuff’s properly toxic.’

  ‘Thanks, will do,’ Giles looked tired now. ‘Won’t be a minute.’ He popped down stairs.

  Phew – what an adventure! I hope we don’t have any more nasty surprises like that, Diary. I just want to enjoy this fabulous view CALMLY!

  Just After Lunch, Friday, 19th March

  Well, well, well, Diary,

  There is DEFINITELY something suspicious.com going on aboard this hot air balloon, you mark my words. Arabella and I have vowed to get to the bottom of it, for our own safety as well as for the safety of everyone else on board.

  After we’d explained the drama of the morning to Aiden, Amy and the twins, and everyone had oohed and aahed, and said how glad they were Mr Duffy’s ointment had got the burners working again, we all relaxed and enjoyed our trip across the sea.

  It was beautiful weather, and Giles – now in FULL control of the burners – steered us out over sparkling blue waters, and we all loved peering over the balcony to see what we could spot.

  ‘A dolphin, look Hugo,’ Hattie shrieked, jumping up and down, pointing. To all our delight we saw a whole pod of dolphins jumping and flipping below us, it was like they were putting on a show! Then we sailed over some golden sand islands that were very small and had one or two luscious looking palm trees each.

  By that time we were all feeling a little peckish, so Giles stabilized the burners and went below to prepare a picnic lunch. But as he climbed carefully back up the stairs, holding an enormous tray absolutely crammed with the most DELISH.COM food and drink, the balcony wobbled violently from side to side and Amy, who was nearest, managed to grab the tray just before Giles fell over. She carefully slid it on to a table, just before the whole cabin swung sideways.

  Arabella gasped and put her hand over her mouth.

  ‘Look,’ she said, her voice sounding muffled. We all looked over and couldn’t believe our eyes. One of the four ropes attaching the balloon to the cabin had been severed.

  Giles immediately jumped up the rest of the stairs and strode over to the two rope ends, that were flailing about in the breeze.

  ‘This is a clean cut,’ he said grimly, turning to stare round at us all. ‘This is sabotage. Someone one board is TRYING to stop the balloon from working. Did anyone see who was near this rope?’

  We all looked around at each other. Suddenly I didn’t trust ANYONE on board, except Arabella. We all shook our heads.

  ‘The problem is, Giles,’ Arabella said glumly. ‘We’re all so hungry after our exciting morning, we’d all clustered round the hatch to see what yummy food you were bringing up. I, for one, didn’t even THINK of looking behind me.’ There were general grunts of agreement from everyone else.

  ‘In that case,’ Giles said. ‘We must turn round and make our way back to our landing site. None of us are safe until we find out who is purposefully putting all our lives in danger. And,’ he went on. ‘It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the burner clasps jamming was probably the work of our vandal too. Everyone, make sure you’re wearing your parachutes at all times. If anyone has ANY information about who might be responsible, come and see me AT ONCE.’ And with that he bent to pick up his tool kit, eyebrows lowered.

  I looked around at everybody, wondering who on earth the culprit was. It isn’t a nice feeling to know that you are standing next to a secret vandal who might send you plummeting towards earth at any second. For once, Mr Duffy wasn’t grinning, but was running a hand over his wrinkly forehead saying, “Oh deary deary me” over and over again. Even Crackers looked glum, sitting on his owner’s foot, his ears drooping. Amy cuddled Hugo and Hattie close to her; the twins looking unusually timid and sweet and not like the typical brats they are. Aiden, looking pale, closed his laptop with a soft click, and became lost staring into space. Arabella and I, feeling awful but also EXTREMELY hungry.com, shuffled over to the tray of food and drink that sat at an angle on a nearby table. I managed a few cheese straws, four blueberries and a slice of lemon tart, although to be honest, my heart wasn’t really in it.

