Jake and the Hot Air Balloon

By Maurice Huffman

This is the story of an orphan named Jake who finds himself in a hot-air balloon with his friend, Milton the Mouse. The wind carries them through many adventures, some very amusing and others quite dangerous. The adventures of Jake and Milton originated as bedtime stories, which the author told his son. This book combines the adventures and were finally written down as advised by his son Miles. The illustrations were all done by the author’s son, Miles Huffman. The author hopes the stories will be passed on to Miles’s children one day.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781640821668

Book preview

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Jake

and the

Hot-Air Balloon

MAURICE HUFFMAN

Copyright © 2017 Maurice Huffman

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2017

ISBN 978-1-64082-165-1 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64082-166-8 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Prologue

J ust hang on tight, he heard a high-pitched voice say. Now pull yourself up one hand at a time . . . You can do it.

Jake could not see where the voice was coming from, but it somehow calmed him in this horrific moment, dangling 1,000 feet above the ground from a rope . . . But wait, let’s tell you how Jake got here . . .

Jake lives in an orphanage in Colorado Springs. He is ten years old. He has a sparkle in his eyes that always seems to be full of energy, and his smile brightens up any room. Jake lost his parents in a shipwreck when he was only two years old. They were on a small yacht in the Caribbean when a major storm capsized their boat. He was the only survivor. After that, he was brought to his only relative, his aunt Hilde, in Colorado Springs, but she passed away when he was five. She had managed to spend all the money that was left behind by Jake’s parents, so there was no money, and Jake ended up in a state facility, where he lives now. He shares a room with twenty-four other boys. Sometimes, it is very hard not to cry at night, but he remembers when he first arrived, how sad he was and how he cried at night.

So he comforts the younger boys and gives them courage and therefore cannot cry in front of any of them, but at night, when everybody is asleep, he remembers his parents and gets very sad. Some nights, he awakens from a dream where his mother seems to call for him so loud that he could swear she is in the room. Then, he awakens and realizes it’s just a dream. That’s when it is hard to hold back the tears and go back to sleep.

Aunt Hilde never talked about his parents. She was always out all night and came back home late. She would always tell Jake what a burden he was, but also a blessing, since she had control of all the money his parents had left behind. The blessing also proved to be her death since she did die from not taking care of herself.

Jake did find things to do to entertain himself though; he always had a special connection to animals. They seemed to understand his problems and were always there to comfort him. Aunt Hilde had moved to a cabin his parents owned in the foothills surrounding Colorado Springs, after she sold their house up by the Broadmoor hotel. Jake would play outside while his aunt slept all day. He had many friends there. A fox would come visit and even eat from his hand. Most of the time though, he would just be there whenever Jake was outside for a while. Jake also had helped a crow one time that had been injured. He fed it for a few weeks while it could not fly. When they took him to the orphanage, he had to leave all his friends behind. He misses them a lot. There is not much to do at the orphanage. In the morning after breakfast, everybody has to help clean up. Then, there are five hours of school, then after lunch, cleanup and homework time. The orphanage is in the city, and there are no woods or animals for miles.

Chapter 1

Lost During the Field Trip

Once a year, there would be a field trip, which was always very highly anticipated, and this year’s trip was rumored to be visiting the annual hot-air balloon races. Jake was very excited about this, since flying was always something that interested him. The races were coming up in June, and if everybody did their chores in time and no one got in trouble for the next two months, they would all get in a bus and get to see the races. Jake made sure to be done with his homework in time and to help some of the other boys with theirs. He really wanted to make this trip. Everything was going perfect, until two days before the scheduled trip, when it was now officially announced that they were going to the balloon races.

Charlie was a newcomer and arrived three months ago. He is thirteen years old and started trouble the very first day. He did not like to work in the kitchen after breakfast and lunch and would always start trouble. Mostly, he would bully a younger kid into doing his chores, but then he would always take credit for the work. This time, he had cornered poor little Jimmy and was threatening to hurt him if he did not clean all the crusty pots, which was Charlie’s job today. Jimmy had already done all his chores and was tired of being pushed around and started running. Jimmy was very