When Giants Burn by Beth Vrabel

Author:Beth Vrabel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: 2023-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

The most dangerous times in a flight are the takeoff and landing. “Don’t move,” I order Hayes when he leans forward to watch the temperature gauge.

The plane isn’t fast—that’s not the way it’s built. It bounces a bit as it rumbles ahead. I think of what Nanny Pat told me the first time she let me take the controls of her plane. “You’ve got to believe you can do it. Otherwise, you’ll spend all your life on the ground.” I’m done being a paperweight. I can do this. I am doing this.

“What did you say?” Hayes hisses in my ear.

I ignore him. I’m hovering just over brown sliding into the blue. Then, blue, blue, blue. Hands steady, I pull on the stick. We’re easing upward. Soon we’re tilted so I don’t see the ground at all. Just sky. My lungs deflate as I ease the stick forward.

“Is it supposed to be this loud?” Hayes yells into my ear.

I roll my eyes. We’re in a plane without doors that runs with a Volkswagen engine. Yeah, it’s supposed to be loud. He shifts closer to me. Maybe it’s the no-door thing, or the wind, or the reality that this is happening, but I shiver. We’re in the sky!

Hayes hoots, a grin shining on his face. He was so angry on the ground, but it’s like he left that all behind and now is something else. I think maybe he’s proud of me, of us.

And suddenly we’re laughing, and it feels like my heart is hovering outside my body, like it’s dancing.

Hayes lifts his hand, making it wave in the burst of cool air flowing around us. “You did it!” he cheers.

I show off a little, making us rise and fall with his hand, and he laughs even harder. The sky is so blue and endless.

I spot smoke in the distance—the Bryce Canyon wildfire Hayes said was approaching. It’s closer than I thought it would be. I don’t know how fast fire moves, but I didn’t think it’d be close enough to spot the smoke.

While Hayes hoots and points out trees and mountains beside me, I keep an eye on the directional gyro. We put the plume of gray behind us. We’re moving past the flat tundra toward Fishlake’s mountains. “This is amazing,” Hayes shouts, leaning out the side to look at the ground below us. “You’re amazing!”

I bite my lip to keep my smile from splitting my face. This is the best birthday I’ve ever had, I think as the trees below us shrink to broccoli. I make my worries do the same—shrink, shrink, shrink. There is only now: the sky above me, the friend beside me, and the wind tugging away any other thought.

The few cars we pass look like toys running along tracks, and Hayes has fully forgotten to be afraid. Then, no roads are below us anymore as we soar over mountains. Sage and juniper disappear into watercolor smudges. “Whoa,” Hayes says.

I grin and Hayes smiles back. We’re doing this! We’re actually doing this.

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