99 Luftballoons

Author's Note: Moonshadow Tribe Balloon Challenge set in The Sunshine Files universe.

*****

“Dad, what are you doing out here? It’s freezing,” Patrick asked his father on a cold November morning.

The sky outside the sun porch was bright and blue. The air, crisp and biting in the early winter. The garden was dusted with snow.

“It’s your birthday today,” John replied.

“I know, Dad, my eighteenth and the whole family will be here later to celebrate. Why couldn’t you guys have me when it was warm?” Patrick teased.

“I don’t think we gave it much thought,” John said as he put his arm around his son’s shoulder. “We just wanted you, and Aunt Rachel helped us with the miracle.”

“She really loved you that much back then, didn’t she?”

“Still does, thank the gods, as your uncle would say. She couldn’t have given us a greater gift. Our baby with hazel eyes and red hair.” John smiled at the memory of their old mantra.

“She said you were both there, holding her hands and whispering 'hazel eyes and red hair' when I was conceived.”

“And I’m sure she told you that I was a royal pest.” Patrick and John laughed out loud. “Your Poppa was cool as a cucumber about the pregnancy. I was a nervous wreck the whole nine months. They ordered me to renovate your room just to keep me occupied.”

“Did it work?”

“For a while. I think I calmed down as Rachel began to show. You were becoming real.”

Father and son were quiet for a while.

“Dad, you never answered me. Why are you out here and what are you planning to do with all those balloons?” John was holding a huge bunch of red balloons. A November breeze threatened to take them away if John loosened his grip on the strings.

“You’re eighteen today. Old enough to vote, old enough to drive with an adult license. You’ll be going off to college soon.”

“I know.” John grew silent again. “Dad?” Patrick said with worry.

“Old enough to register for Selective Service,” John said sadly as he grabbed his son to hold him close.

The balloons released, dotting the sky with red.

“My son,” John cried as he held onto Patrick for dear life.

-end-

Lyrics by Nena German-1983, English-1984

You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got.
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one, they were gone.
Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message, Something's out there.
Floating in the summer sky.
99 red balloons go by.

99 red balloons.
floating in the summer sky.
Panic bells, it's red alert.
There's something here from somewhere else.
The war machine springs to life.
Opens up one eager eye.
Focusing it on the sky.
Where 99 red balloons go by.

99 Decision Street.
99 ministers meet.
To worry, worry, super-scurry.
Call the troops out in a hurry.
This is what we've waited for.
This is it boys, this is war.
The president is on the line
As 99 red balloons go by.

99 Knights of the air
Ride super-high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a superhero.
Everyone's a Captain Kirk.
With orders to identify.
To clarify and classify.
Scramble in the summer sky.
As 99 red balloons go by.

99 dreams I have had.
In every one a red balloon.
It's all over and I'm standing pretty.
In this dust that was a city.
If I could find a souvenier.
Just to prove the world was here.
And here is a red balloon
I think of you and let it go.
 

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