Duffy was a Scottish Terrier, with wirey white hair and a sunny disposition full of energy and play. Grandfather had only had Duffy a couple of years so we couldn't wait to play with the little dog as soon as he bounded out of Grandfather's car. It had been a long trip and they were both tired and just as glad to see us, too.

I enjoyed being around Grandfather and Duffy. Whenever Grandfather went anywhere he usually took Duffy. If he went somewhere Duffy couldn't go he told Duffy he would have to stay home and Duffy would look sad, race to the window, watch Grandfather leave and then settle in the closet of the guest bedroom where they stayed. Duffy would rest his head on Grandfather's shoes.

Grandfather stayed for a month. I loved playing with Duffy. He was a cute little dog full of energy. When he was feeling especially playful he would run from room to room, eluding hands that pretended to grab him. His nails would clatter on the hardwood floor, while he attempted to get some traction, like a cartoon character, feet moving but not getting anywhere for a few seconds. Sometimes he and Grandfather would play hide and seek and Duffy would go looking for Grandfather. When Duffy eventually found him he would bark again and again to announce his discovery.

Duffy also liked playing tag outside with our dogs. Even though Goldie was much bigger than Duffy she and the little dog would chase each other all over the yard and around the house. Mandy would sometimes join in also, but Mutt was too stuck-up to play these kind of puppy games--they were far beneath her.

Every afternoon Duffy would climb into the car to help Mom pick us up after school and he would greet each of us individually as we sat down. Once, while Mom was waiting for me to come out of school, Duffy spotted a potential bush next to the principal who was watching the kids leave school. I opened the door to get inside the car, and Duffy dashed outside and stopped and raised his leg at the bush. The principal smiled and said something to Duffy that I couldn't hear. I was horrified. I gave Duffy a good talking-to later on when I had recovered from the embarrassment.

Grandfather loved to work outdoors and helped with cleaning up debris and fallen trees that had been produced by Hurricane Hugo which had swept through this area two years ago, before we had lived here.

Dad had hired some men to help Grandfather get rid of the trees.

It was fun to watch the men that Dad had hired fly from tree to tree. They attached harnesses that they tied around their waists and used ropes to grab each tree individually that had been damaged by the hurricane. Some trees had been completely levelled by the storm while others were left with ony the bottom half of the tree still standing. Sometimes ony branches were left dangling and the men would saw off the dangerous hanging limbs.

One day, there was a particularly stubborn tree that, no matter how hard they tried, the men couldn't get to fall off of the tree it was leaning on.

I watched from the back deck as the men grew disgusted with their efforts.

"Let's try tying one end of a heavy rope to the tree and the other end to the truck," One of the men suggested.

That seemed a good idea. Grandfather came out of the basement with a long, heavy rope. He tied one end to the bumper of the truck while one of the men made a loop with the other end and he threw that over the top of the leaning tree. He tugged hard and the rope tightened on the tree.

I yelled in the house at Mom to come and see what was happening. She came out with her camcorder. She was always ready with her camcorder. Mom turned it on and started recording the event.

"Ready!" One of the workers called and they all backed away from the leaning tree.

As I watched, Grandfather slowly edged the truck away from the tree. The rope tightened and Mom and I backed ourselves towards the house, unsure of how this latest maneuver was going to work out.

The tree barely moved a few inches when the rope snapped from the tension and whipped through the air with a crack. Like a giant rubberband the end of the rope that had been attached to the tree recoiled and struck the back of the truck with a great force.

Grandfather slowly got out of the truck and went to the back of it. The other men near the tree were frozen for a moment and then they also went up to the truck to survey the damage. A huge imprint of the rope was engraved on the back door of the truck.

Wait till Dad sees this, I thought, wondering what they would do next. I was glad that I had stayed on the back deck, far above and away from the tree removal. I had a sudden idea. I ran inside the house and went down the basement stairs, forgetting all about my fear of the dark basement. I opened the tool closet door and found what I was looking for.

"Grandfather!" I called as I opened the basement door that led out to the backyard. With a great deal of effort, I was pulling a huge, heavy, logging chain that Dad had had for a long time.

"Do you think this might work?" I held up the end of the chain, the rest of it was too heavy to carry and it stretched out behind me like a snake into the basement.

Grandfather was still standing by the side of the truck when he heard me. He walked over to me and studied the huge chain in my hands, "Why, that's a great idea, Kevin. It just might work."

The men attached the chain to the tree and Grandfather slowly edged the truck away, pulling the chain taut. This was the successful end to that tree. With a huge crash the leaning tree finally fell down to the ground.

Everyone cheered and all the workmen ended up taking a break for the rest of the day.

That night, we were tired and hungry as we gathered for supper in the breakfast room. Everyone was busy talking and eating when Amy suddenly remembered she needed to get something she had left on the back deck. She opened the door and BW, who had been eyeing the meal hungrily through the glass door, took that moment to spring onto the table. Unfortunately, she happened to land on Dad's plate.

