Your Nineteenth Literary Gift of 25 Gifts to Christmas. Come along as we ride at Coaster World, where the Secret Supers are enjoying their summer vacation from seventh grade. It’s a good thing the part can accommodate four disabled teens. This excerpt is from my Villain’s Vacation novel.
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The Secret Supers met at the rocket launch field after lunch. Only Dancer wore his orange-and-black uniform, complete with a black mask. We discovered wearing the uniform under our coveralls was too hot in the Alabama sun. Even the coveralls were discarded for shorts and T-shirts for this occasion.
“You ready, Dancer?” I held him in my lap on my chair.
Dancer stood and saluted.
“Here we go.” I picked him up and carefully placed him in the rocket payload section. I put my eye up to the tinted porthole in the passenger section and saw Dancer inside, looking back at me.
“Now the phone.” I pushed the phone into the clear tube above the passenger section. It had a round black bulkhead with controls that allowed Dancer to use the phone from his capsule. Then I fitted the nose cone on.
I double-checked the igniters on the three engines that powered the rocket. The nichrome wires were bent and fit into the engine nozzles and held in place by tape.
“We’re all ready, gang. Whoa, feel how heavy this is, Dan.” I handed him the rocket.
“Sure this will fly, Jeremy?” Dan hefted the rocket in his hands.
“Oh, yeah. Those engines pack quite a punch. There’ll be a total of forty newtons of thrust.”
“What’s a newton, Jeremy?”
“That’s a measure of force, Aubrey. Forty newtons is like ninety pounds.”
“So even a one-pound rocket will take off like you hit it with a sledgehammer.” Aubrey whistled. “How high will Dancer go?”
“According to my simulation program, about one hundred and eighty feet.”
The public address blared: “NEXT ROCKET: DANCER EXPRESS. PLEASE MOUNT IT ON THE LAUNCHER.”
“Here we go! Dan, you mount it. You’re taller, so you can get it on the launch rod.”
Hamster into the Blue
Dan and Aubrey walked over to the launch rack together. The rail had room for six rockets, each with its electrical clips for ignition and a blast deflector. The frame was three feet tall, with three-foot launch rods to guide the rockets after ignition.
Dan lifted the rocket over the launch rod and threaded it through the launch guides. Aubrey attached the alligator clips to the ignitors Jeremy had rigged. Jeremy and Kayla checked everything.
Aubrey peered into the porthole on the rocket.
“Dancer is waving!”
You might want to keep it quiet. Someone might get suspicious.
“Oh, right. Thanks, Kayla.”
“Countdown, rocketeers,” said the launch controller over a loudspeaker. “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1—ignition!”
Six rockets flared on the launching rail and leapt into the blue sky.
As the largest and heaviest rocket, the Dancer Express was the slowest. We could see the rocket reach apogee and arch over. The rocket broke apart with a puff of smoke as the parachute ejected. One rocket part floated on a big orange-and-black parachute, and the other fell to the Earth.
“Oh no! The recovery cord broke!” I cried as I looked through my binoculars.
Oh No!
“Is Dancer in danger?”
“No, Aubrey, the payload tube is coming down slowly with the parachute. He should be okay. But the engine tube broke away from the parachute and is falling. Watch out, team!”
“Stay clear, everyone! Falling rocket,” the launch controller announced.
“I’ll go get it, Jeremy.” Aubrey ran to pick up the fallen rocket part.
“Uh-oh.”
What’s up, Jeremy?
“The wind’s picking up, Kayla. He’s worried about recovering Dancer,” Dan frowned, putting his hand on his head.
It’s not too high, only about a hundred feet to go.
“But it’s blowing right into the woods!” I began driving my wheelchair over the grass to the woods. I bumped crazily, but I didn’t care. Dan and Kayla followed. Kayla hung on to his arm.
Aubrey ran back with the engine tube and caught up to them. “I got it. Now let’s get Dancer.” She put the tube in the rocket holder I had rigged on the back of my wheelchair.
We followed the drifting rocket right into the woods. Then we lost sight of it in the trees.
“I’ll find it!”Aubrey ran ahead of us.
Help is Coming!
“I’m so worried we’ll lose Dancer,” I said.
Don’t worry. We’re the Secret Supers. We can find him.
“Thanks for reminding me, Kayla. You’re right. I’m my fillings are falling out on this rough ground.” I unbuckled my seatbelt and floated into the air.
“Whoa, Jeremy. I know we’ve got to find Dancer, but there are people behind us coming into the woods.”
“Thanks, Dan. At least I can make my wheelchair smoother.” I floated back into my seat, and the whole chair lifted a couple inches off the ground. “Tell me if anyone can see me and I’ll let it down.”
“Will do.”
“I see the rocket!” They heard Aubrey’s voice several hundred feet ahead of them.
“We’ll just stay ahead of the other people.” I floated Dan and Kayla in the air beside me,and we zoomed through the woods.
Ooh! This is like the chase through the woods in Endor.
“What’s Endor?”
That’s a scene in Star Wars, Return of the Jedi.
“I’ve got to catch up with all these movies I’ve never seen.”
Oops. Sorry, Dan.
“No problem. I’ve been blind since birth, and I’ve missed a lot of the movies you guys know. Now we can watch it together, and I can watch it through your eyes.”
Let’s make that a date!
“There’s Aubrey,” I said. We slowed down next to a large pine and settled in the fragrant needles beneath it. Fifty feet up, we saw the parachute and the payload section snagged in a branch.
Your Nineteenth Literary Gift Concludes
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