Hot Dirigible

Tallulah felt the thick braids of the whicker basket through the soles of her running shoes. She imagined it matched the thick braids in her long blond hair. She was not sure about getting into a hot air balloon when she first arrived at the field near the Fort Crittenden Dam Park. She almost chickened out, but once they were up in the air she found the view utterly breathtaking. She could see the entire valley from their height.

Merit, her boyfriend, had won the balloon ride in the Winner Winner Chicken Spinner contest at the state fair. They had brought their best friend, Corbin, along on the ride because he was a pilot with his lighter-than -air certification, but the three of them were actually inseparable friends and did almost everything together anyway. People were known to confuse Cobin for Tallulah's boyfriend on more than a dozen occasions.

The balloon was shaped like a giant pink and gold jellyfish. It looked like a cthuluesque monster floating through the sky small town's skyline. Jellyfish and Cephalopds were Tallulah’s favorite animals.

“It’s stunning,” Tallulah said.

“What can you see?” Merit asked.

“The whole world,” Tallulah said.

WHOOSH! A burst of hot air licked at Tallulah’s collar bone as Corbin fueled the balloon. They went a little higher.

“What about down in that valley?” Merit asked.

“What, our town?” Tallulah squinted her eyes and glimpsed the slow loris mascot of the Parkview City water tower. She wasn’t sure what Merit was trying to get out of her. Did something look off about their city. She had to admit she had never seen it from such a great height. She wasn’t even sure if something seemed off.

“Look a little closer, at the fields before the city limit.”

Tallulah shaded her eyes from the distant sun and looked at the fields. They just looked like normal fields to her.

“Merit, what am I looking… umm, wait… I see something in that first field,” she squinted and leaned just slightly over the edge of the basket, “people? It looks like a big crowd of people.”

Tallulah turned around and found Merit on one knee holding up a ring case with an enormous diamond. It glinted orange from the early setting sun.

“Tallulah Typha Ford, will you marry me?”

Tallulah’s heart jumped to her throat. She looked to Corbin and found him recording from his phone. She quickly brought her fingers up to her mouth and a tear began to form in the corner of her left eye.

“Merit, who are those people?”

“I invited both our families. Everyone showed up, yours and mine, and they are set up in our landing field. They all wanted to be here for this moment.”

“No.”

“What,” Merit stood from his kneeling position.

“No, Merit. This isn’t what I wanted. I won’t marry you.”

CRACK! BOOM!

Tallulah could physically hear Merit’s heart break. Corbin dropped the phone, still recording, to the ground. Their own faces reflected back up to the couple as they silently stared at each other.

“What was that noise,” Corbin asked. Did you hear that?

“It’s the next step. It’s what our families want,” Merit said.

“I was happy. I didn’t want more,” Tallulah said.

CRASH! BOOM!

“Seriously guys, what is that,” Corbin asked.

“I love you,” Merit said.

“I love you too,” Tallulah said.

“I don’t want to lose you. Losing you is everything,” Corbin said.

“I don’t want to lose you either. I will never want to get married,” Tallulah said.

BOOM! CRACK! CRASH!

“It’s the dam you guys, something is happening at the Fort Crittenden Dam,” Corbin began to point behind them. Tallulah and Merit turned their heads as a massive crack developed down the center of the structure. CRACK! Monster truck sized chunks of water-stained cement broke off the side and tumbled to the forest floor below. CRASH! Water leaked and burst and poured down the side of the crumbling dam in greater and greater force. BOOM!

Faster than a hummingbird can blink the entire dam was gone and, like a fat god, the lake above reigned over the forest below. It sent an apocalyptic rush of death over the fields, the family, the city.

In an instant Tallulah, Merit, and Corbin had lost everything.

Tallulah took Merit’s hand in her right.

Tallula took Corbin’s hand in her left.

“I lost everything,” Merit said, keeping his eyes on the destruction that was once his home.

“I never wanted to marry you to begin with,” Corbin said, keeping his focus on the destruction that was once his family.

THE END