Dad doesn't like cats. He doesn't hate cates either--he simply tolerates them because they are our pets.

When BW spring onto his plate Dad's reaction was not a planned one. His hand found the back of the cat's neck and he flung the cat back out the door from which it had come and into the darkness of the deck. Amy closed the door after glancing outside. It was too dark to see anything. We ate in stunned silence for the rest of the meal.

Grandfather was the first one to finish supper. He quietly left the table.

When I was finished eating I went out back to check on the cat. Grandfather was out there also, neither of us could find BW anywhere.

Meanwhile, Mom was doing the dishes and Grandfather called her to come down to the basement. He was by the door that went to the backyard. The back deck was over the the outside of the basement door.

"I went out to check on BW after supper," He said to Mom, "I wanted to see if she was alright. When I couldn't find her I came down here to see if she had fallen off the deck. Look."

Mom looked down and saw traces of red on the floor of the basement by the doorway. It led inside to where we keep our old clothes.

"I think it might have been hurt and came inside the basement door when I opened it and went ouside to call BW, without my seeing her" Grandfather was grim.

Mom and Grandfather called BW's name outside and inside the basement. There was no sign of the cat.

Mom was angry when she came up the basement stairs. She told Dad what Grandfather had seen in the basement.

Dad was mortified, "I didn't mean to hurt the little thing."

He went out the back deck and called the cat also. Dad might have a quick temper but he would never purposely abuse an animal.

I went with Grandfther back down to the basement and he showed me where he had seen the red marks on the basement floor. I followed the tracks of the red mark over to where boxes of clothes were stacked. I picked up a container of paint that was half-hidden by an old shirt. I picked it up and showed it to Grandfather.

"It's poster paint," I handed it to Mom, who was just coming down the basement stairs, "It must have been partially open. When the dogs got in the basement when we were playing here last week, they must have tracked through the paint.

Mom, Amy and Dad were all relieved when they saw the container.

After a little while I heard a faint, meowing coming from the darkness. BW must have run off the deck and into the night. She was unhurt but I have a feeling that she'll stay away from Dad from now on and vice versa.

That night, Mom came into my bedroom to say goodnight,"Get a good night's sleep, Kevin, your Grandfather and Dad are going to take off from the front yard tomorrow morning bright and early in a hot air balloon. You do want to see them off, don't you?"

Wow! I couldn't wait to see this! Now I'll never get to sleep!

WOOSH! I woke up to the sound of the hot air balloon being filled with gas. I looked at the clock radio on my nightstand. It was 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. When I heard that sound I immediately knew what was happening and I leaped to my feet.

Mom had given Dad and Grandfather a hot air balloon ride as a birthday gift since their birthdays were close together. She said it was 'killing two birds with one stone'. Not to be taken literally, of course.

. Grandfather and Dad had waited patiently for a month for the right weather for the ride. The weather had always been too windy, or rainy or too hot.

The pilot had called Dad last night before and told him the conditions should be just right this morning for the ride. The balloon pilot had also said that the two could take off from the field in front of our house if they wanted to.

I ran downstairs where Amy and Mom were getting ready to go outside. Mom, as usual, had her camcorder.

"Why can't I go, Mom?" Amy was asking.

"Maybe next time, dear," Mom said, "This is your father and grandfather's gift."

The balloon was already partially filled when we got outside and walked up the field to it.

The fall morning was chilly. It was too early in the fall for frost yet but winter didn't feel too far away as I snuggled deeper into my jacket.

The chase car was waiting at the side of the road with a trailer attached to it. The pilot explained that the car would follow the balloon and when it landed the car would pick up the balloon's occupants and take them back to their starting point.

The balloon pilot told us that one time the ballon had landed in a farmer's cornfield and the farmer came out with his rifle. The farmer wasn't too happy about their landing in his corn. Mom and Dad laughed but I wasn't sure if that was funny or not, being greeted by an angry farmer in a field.

Duffy ran around excitedly, barking at the huge balloon that was slowly inflating in front of him, not really sure of what was going on. Grandfather grabbed Duffy up to put him inside and to get his camera and binoculars in the house.

Dad and Gradfather were excited. I wished I was going. I wanted to tell Mom that this was not fair. I shoud be able to go. Why couldn't I? I was small, I wouldn't take up much room. Maybe I could smuggle myself in the basket and they wouldn't see me until they had taken off. No, I got a closer look at the basket that would carry them and I knew that even with as small as I was, there was no way I could hide inside that little space.

It was too cold for Amy so she went into the house. Jake was snoozing away in his attic room so it would be just Mom and I to see the group off. Mom was busy takin pictures of the group's departure.

The balloon was about full when the pilot started yelling instructions to Dad and Grandfther about what to do and what not to do once they were in the air. Dad and Grandfather climbed into the basket and were finally ready to take off. The red and white balloon bobbed in the gentle morning breeze.

This was really exciting. I ran all around the balloon, as they prepared for their ascent.

