Balloon Garden

A young girl who's father was known for his creative experiments, decides to take his role in finishes a long life dream of his, the new Balloon.

Beginnings: 

 

"A Lovely day it was. I remember, my father and I riding on a hot air balloon, like always, on Fridays. He would fill the gas tanks, fire up the burner, and spread the giant balloon with the blazing fan. A delight indeed! We would ride just off before Sun Rise. At the top, when we looked back, all the fog would begin to sheet the mountains and bloom across the sky, to dissipate into the wide purple. What a beautiful, and just as the Sun peaked out, the grass began to wake, and the flowers too sang towards it. Nature could not be any lovelier. Yes, I remember, but it doesn't mean he is gone. He is alive still, and I know it." 

 

Aria-Francoise gave this speech at the funeral of her father, Joseph-Francoise, a genius behind the hot air balloon machinery renovation. The little girl did not believe that this could be the end of the road for him. She thought, that he was far beyond the clouds, beginning a project he always proudly talked about with her on their balloon rides.  

 

That day, Aria refused to go to the burial of the vacant casket, as she knew her father was very much alive. She followed back into the office of her father. Maps, Drawings, and Blue Prints of many Hot Air balloons laid around his desk. The brown wool, furry collar jacket girl tilted her multi brown shaded knitted hat up off her face, and began to search in his drawers.  

 

"Voila!" She yelled excitedly. "I have found my father's journal!" She skims through the small red journal, papers loosely hanging off the pages. Schematics, Drawings, Sketches, and dense notations were all over the pages.  

 

"With this journal I am sure to find my father's where about. I'm sure he left it behind for me to figure out." The excited 15-year-old jumps into the air and clicks the heels of her blue rain boots.  

 

Suddenly two men walk into the office, Aria notices them and hides under the desk before she is spotted. She twitches her ears to eaves drop on their conversation: "Nobody thinks he is dead, we all know he is hiding." Man 1 says  

 

"Of course, he's hiding, he has just invented the new balloon. Why would he share it with the world?" Man 2 responds  

 

"I just feel bad for the girl, no mother, and now, a father who has also left! What is he thinking?" Man 1 says once more.  

 

"Well, either he shows up, or someone will find him, maybe even boss." Man 2 responded. And with that, the two men leave the office and Aria comes out of hiding.  

 

"I'll show them." She smirks. 

 

Aria runs back towards her house. Once in, she locks the doors, turns the knob on the TV, and lands on the brown wool L Shaped couch. There she watches news of her father's memoir.  

 

"Bunch of Posers." She adds turning the channel knob. 

 

 The little girl finds an interest to the Tom and Jerry Show, the silly cat always chasing the smart mouse. And there, she opens the journal to start reading from the beginning, the start of a beautiful project: 

 

Entry 1: Time: 05:37 AM, Date: March 7th  

"I have been thinking of something new, something innovative that will grant us our wildest dreams. Trying to understand how balloons work, I have come to study them extensively. My grandfather's invention of the Hot Air Balloon has been a great success. But, I needed to know what I could do to exceed my ancestry and the inheritance of this balloon business. Little Aria has inspired me for a new invention. Her question really made me wonder upon what I thought of fiction. She exclaimed, 'at first only birds where known to fly, then, there were planes and balloons. So, why can't people fly?' Well, that has sparked an idea. She is my current motivation, right after you, my wife."  

 

Aria smiled and closed the book, slowly falling asleep on the couch, with the television on. He always used to get mad at her for that. 

 

***** 

 

In a room with her father, she laid on the floor and watched as hundreds of balloons slowly landed all around. The flamboyant colors lit up the empty space, and laughter brightened the colors of the walls. Joseph laughed from the other end, quietly watching how his little girl played with the floating globes.  

 

Aria wakes up to Tom chasing Jerry all over a dining table, she slugs down and turns off the TV. Reaching over towards the red journal, she reads the next passage: 

 

Entry 2: Time: 2:44 PM Date: May 19th  

"I finally dove deep into the making of balloons, guiding me towards the Hevea Brasiliensis, a rubber tree which secretes immense amount of latex from its trunk. This made me wonder about something. What would happen if I were to digest it? Though drinking the latex directly is a foolish and dangerous thing, any tree that produces fruit would technically hold some edible properties. And so, I began my experiment, and ate one of its fruit. Nothing changed in my body at the moment, perhaps later on I would make studies. But then, I began to think, if I were given certain properties of a balloon, were I too be able to float as one? My hypothesis now born. 

