Page 54 - Demo

Natch!40it landed harmlessly with a splash in one of the many turquoiselakes. But on this particular day, an obstacle placed itself in thespeeding lava onion%u2019s flight path. Shortly after the first bangemitted by the belching volcano, a second, louder, and moresustained bang came from the underbelly of the Whirly C-5. Thelava onion struck directly beneath the seat of Ace, whose anustragically bore the brunt of its force. The lava onion came to restjust above his lower intestine, sending the Whirlicopter into atailspin. Chance did what he could to try to soften the landing,but in truth, for all his enthusiasm, he knew very little about howto fly a Whirlicopter. Jinx and Lucky were pelted by chips, flyingsandwiches and snack cakes as the Whirlicopter spun aroundand around in its descent. Only the emergency landing feature,designed into the wings, saved them from a lethal crash. As theyspun out of control, the wings automatically softened andexpanded like parachutes, slowing their descent if notcompletely righting the aircraft. They landed with a thud atop anoval jade berg floating in a large turquoise lake. The expandedwings folded themselves down either side of the berg like thefloppy ears of a basset hound.The landing split the Whirlicopter open, spilling much of thesnack cache and all of Lucky%u2019s luggage into the frigid turquoise.Jinx and Lucky were able to crawl out the jagged opening, bothbruised and shaken but relatively unharmed. They climbed overthe slippery berg surface around to the cockpit where Chancewas just extricating himself from the navigator%u2019s emergencyegress port. They asked immediately about Ace, but the look onChance%u2019s face told them all they needed to know. Lucky bowedhis head and clutched his soggy hat to his chest in respectfulsilence. As he did, the biological contents of Gad%u2019s packet slidquietly into the turquoise, surrounded and nourished by nearlyall the remaining snacks.