I raised myself into a similar position andthen grinned with success at my maneuvers.
“You caught me off guard there,” shecommented, “but I’ll give you points for style.”
Before I could reply, I heard the patio dooropening and saw the boys file out, talking about different thingsthat they wanted to try. Mark did a double take seeing the two ofus floating above the back deck, but carried on forward with only aslight stutter step. Sid looked like he was going to say somethingto us, but changed his mind at the last second. Carl just gave us abig grin and shifted his golf clubs to his other shoulder.
“Shall we go see what the boys are up to?” Iasked.
“Sure, but if they’re gonna just be whackinggolf balls around, I’m out of here.”
I was going to float us down to where theboys were setting up in the yard, but opted to play it safe andjust move some chairs down there. I lowered us down carefully, andwent over there with two chairs and a small table following behindme like little ducklings in a row. Once the furniture was set up tomy satisfaction, we settled in to watch their play.
Carl had his driver out and was sending theball flying out toward the western tree line. I thought that wassome nice shooting, since the trees were over three hundred yardsaway, and he was almost hitting them. They would all watch theshot, and as the ball finished rolling, Mark brought it back likesome kind of auto-reloading driving range. Convenient, Ithought.
It didn’t take long for me to get bored, andlooking over at Sara, I could tell that she felt the same way. Igave her a speculative look and made a flying type gesture with myhand. She quickly gave me an affirmative nod and stood up, readyand eager to go.
“You boys have fun, we’re going to take off,”I said. Mark gave me an inquiring look and I just smiled innocentlybefore rising up.
“Up, up, and away!” Sara urged me on, blowingSid a kiss as I brought her up next to me.
I gave her a ‘thumbs up’ gesture, and thenstarted moving us along the stream path that I had followed lastweek. I kept things slow for the first ten minutes or so until theconfidence in my control grew. I had never tried flying with apassenger before. Picking up the pace a bit I started to follow thecurves of the creek closer, banking our turns as sharp as I wasable, like a freeform rollercoaster.
“Yee-haw,” Sara shouted, “This isawesome!”
Smiling, I glanced over and saw a look ofpure rapture on her face. She really loved to fly!
Arriving at the pool I slowed our progressand brought us to a gentle stop near the larger rocks where wecould sit and rest. I immediately sat down to catch my breath. Thatwas the hardest that I had worked my abilities so far. Sara, on theother hand, was practically bouncing around with the adrenalinerush that she experienced from the flight.
“That was amazing! You have no idea how muchI enjoyed that!” she exuded. She finally wound down enough to beable to sit still, and flopped down next to me, giving me a big hugin the process. “I would do anything to be able to flymyself,” She said with a dreamy look on her face. “If the boysfigure out how this works and how to pass it on, you’ll never seeme on the ground again.”
After resting for a few minutes, I got up andwalked over to the pool. Scooping up a handful of water, I rubbedit on the back of my neck to cool myself down. Refreshed, I askedSara if she was ready to fly back and she quickly agreed. Decidingto try something different, I floated us up above the tree tops andpeered downhill, plotting out the course that the creek carvedthrough the forest. With the necessary direction firmly in mind, Istarted us moving back the way we came, but higher and straighter.I poured more power into our flight, accelerating us faster andfaster. The wind was whipping through my hair crazily as I thought“now this is flying!”
Our return trip was near an end, accomplishedin a fraction of the time that our trip up had taken. Peeringahead, I looked around to make sure that nobody had come up to thearea around my house. The road was a dead end, with my place beingthe last one so traffic was very infrequent, but occasionally lostpeople would drive by. Seeing nothing untoward, I kept up our speedand flew over the yard where the boys were still playing. Sara letout a huge rebel yell as we passed overhead and then I started toslow us down, banking back to land near them.
When our feet were back on Terra Firma, Sarabriefly raised an arm high in victory before leaping toward me andgiving me a tremendous tackle hug.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she saidenthusiastically. “That return flight was both scary and wonderfulat the same time, and I can’t wait to do that again.”
“That was exhilarating,” I replied. “We’llhave to do it again soon.”
“Anytime, but next time please warn me beforeyou crank up the speed like that. I almost peed in my pants!”
I rejoined the boys, giving Mark a quick hugand kiss for a greeting. Sara went inside, presumably to take careof what she almost did in her pants.
“That was pretty cool,” said Carl. “I wonderhow fast you were going.”
I shook my head, saying “I’m not sure, but itfelt kind of like sticking your head out of the car window whiledriving down the highway.”
“That sounds like maybe fifty or sixty then.I wonder if we could get a radar gun and clock your max speed.”
“I could probably borrow one for a few days.I have several friends in law enforcement,” Sid replied.
“Nice,” Carl nodded, “I wonder what otherempirical measurements we can take.”
They immediately started arguing amongstthemselves on what they wanted to measure and how to