 

  Tracing the footsteps of her father, Aria traveled down to Brazil, specifically into the city of Para. In the exotic jungle, she found the beautiful Rubber Tree, plucking a fruit from its vine, she took a bite from it. The seeping fruit oil stuck to her mouth, and she chewed on it like a piece of gum, a peculiar sensation bubbled in her stomach. Some of the local men found her and began to yell in their language. Aria didn't know what they were saying, and in a sudden daze, she blacked out, falling to the ground. The girl finds herself in a medical hut and looks over to a healer.  

 

"What happened to me?" She asked.  

 

"You eat, bad fruit, must boil poison away -the healer responded pointing to her stomach- I take out poison in body, now safe. Poison no harm no more."  

 

Aria stands up from the cot and goes to shake the healers hand, in return she receives a hug. "Thank you." She smiles to the healer, and the healer nods.  

 

Aria then continues the journey, taking along plenty of rubber fruit to experiment with, and returning home. After recuperating from the poison, she reads the journal one more time. 

 

Entry 3: Time: 7:58 PM Date: October 2nd  

" I have witnessed the side effects of the fruit, the pain and slow-paced walking. After that, I slowed down on the project just thinking of what to do; how to create a balloon that would develop with the body, allowing it to fly. Silly me, attaching the number of balloons it would take to lift me off the ground, thinking I could actually fly. But I wouldn't risk it, and then, it hit me. What makes balloons fly and stay in the air? Helium, correct? But if Helium allows it to stay in the air, why do they eventually come back down? Well, interesting enough, balloons have pores, just like we do. Our sweat, pheromones, and everything else, come out of our pores. So, if we take in a safe dosage of Helium, I believe we can have enough to levitate our body. And, in case the dosage is too much, our pores will extract the rest." 

 

Aria then rushes into a science lab at a local school, and is stopped by a professor: "What do you think you are doing little girl? You shouldn't be playing with these dangerous chemicals!"  

 

The sly girl then attempts to persuade the professor. "Professor, I am trying to develop a new experiment. My father is Joseph-Francoise, and I am simply following his footsteps. I believe I can accomplish the hypothesis he has successfully completed. Creating flight for a human."  

 

The professor then looks down at the child, "This is preposterous! Why don’t you ask him yourself to help you then?"  

 

The girl then frowns and the professor remembers the news about the man's funeral. "Oh, my, I am so sorry, I totally forgot about the tragedy. Here, I'll give you anything you need." 

 

 "He is not gone -the professor stops and looks back at the girl- he isn't!" The girl shouts.  

"Now dear �"the professor walks over to calm the girl- I kno..."  "He completed the task and wants me to be smart enough to find him! -the girl interrupts with tears- Then, I will be able to find him." The girl demandingly exclaims.  

 

The professor looks down at the girl and responds: "I will give you what you need, but only under my surveillance."  

 

Then the girl began to look around and finds the Helium tanks needed, "This is it!" The girl exclaims.  

 

"Helium? Now why do you need this?" The professor asked raising his eyebrows.  

 

"Well, according to my father, Helium would help levitate the body and then create a flight sensation. I am here to prove it of course." The girl then takes a big inhalation of the pure Helium straight out of the tank.  

 

"No! You are crazy! Don’t you know what that does to you!?" The girl smiles and then instantly passes out. The professor quickly takes the girl to a hospital. 

 

Aria wakes up and finds a doctor in white robe. "You are very lucky young lady, you only took enough to simply pass out. If you were to take in another inhalation, it would have created bubbles in your lungs and gone to your brain, these are permanent damages. What were you thinking?"  

 

The girl smiles frailly and responds: "I'm just trying to figure out what my dad is trying to say."  

 

The Doctor puts his clipboard to the side and sits next to the girl responding: "Your father is no longer here, and that might have happened because of these exact experiments he did on his body. Dangerous and clumsy, I can't allow you to do this."  

