Chute Roll

Chapter One

I stood at the open door at the back part of the airplane. I held onto the side of the doorway. I stared down at the desert. To the south, I could see the city of Las Vegas. The buildings looked like little Lego blocks. I was 8,000 feet above the ground. That's a mile and a half straight down. It's a long ways to fall. Soon I would be throwing myself from the airplane into that mile and a half of empty space.

I closed my eyes. The first step is never easy.

Some guys carry a lucky rabbit's foot. Not me. How lucky could the rabbit be if someone had been able to get its foot?

I opened my eyes again. The roar of the engines changed as the pilot made a turn to take the airplane over the target far below. The wind noise rushed through my helmet. I shook from the force of the air that pushed over the airplane wings into the doorway.

"Hey Jeff!"

It was a shout from a girl standing right behind me in the airplane. Sabella Scanelli. She's one of the best. My main competition. She and I were the only ones going up for this jump.

I turned my head slightly. There wasn't much time left before I needed to jump.

"Yeah?" I shouted back.

"Betcha a hundred dollars I land closer!"

Closer meant closer to the target on the ground. We were both training for the biggest parachute event of the year.

Instead of answering with another shout, I shook my head 'no'.

"Chicken?" There was a big grin across her suntanned face.

She knew I wasn't chicken. I just didn't have her kind of money. Her father was a casino owner in Las Vegas. A shiny long black car brought her to the airport each time and took her away as soon as she was finished. Me? I wasn't rich. I had to work at the flight school to pay for my jumps.

"Chickens don't fly!" I shouted above the wind. "But I do!"

And I pushed myself into all that empty air.