BOOM … BOOM, BOOM … BOOM, BOOM.
I had taken four turkeys. The other three took flight and flew right at the blind where the three girls were hunkered down. I was impressed when it sounded like a simultaneous shot, and three turkeys cartwheeled out of the sky. One of my turkeys wasn’t dead, and Duke was about to come unglued. He was a retriever and needed to do his job. I let Duke go do what he was bred to do, and he bolted to where the live turkey was. He made sure it was dead and then brought it back to me. It was almost too much for my trusty hound. I had a big smile on my face as he gamely hauled the big bird to our blind. He got a lot of loving for that.
Duke dropped the bird when he was told to, and then I sent him after the other three. Lily had captured the whole event on video. Then I heard more shots. It sounded like every blind was shooting at something. Then I realized that the farmers north of us had pushed the birds to our farm. It would have been easy to take more birds, but four was more than enough.
When the excitement was over, we began our trip back to the farm. Duke rushed over to check my dad and then came back to me. When we got back to the farm, we found we had taken twenty-three birds. Mr. Hass told us we could take them to the local butcher and he would prepare them for us. The butcher would even smoke some of them if we wanted. I was okay to hunt but was a wimp when it came to butchering. I voted for taking them to town. Besides, twenty-three turkeys were more than Uncle John’s smoker would hold.
Zoe strutted up to see what I had. She scowled when she saw I had four. She had taken three, and Brook and Halle had each shot one. The most anyone else had gotten was two. Of course, when they saw the video of the seven turkeys that walked right up to us, my skills as a hunter were discounted. Halle said even she could have taken them if they walked up to her. I had to agree that her shooting hers out of the air was more impressive, but I didn’t tell her that.
When we were done, I told everyone I needed a nap. Duke wouldn’t go back to my uncle’s farm, so I let him join me. He was a good nap-taker.
◊◊◊
Brook came and woke me when it was time for our adventure. I took a shower and came downstairs. Duke had abandoned me to hang out with Zoe. She seemed to have an affinity for anything with fur, and they hit it off. She seemed to instinctively know all his secret places that needed to be scratched or rubbed. I could tell if I left him in her care for very long, I would be replaced.
I grabbed some leftover ham and biscuits for a quick lunch, and then we took the Charger to the airfield. I didn’t think it should really be called an airport, because it didn’t have a terminal or public flights. When we pulled up, it was apparent that Range Sports had taken over. There seemed to be three very distinct groups. Lou was with his engineers. They were all huddled around the wingboard, checking it out. I wasn’t sure if that was reassuring or not. Were they worried it might break like the jet water board had? That little accident about killed me!
The photographers and videographers made up a second group. I saw them attaching cameras to the airplane, helicopter, and chase car. It looked like they planned to film this from several different angles.
Then there was everyone else, which included my family. My mom had Don Maier, Range Sports’ jump specialist, cornered. Devin had apparently made a hasty retreat. I figured I had better go save Don before he experienced my mom’s wrath. She saw me and the expression on her face said she wasn’t happy.
“They want us to sign a document that says they’re not responsible if you’re injured or die,” Mom said.
“Where’s Kendal?” I asked.
She was on the phone with someone, whom I assumed was Tom. She saw me and held up one finger to let me know she’d be done in a minute. I couldn’t see how I could help, so I left to get ready.
I found Brook already in her jumpsuit. I think she was as eager as I was to get this started. I put mine on, and Devin found us.
“Sorry for the delay. Our stupid jump-safety person won’t sign off on the shoot. He said the only way he’ll do it is if you sign a waiver to indemnify us when you die.”
“Come on, Devin. Surely Lou has this one figured out. You wouldn’t try and kill me twice, would you?” I asked.
Brook had been listening in and suddenly didn’t look as confident.
“I think David should go first,” she offered.
“Why thank you, Brook,” I said, acting like I wanted to be the first to try one of Devin’s new toys.
Devin just rolled his eyes at us. He could see Brook was a little worried and just wanted to watch me die. I didn’t blame her.
“We’ve tested it. Lou tells me we have all the bugs out of this one,” Devin assured me.
Somehow, I doubted that.
Brook and I were taken to meet with Lou and Don for one last safety talk. It was full of common-sense stuff like if I pointed the nose of the wingboard down, I would rapidly get closer to the ground. I reasoned the towrope would prevent me from hurtling to the surface of the earth where I would make a nice indentation. Don looked at me like I was crazy, and Lou got a pained look on his face. I think Lou hadn’t figured a seventeen-year-old would even think to do that. Well, he had thought I wouldn’t try to do barrel rolls on the jet water board, either.
Kendal and Dad found me.
“They refuse to insure the shoot,” Kendal said.
“That doesn’t sound good. What are they willing to do?” I asked.
“Devin has sunk a lot of money into research and development, marketing, and now today. He said it would be cost-effective for him to only allow you to fly the wingboard. He can’t risk letting Brook try it also,” Kendal said.
“You get to tell her that,” I said.
“No problem. Devin will reimburse her for her classes. He’ll also offer her what she would have made today to compensate her. He understands you both put in time and energy to get ready for this shoot.”
“What do I get?” I asked.
I figured if Devin threw enough money around, I might be willing to take it.
“He’s agreed to pay you a substantial bonus. If there’s an incident, you’ll be paid an additional penalty bonus.”
I looked at my dad. From his expression, the bonus must be hefty. Devin had to believe everything would work out or he wouldn’t have made the offer. If there was an incident, I expected Sandy would make sure I was taken care of.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“Your mom’s against it. Lou tells me everything should be okay,” Dad said. He then added, “It’s a lot of money.”
For me, it had nothing to do with money or safety. It had everything to do with the adventure. If this worked out for Devin, it would be the next big thing. Videos of wingsuit jumps were exciting, but the downside was they only lasted a short amount of time. If this was as much fun as I thought it would be, and it lasted much longer, Range Sports would make a lot of money. That was great, but there would be video of me doing it first. While it wasn’t a Neil Armstrong first, I would be able to say I was the first to do tricks on a wingboard. It made the little kid in me giddy with excitement. Dad should have known not to ask me if I’d do something that involved an element of risk. He should really listen to Mom more.
“Let’s do it.”
◊◊◊
I was with Lou on the airstrip when Lily and Frank approached me.
“Any last words?” Frank asked.
I gave him a look, and he realized what he’d said.
“I meant, well, shoot.”
“I’ll see you when I get back down,” I said, stepping into the clips for my boots.
Lou handed me the towrope handle.
“Ready?” the pilot asked through the earpiece in my helmet.
“Go,” was my one-word answer.
I was right: it did seem like skateboarding behind a car. The wingboard had three wheels, two at the edge of each wing and one in the nose. As we began to pick up speed, I worried this may be a fatal flaw in the design. If someone were to fall off, it would be like falling off a motorcycle. I suddenly wished I had on my leathers instead of my skydiving suit. I didn’t even want to think of layers of skin being peeled off if I fell.