"What about you?" The pilot asked me.

"Me?" I asked, "What about me?"

"Do you want to go?"

"Sure!" I ran to the basket and climbed in with Dad's help. This had to be most exciting day of my life. We were taking off! The balloon gently lifted higher and higher.

Amy came out of the house as I was waving gleefully to Mom below.

"What is he doing in there?" She pointed up at the lifting balloon that was about twenty feet above her.

"They had enough room for one more," Mom explained, shrugging her shoulders, "And he was here."

"It's not fair!" Amy stomped her foot and sulked into the house.

The balloon coasted gently higher and higher through the air and we began to clear the trees and the house became smaller and smaller. The balloon didn't go very fast. It just sort of lifted and floated.

Mom went into the house and gathered her coat and purse.

"What are you going to do?" asked Amy.

"I'm going to follow the balloon," Mom told her, "Do you want to come along?"

Mom and Amy got into the car and followed the route the balloon had taken.

By now our balloon had long since passed the neighborhood. I could see horses running way below us. The gas would occasionally go into the balloon to keep it high with a sudden WOOSH sound. The gas kept our backs warm, otherwise we would have been very cold up here.

Wouldn't it be great if our balloon went higher and higher, I thought to myself as I looked up at the sky above us. And then it went so high that a big gust from an airplane blew it all the way out to the ocean. The pilot couldn't get it to stop and we ended up landing on a South Sea island where we lived on fish and coconuts until we were found by a passing ocean liner who dropped us off after they finished their cruise. I kenw I would end up missing a lot of school, but by the time I got back and told the teachers about my adventures, they would let me write a report to take the place of any tests and homework I'd have missed. The gas blew into the balloon again and woke me out of my daydream. I looked down.

This was great! I could see kids playing in their yards. They looked up when the gas was pumped again into the balloon. I wondered if any of the kids at schoool would see me. I knew they would be green with envy. The kids down below were waving at us.

I bet I could hock a really big one on their heads, I thought. I started gathering spit together in my mouth when Grandfather said, "Look!"

I looked down below us and saw our car following us. It stopped at the side of the road and Mom got out with her camcorder. She pointed it up at us.

"Hi, Mom!" I yelled, "Hi, Amy! Wish you were here!"

I knew Amy was sticking her tongue out at me. I couldn't tell for sure from this distance, but I just knew she was.

We must have floated over the countryside for about an hour when the pilot began our descent. We didn't go straight down but eventually we drifted lower and lower.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw where we were going to land. We were just barely above a cornfield!

"No!" I yelled at the pilot, "We can't land here!"

"What's wrong?" asked Dad who had noticed my panick.

"That is a cornfield!" I shouted, pointing down at the ground below us.

"Of course it is," Dad looked down and then at me, "It is definitely a cornfield."

"Don't you remember what the pilot said about a farmer coming out with a rifle? Farmers don't like people landing in their cornfields."

The balloon landed gently just then. Dad, Grandfather and I carefully got out while the pilot stayed inside. We gently guided the balloon closer to the waiting chase car. The balloon would rise a little, float closer to the road, gently land on the corn again and then rise a little once more. I looked around me for any signs of angry farmers. There were no houses or farmers around. Hopefully, the farmer who owned this land was milking a cow somewhere.

Finally, the balloon was a few feet away from the chase car and we all pulled on the it's ropes as we helped the pilot fold it up and put it away in the trailer.

"That was great!" I shouted to Mom and Amy, "I want to do that again!"

"Not without me," Amy glared at me, "Next time, I'm going."

We ate a celebratory breakfast at a restaurant nearby before going home and I got to tell Mom and an unhappy Amy about our adventurous flight in the balloon.

I couldn't wait to go to school Monday and tell everyone about my balloon ride. Even Brian the bully will be impressed. Too bad I couldn't have hocked one on his head from the balloon.

The day after the balloon ride Grandfather told Jake, Amy and I that he would be leaving to go back to Arizona. It would be too cold here in the winter for Grandfather and Duffy and they missed the warm Arizona winters and the friends that they had made there. Grandfather assured us with a hug that he would miss us and that he would be back again soon.

Grandfather took a day to pack all of his and Duffy's belongings in the car for the long trip back to Arizona. He put a box up front in the seat next to him so that Duffy would have his own carseat.

Grandfather and Duffy left the next morning. We all hugged goodbye. Duffy looked at us through the window as the car slowly went down the driveway. I waved goodbye to Duffy and then to Grandfather. I went inside and watched from the window as their car drove away. A tear fell down my cheek. I would really miss them. I would miss helping Grandfather outside with the hurricane cleanup and in the basement fixing things. I would miss playing with Duffy and chasing him all over the house. This was a gloomy day for all of us. Jake, Amy and I sat in the den, not feeling like doing anything.

"Kids!" Mom shouted, coming into the den. She had just been on the phone with Dad, "What are you doing just sitting here? We have lots to do. Your Dad and I have just decided to have a neighborhood Halloween party!

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