An Unexpected Balloon Ride

I always dream of flying. I am a brave child by nature. I always imagined to achieve my success in the skies. I live in a mountainous area which is an ideal tourist spot. Flying was my passion. Once I sighted an object that looked like a parachute. So I reached the spot by my bike. It was a balloon. One of my friends was standing there. He called me to help him. I held one of the ropes attached to the balloon. I was supposed to hold onto the rope until the balloon was filled with air and ready to fly.

An Unexpected Balloon Ride

There were two men holding the seat of the balloon for the pilot. Robert lit the burners to heat the air and the balloon swelled up. Hot air began to fill the balloon. The pilot sat in his seat. The balloon slowly began to lift its pilot into the air. The people holding the other guide ropes let it go, but I couldn’t. I had wrapped the nylon line around four fingers on my left hand.

Just as I was about to drop my line, it jerked. It formed a half hitch around the four fingers of my left hand. I was lifted off the ground and into the air. I shouted and shouted, but the pilot couldn’t hear me. I looked down. Everything on the ground became smaller and smaller as I went high. I was frightened. The line was so tight around my fingers.

My fingers hurt a lot. Robert raised the balloon to 3000 feet. Then I heard the burner became quiet. I was still shouting, “Please help me to get down.” Robert heard my yell and began talking to me. He released hot air through the top of the balloon. Then we started descending very fast. It took two minutes to get down after he had seen me. When I was about thirty feet off the ground, the line I was hanging from tore off the balloon. I fell on the pine tree. I was lucky because the tree broke my fall.

I was only scratched as I fell through the branches. Robert came over to me, and asked if I was hurt. I requested him to take the line off my fingers. He called an ambulance. I was taken to the hospital. The pain remained in my left hand for three or four days. They put ice packs on my hand to bring down the swelling.

When I was in hospital, many reporters and photographers came to see me. I received letters and cards from many parts of the country. It has been fun making a scrapbook with all my letters and newspaper clippings. I thought my dream and passion for flying really came true.