 

The girl then cries and screams out furiously "He is not gone, he is still around. You just aren't supposed to find him, I am! I know I can if I do this right!"  

 

The girl then gets up and runs out of the hospital with sorrow in her heart. "I'm just trying to find him. Why does no one understand?"  

 

Aria returns home and changes into a new set of clothing, she lunges over to her father's bed and takes out the journal. The next few entries were all about how he missed his wife and how he loved little Aria, until a new piece of information was found. 

 

Entry 10: Time: 3:30 AM Date: January 26th  

"I have been careless, chasing dreams that just can't be reality, but today, a miracle began to happen. As I was taking little Aria to the Park, I sat under a tree, there, an apple hit my head. It reminded me of Isaac Newton: 'What goes up must come down'. And there, I created what I called containment. I knew that there had to be a way of making a new fruit. Not the Rubber Fruit, no, a Balloon Fruit. One which would contain the oil latex, a proportion of Helium, and a proportion of Oxygen. For this would be the only way to develop such success towards flight. I need to come up with an equation, but how?" 

 

Aria, though confused, lays to rest with this idea in her head and waits for the next day to bring her answers. The next day's chirping of the birds fueled her sense of adventure. There, she pulls out a paper that was already out of the journal. It had an address and a name:  

 

Laurie Mezzi. "Who was this woman?" She asked herself. She then looked up the address, 14 Taintment Ave.  

 

Pulling out her map, she drew a route towards the location. The trip was going to be long, therefore, preparations had to be made for the long travel. Setting out at morning blush, the girl takes about 3 days of travel to finally arrive at the mysterious address. She knocks on the door and waits for an answer... no one answers.  

 

Then, knocks harder on the door and hears a faint voice "I'm coming."  

 

When the door opens, a beautiful woman comes out. The red silk dress and black cambric bowler cloche hat stuns the girl. "I'm sorry miss, I didn’t mean to knock like that."  

 

"It's ok �"the woman smiles- now, how may I help?" The woman responds in a sweet low voice.  

 

"Are you Laurie Mezzi?" The woman then nods at the question. "I believe you and my father knew each other, his name is Joseph-Francois."  

 

The woman blushes, and then she looks down at the girl with eyes wide open. "You are, you are his daughter? -the woman begins to cry- I... he never... he couldn’t."  

 

"Wait, wait, what is going on?" Aria asks scared.  

 

The woman falls to the floor on her knees and holds out her arms to the girl. "My daughter."  

 

The woman sobs as Aria stands puzzled, wrapped around the arms of her mother, she begins to cry as well. "They wouldn’t let him come here, they wouldn’t let him leave. I'm so sorry my child."  

 

Laurie holds the girl tightly in her arms. "It's ok, we have found each other now, and it's all because of him, he wanted this to happen!" The young girl yells out.  

 

"You're so beautiful my Aria. -the woman pats her cheeks- Let's stop crying. Tell me, why were you sent here? I heard the news. Is it true?"  

 

Aria wipes her tears, "Of course not! You know he is a smart man, whatever was holding him back, he is finding a way to get out of all of this. Maybe that’s what it is all about. I remember two men coming into his office that same day. I don’t know what they wanted, but I have this." Aria pulls out the red journal.  

 

"What is it?"  

 

"It's his writing towards a new invention. I think this is what was holding him back. I have been reading it and following the steps." Laurie reaches for the journal and reads the next entry: 

 

Entry 12: Time: 8:20 AM Date: February 29 

"There's is a place where I can complete my project, but I am forbidden to go. Without the lab, or without her, I can’t finish this experiment. She was always so smart, and knew exactly what to say to keep me going. I'm finding a way to escape, but I must leave Aria behind. It will seem too obvious, so I will leave this note book for her. She is just like her mother and will figure out the missing piece to the equation, I am sure. Aria, build it, plant the Balloon Garden in my hidden lab. I've had it since the day I moved in with your mother, just where I left her. She doesn’t know. Look in the back yard, pull on the branches of the tree. You can figure out the rest… come, find me.” 

