The Balloon Comprehension

The Balloon

By Brooke McClure

The car tyres screeched to an abrupt halt as we pulled up to the quirky stone cottage, which belonged to my Great Uncle Elijah. In a flutter of anticipation, I bounded out of the car with great speed; I was beyond excited to be staying with Uncle Elijah for the entire weekend. The most exciting, spectacular and tremendous things always happened on my annual visits.

Uncle Elijah was a retired scientist (or a Nutty Professor as my parents called him) and he certainly looked the part! He had wiry grey hair that stuck out in messy tufts, round spectacles that always sat crookedly on his nose and a long grey beard that came down to a sharp point. Even though he was retired he still tinkered around in his garage and when doing so would always wear his long white scientist coat. I eagerly bounced up the stairs to the front door with my parents following close behind me. Uncle Elijah was waiting for us; there were the usual polite greetings and after a quick coffee and a chat, my parents were driving off for their weekend of wine tasting. “Well Morris young lad, I thought they’d never leave! Quick, quick to the garage, I have the most interesting invention to show you!” exclaimed Uncle Elijah. Forgetting my manners, I bolted towards the garage like an Olympic track sprinter racing for gold! Uncle Elijah shuffled up behind me, looked around him in great secrecy and then, ever so carefully, unlocked the door. Anticipation was bubbling up inside of me, the lights flickered on… there before me, was a truly magnificent gold hot air balloon! “Wow, a hot air balloon!” I gasped. “Incorrect dear boy, this is no ordinary hot air balloon, it is an Internal Cyclonic High Pressure Steam Releasing Valve Machine,” Uncle Elijah boasted proudly. I stared at him dumbfounded. “Well ok, I call her Betty Balloon for short!” he laughed. “Now, now no time to waste! Hop aboard, time waits for no man.” “You mean we’re going for a ride?!” I shrieked. “Why yes of course Morris, this will be Betty’s maiden voyage and I needed to wait until I had a trusted co-pilot,” Uncle Elijah explained. In a flash we were aboard the magnificent golden balloon, the basket was square shaped and certainly large enough for up to 6 people. There were levers and ropes to operate Betty that I was under strict instruction not to touch. My job was to keep watch through a pair of splendid brass antique binoculars. I was just about to ask how on earth we were going to get the enormous balloon out of the garage when my uncle aimed a remote control type gadget towards the ceiling, pressed a green button and suddenly the ceiling opened up like a bridge making way for a tall ship. “Amazing!” I whispered. The balloon hissed and whistled as my uncle fiddled with the gas and the levers and not a moment too soon we were soaring upwards, higher and higher into the sky. What a rush! I felt as light as a feather floating over the earth; like a bird soaring through the sapphire blue sky. Through my brass binoculars I had a view of the town and the river. This was my most exciting adventure with Uncle Elijah yet! All of a sudden I realised we were floating in silence – a very eerie silence. There shouldn’t be silence, there should be hisses and whistles of gas that operates the balloon! In a panic I spun around to face my uncle who looked as white as a ghost. “Err, Morris, I err think we may have hit a small glitch,” he said sheepishly. “What do we do Uncle Elijah?” I screamed. “Now, now, don’t panic young man, panicking never helped anybody. Let me think, let me think… I can’t think of anything, we’re doomed!” I rolled my eyes, who was panicking now? I turned around in the basket in search of something that would get us out of this predicament. My eyes landed on the brass binoculars, they seemed to be winking at me – that’s it! The binoculars would save us! “Uncle Eijah, the gas cylinders have gone out and we somehow need to relight the ignition correct?” I rushed. “Yes,” Uncle Elijah sobbed. “Well look!” I said brandishing the binoculars in his face, “We can use the reflection of the sun on the binocular lenses, they will heat up and spark the ignition!” I stated proudly. “Morris my boy! You are brilliant, you’ve saved us!” cried Uncle Elijah. We got to work, tilting the lenses this way and that until we aligned them in the perfect position. It was an agonising wait as the lenses slowly heated up and we seemed to be floating in a slow sideways and downwards motion but then it worked! Betty came back to life, hissing and whistling as she floated safely back down to the ground, coincidently landing in the field behind Uncle Elijah’s cottage. We jumped out of the balloon in great relief (Uncle Elijah even kissed the ground). We decided to leave Betty where she was for the time being and headed back to the cottage for some lunch and a rest. As we walked tiredly back to the cottage, Uncle Elijah turned to me and said, “Err Morris, probably best not to tell your parents about this little mishap.” I laughed, I couldn’t wait for my next adventure with my Great Uncle Elijah – which would hopefully involve our feet being firmly on the ground!