Junior Year Box Set

“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.

I was so focused on the ride down the runway that I was caught by surprise when the wingboard smoothly took flight. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but it was much more stable than I’d thought it would be. Both Don and Lou had warned me to not do anything until we reached cruising altitude. This first flight was all about safety and to make sure I felt comfortable. There were three more flights scheduled in which I’d get the chance to try different maneuvers.

I glanced over and saw the helicopter just off the side and behind me as it captured everything.

“We’ve reached altitude. Begin your first test maneuver,” the pilot told me over the radio.

I leaned to the right, and the wingboard gently began to drift to the right. When I straightened up, the wingboard corrected itself and came back in line with the plane.

“It feels rock solid, and it self-corrected,” I said.

“Good. Now execute the second maneuver.”