  Right Diary, Arabella and I are going to casually hang around each person on board, seeing if we can pick up any clues or hints as to who’s acting suspiciously. It’s important they don’t realise what we’re doing, so we’re bringing some props with us, like reading books and our cameras, so we can pretend to be busy while we’re actually doing serious detective work. We’re then going to go back to our room for an emergency meeting. And check our parachutes are on correctly and in FULL working order. Blimey, I didn’t think we’d actually have to use them...

  Later That Afternoon, Friday, 19th March

  Right, Diary,

  I’ll copy out the notes we’ve made so far:

  Suspects

  Hugo and Hattie: Extremely annoying six year old twins who go round breaking things, poking people, screaming and fighting just to get attention. Even while we were watching them this afternoon, they snapped Amy’s favourite headband, drew on the walls of the cabin sitting room, took everything out of the fridge for no reason and tried to kidnap Crackers. Possible motive for trying to break hot air balloon: it could be their biggest attempt EVER to get lots of attention, even if it means getting MASSIVELY told off in the process. Another thing that might be annoying them is that their babysitter – Amy – spends most of the time staring at her phone instead of them.

  Amy: Bored babysitter but nice girl to chat to. This afternoon, while we were watching the twins roll around on the floor screaming, she told us all about Woodlands Festival where her cousin’s band was playing. ‘Apparently it’s held in a glade in the middle of a wood,’ she said, her eyes lighting up. ‘There’s a huge stage covered by a canopy made from moss and leaves where all the bands play, loads of different stalls where you can buy jewellery, clothes and food and when it gets dark, hundreds of lanterns and candles are lit around the edge of the glade. I don’t think it’s far from here. I really wish I was there.’ Possible motive for trying to break hot air balloon: if she thinks we’re near the site of the festival, she might want to try and land the balloon nearby so she can go and watch her cousin’s band play. Seems unlikely, but you never know...

  Aiden: Wow, that boy NEVER stops looking at his laptop. After he’d stopped staring into space following the
discovery of the cut rope, he opened his laptop, slid his glasses up his nose with his finger, and spent the next two hours staring at the screen. Arabella and I both sneaked round behind at separate times, to try and work out what he was doing, but to be honest, none of the symbols and signs on his screen made any sense to me whatsoever. I think he was playing a complicated game about aliens, he kept typing numbers and letters into small boxes and this seemed to move different aliens and spacecraft around a complicated grid. MEGA boring.com. Possible motive for trying to break balloon: To add some excitement to his otherwise boring, laptop obsessed day?!

  Mr Duffy: A funny old man who is cleverer than he seems. When I first met Mr Duffy, I thought he was a nice old man who liked to live in the past, and talk about his younger days a lot. But since he presented Giles with magic gel during the burner crisis, and announced he used to be a scientist that worked on top secret missions for the government, I’ve noticed he’s much sharper and more intelligent than he pretends to be. His eyes are so bright and quick, but he hides them behind smudged spectacles most of the time. Possible motive for trying to break balloon: Maybe he still works for the government and bringing the balloon down is somehow part of a secret mission? He could pretend to be helping Giles fix the balloon, but this could all be part of his undercover plan?

  Crackers: A scruffy cross-bred dog, who likes sitting on people’s feet. When Arabella and I were in the sitting room, trying to scrub the twins crayon scribbles off the walls, I noticed that Crackers has really strange bursts of energy. One minute he was lying across Mr Duffy’s feet, snoring, while his master did a crossword in the paper. And the next he suddenly jumped up and ran in circles round the room like a mad thing. Honestly, at one point he jumped too near to the table and sent a glass of water crashing to the floor. Luckily the glass didn’t break but Mr Duffy’s feet got soaking wet. He didn’t seem to mind though, just cackled his dry old laugh and went back to his crossword. Possible motive for breaking balloon: Crackers could have accidentally broken the burners with an unexpected mad fit of energy, maybe he jumped up and jammed them by mistake. Although that doesn’t explain how he could have snipped the rope in half. Bitten it perhaps? Hmm, seems unlikely.