 

"It looks like we have work to do." Exclaimed Aria running over to the back yard. Laurie followed and watched as the tree monkey pulled on all the branches, none yet revealing a door. The excited girl now with high hopes of her father being around, tried every single branch on the tree, until finally one felt tough enough to pull on. She pulled and pulled until finally able to release the tough branch-like lever, and there a great hole formed by the sand lot, and stairs were found leading to an underground lab. As they reach the bottom, the sand lot re-closes and lights illuminate the place. A grand lab with multiple machinery and tools to convey any kind of experiment. Most impressive of all, was a tree, which had a direct link to the tree above. Its branches served as the roots of the Tree above surface. There the two ladies, amazed at this new discovery, began to draw on the white board.  

 

"So, this seed contains latex, but poisonous to the body; Helium gives it levitation properties, which is also dangerous to the body. How can we formulate something that will reduce its poison and harm all together?" Asked Aria.  

 

The two girls look around, and walk over to the garden built underground. Aria sat under the Tree as her father did, and Laurie walked around it.  

 

"What did he mean by containment, he has all the properties of a balloon. What is missing for the host to be a body rather than a rubber globe?" Aria kept pondering the question until an idea crawled into her mind.  

 

Walking over to the white board, Aria begins to draw an equation on it:  

 

Balloon= Helium injected in Solid Latex 

 

Fruit= (Soil) 6CO2 + 6H2O + photons (sugar) 

 

• Balloon Fruit: For the Balloon Fruit to save the properties of a balloon and be ingested in the body, one must keep both properties at a max climate until the moment of distillation. 

• One must plant the seed of the Brasiliensis to produce the fruit. Once the seed is planted, we must inject helium into the soil to give the body a levitant property.  

• After these have been completed, to prevent the poison from spreading, and the latex coming out as liquid, one must use the method of Frozen soil.  

• Though it does kill most crops, this one has a special agent, Helium cannot freeze; thus, protecting the immediate contacted object from freezing points.  

• Rubber too maintains its properties, and though none can freeze technically, it will still produce the sufficient needs for fruit to bloom.  

• Once the Fruit blooms and is ingested, the process of distillation occurs, this is where the body receives the appropriate Helium/Oxygen balance by distilling the excessive Helium. 

• Thus, creating a safe levitant equation for the body to manifest in just 5min as the digestive system absorbs the properties into the blood stream.  

• And, because the 6CO2 + 6H2O + photons convert into sugar, the side effects should last 2 hours per fruit before it is stored as wasteful energy.  

• Which means that you will be able to Fly/Float for that amount of time per Fruit eaten.  

 

Aria steps back and gazes at the board satisfied with the outcome; Laurie kisses the head of the brilliant girl. "I think it will work -she whispers-. All we have to do now is Graft the roots to the seed!" Laurie squeals excited.  

 

"Grafting?" Aria asks.  

 

"I'll teach you." Laurie smiles and grabs the hand of the little girl, running towards the field.  

 

The two then begin the process of the Balloon Fruit Hypothesis. Some weeks go by and the press finally finds out about the innovative invention. Word goes out about what they are trying to do, and to prove that Joseph is still out there somewhere. Soon, it landed in ears with a much different interest, those of the men who tried to harm the scientist. A man was then sent out to scavenge their whereabouts, and as he grew closer to them, the Fruit was almost ready to test.  

 

The day finally came where the fruit was ready and the girls could not wait to finally prove their hypothesis. As the girls climb down towards the garden a man appears from behind the Tree. "Bravo, bravo -the man begins clapping- it looks like you have re-invented my idea."  

 

"Who are you, and how did you get down here?" Laurie hides Aria behind her.  

 

The man laughs and starts pulling on the leaves of the tree, they begin to stretch further and further until one finally snaps off the branch. "Impressive, not only is the Tree containing Latex, it has adapted latex into its structure."  

 

The mysterious man begins to reach for one of the fruit. Aria runs out from behind "Don’t! You can't do this, you have no right to take from our hard work."  

 

The man then puts his hand down, "So you think this is your work? You think it was your father who invented this experiment? You are wrong!"  

 

The man begins to run towards the girls, Laurie grabs Aria and holds her tight, but Aria slips out and runs towards the Tree. The man attempts to grab the girl and fails as she evades his grip, targeting Aria, he runs towards her direction. Aria attempts to run as fast as she can to grab the first balloon fruit reachable.  

 

As she struggles to reach for a fruit, the man is trailing down to her steps, she finally grabs a fruit. She holds it in her hand, admiring the reddish orange stretchy fruit, she takes a bite out of it. Aria begins to float, now high enough off the ground, the man latches on to her leg. The scared girl begins to kick the man off her and bites down on the fruit again. They float higher even faster and reach ground level. The man still attempting to claw at girl to get her down, scares Aria even more. The little girl then begins to kick once again  

 

"Let go! Get Off me!" She screams as she continues to kick.  

 

One more bite and the speed continues to accelerate higher, now about as high as a sky scraper. The girl keeps kicking at the furious man, and there, as the man attempts to claw once more, Aria kicks his hand. The man now grip less, cannot find his balance, and falls into the endless jungle below.  

 

Aria, high above the surface begins to wither in the close sun rays, engulfed in its coating. As she rises through the sky, Laurie follows from bellow and whistles for Aria's attention. She waves with a smile, and the two join to fly through the vast blue, skyward. A cloud sat harmlessly above, close to their reach, and they landed on the soft jocund white swirls. A noise came from the other edge, one that imitated a whispering thunder. They cautiously follow the echoing sound, and found tree stumps all around the cloud.  

 

"Amazing!" The girl shouts, as they approach tree stump after tree stump, the sound grew larger and fiercer like war drums. There, a mallet lifted in the air and plummeted on the stump of the tree in the hands of a figure with white robe. Plunk, Plunk Plunk, went the mallet, until the tree stump sank into the cloud. The figure looked back, the long length white bearded man became very familiar to the girl.  

 

A scream then followed "Papa!"  

 

The girl rushed over to the man who held his arms wide open, and as her feet met with the final steps towards re-encounter, on another cloud, a beautiful white glowing tree proudly stood. Rich with multi colored fruits of all shapes and sizes it stood.  

 

"Aren't they fascinating?" The man asked.  

 

And then a woman walked behind and whispered in his ear, "Yes, they are."  

 

The man froze with his eyes unable to move to look towards her direction, and the ringing of the familiar honey sweet voice paralyzed his heart. It was her, his beautiful wife, Laurie.  

 

"You can look back, its ok my dear, I am not mad at you." Joseph clocked slowly backward and witnessed the marvelous smile of the woman.  

 

"I have been waiting for the day... I hope you remember my promise." He said nervously. 

 

"Promise?" She asked.  

 

Joseph slowly rises from the ground, let's go of the mallet and snaps his fingers. A Jolt of lightning spears towards the tree, and the white tree began to glow yellow. On impact, the leaves burst off, falling slowly through the air, and the fruit swiftly floated towards Laurie, he grabbed one and said. "To fly you to the moon."  

 

He bit on one and grabbed Laurie by one hand and Aria by the other, as they too took a bite of this fruit.  Floating higher than the clouds, they can see the other white swirls closing into the yellow tree. Surprisingly there stood a tree on each cloud plate: one of frost texture, one of ice color, one of watery skin, one of pure light, and one last of jolting lightning. And these formed what he called: "The Balloon Garden."  

 

 

"There are no wings greater than those mended by hopes and dreams, for flight comes naturally to those light in spirit." 

 

~Sir Drift & Mr. Pulse~ 

Author's Note

Facts: Balloons come from the Hevea Brasilienseis (Rubber Tree) with Latex Secretion, Balloons have small pores that let out the Helium, Frozen soil is a type of harvest, the body can contain only a certain amount of Helium.

Reviews

[Sarah Wilson]

Very interesting story! Great descriptions! I would only suggest that you spread out the descriptions so that they flow more naturally and you change up the dialogue a bit so it suits more of the way people tend to talk. like instead of "you are crazy" "you're crazy!" etc

[Sir Drift & Mr. Pulse]

Thank you for reading this! And the suggestions are welcome said. I will begin editing process of this volume later on so your suggestions are well needed

[bella]

You finally wrote it :) I'm proud of you