Hole in the Sky

What else could possibly go wrong?

Geoff is sixteen and still at school.

Julio is a seventeen year-old panel beater.

Herbie is eighteen and already in the Air force.

They have a common love – skydiving.

Nothing seems to go right for Geoff – he has to go behind his over-protective mother’s back to even watch. But no way she will permit him to jump!

The boys' barbecue sparks a bushfire… and no one is pleased and when a jumper commits suicide, his mother hears part of a conversation… and jumps to the wrong conclusion. When a white powder she finds in his back pocket is not what she thinks, it is the last straw!

Maybe he should leave home…

An adventure story set around the sport of skydiving!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margaret Pearce was born when the population of Australia was seven million – now it is some twenty-two million. Like many Australians, her forebears immigrated in the 1850's to find a better life for their children, part of the largest diaspora of the times.

At seven when she found a lurid science fiction magazine, her unsupervised reading started. The cover had an almost naked female in a large wine glass and an interesting alien drinking her blood from a tap below. She has since been hooked on science fiction and fantasy.

She completed a commercial course before being launched on an unsuspecting business world as a typist, stenographer and secretary before falling into copywriting. When she married, she commenced writing and even while raising children, found time to publish. When children grew, she decided to study for a arts degree as a mature age student and become a teacher, but writing continued to dominate her life.

The Author lives in an underground house in the Australian bush, where she maintains her love of writing.

Margaret Pearce has published more than sixty novels, novellas and children's books -

CHILDREN’S NOVELS

THE CIRCUS RUNAWAYS  1979 Penguin Puffin

ALTAR OF SHULAANI         1981 Penguin Puffin

WANTED A HORSE                1983/87 Ashton

THE MISFIT                             1984 Kangaroo Press

DAY IN THE LIFE OF A MAIDSERVANT 1987 Macmillan S Cross

CASTLE HILL UPRISING                        1987 Macmillan S Cross

MARMADUKE                                   1988 Horwitz/Ashton

WEEKEND OF HERMAN JOHN                 1989 Macmillan S Cross

WHEN DOGGO WENT PURPLE                1989 Ceshire Longmann

THE SECRET IN THE COMPOST BIN       1990 Omnibus Books

THE CONVERTIBLE COUCH                     1991 Random Century

CAUGHT IN WILLABURRA                         1992 Millennium Books

OLD MAN IN THE PARK                             1991 Random Century

RILLA AND THE SCHOOL PLAY                1997 Scholastic

BIRTHDAY SURPRISE                              1998 Thos Nelson Series

PARTY POOPERS                                      1999 MacMillan

CAPED CRUSADER   (e book)                   2003 Ziptales, Wizard

CAPED CRUSADER print version               2005 Ziptales, Wizard

CARRINGTON                                             2004 Tourist Productions.

JEWELERS TO THE PALACE                    2006 Ibis Publishers

A BEAUTIFUL DAY                                2011 Guardian Angel

THE OBELISK TRAP 2013 Kayelle Press

TEENAGE

LOOK OF LOVE                                   1989 Dolly Publications

BOBBY AND FRANK

(HOME & AWAY TV NOVELISATION) 1989 Collins

THREE’S A CROWD                                 1991 Corgi Bantam

THE TOGETHERNESS  ROUTINE       1991 Longman

WEEKEND TERRITORY                       1993 Longman

THE MYSTERY OF THE THIRD SEAL 1995 Longman

FOR PETE’S SAKE                        2011 Astraea Press

DR. DOOLITTLE'S RING 2013 Custom Book Publications THE HOLE IN THE SKY 2014 Custom Book Publications

eBOOKS

THE TOGETHERNESS ROUTINE                   2006  Fictionwise.com  

CAUGHT IN WILLABURRA.                          2006  Fictionwise.com  

THE BOLTON ROAD SPYCATCHERS.         2006  Fictionwise.com  

WEEKEND TERRITORY                                 2006  Fictionwise.com  

SECRET IN THE COMPOST BIN                    2006  Fictionwise.com  

THE MISFIT                                                       2006  Fictionwise.com. 

PROBLEM OF THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT 2007  Fictionwise.com  

MARMADUKE                                                  2007  Fictionwise.com  

RILLA AND THE SCHOOL PLAY                  2007  Fictionwise.com 

THE MYSTERY OF THE THIRD SEAL         2006 Writers Exchange

CARRINGTON                                                  2006 Writers Exchange

ALTAR OF SHULAANI                                   2007 Writers Exchange

CAVE OF THE DREAMING                           2007 Writers Exchange

SECRET OF THE KLOOG                                2007 Writers Exchange

MISSING A HORSE                                           2007 Writers Exchange

THE CIRCUS RUNAWAYS                             2007 Writers Exchange

WANTED A HORSE                                         2007 Writers Exchange

THE HONGKONG STOPOVER(Wright) 2009 Writers Exchange

BELINDA AND THE WITCH’S CAT              2011 Writers Exchange

BELINDA AND THE HOLIDAYS IT RAINED 2011 Writers Exchange

BELINDA AND THE MISSING WILL            2011 Writers Exchange

REBECCA AND THE CHANGELING            2012 Writers Exchange

REBECCA ANDTHE HOBGOBLIN INVASION 2012 Writers Exchange

REBECCA AND THE WICKED WITCH            2012  Writers Exchange

REBECCA AND THE MISSING HEIR               2012  Writers Exchange

ROSES ARE FOR ROMANCE (Webb) 2010 Writers Exchange

THE SECRET AGENDA                                    2011 Astraea Press

INVITATION TO A STRANGER                        2012 Astraea Press

FOR PETE’S SAKE                                          2012 Astraea Press

THE WEEK AT MON REPOSE                         2012 Astraea Press

SHADOWS OVER TARALON                           2012 Astraea Press

THE LONELY HEART                                        2012 Astraea Press

THE TOGETHERNESS ROUTINE                    2012 Astraea Press

CINDY JONES                                                  2012 Astraea Press

SWAPOVER                                                       2012 Astraea Press

THREE’S A CROWD                                         2012 Astraea Press

THE INTERGALACTIC CAT  (phone app)         2011 Jason Banico

THE TRUANTS                                                 2012 Books a-Go-Go

THE GREEN HEART OF LOVE 2014 eSteameReads

ADULT ROMANCE (Under Jacquelyn Webb)

THE LONELY HEART                1990 Robert Hale (Rainbow Romance)

ROSES ARE FOR ROMANCE   1991 Robert Hale (Rainbow Romance)

SHADOWS OVER TARALON    1992 Robert Hale (Rainbow Romance)

Copyright © 2014 Margaret Pearce

The right of Margaret Pearce to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted

Smashwords Edition

All the characters are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

HOLE IN THE SKY

A Novel for teens and tweens

by

Margaret Pearce

With grateful thanks to the two professionals, Lauraine and Paul for their knowledge and assistance.

Chapter one

The small plane spiralled higher, the labouring note of its engine fading. It circled back and became a small black cross suspended against the bright blue sky.

The three tense watchers squinted up into the brightness of the sky. A black dot dropped from the plane. The distance between the dot and the plane widened. The dot split into three.

One of the dots blossomed a canopy. A few seconds later the other dot blossomed a canopy, and then the third dot, falling a lot further away, finally blossomed its canopy. Phil's lungs emptied, unaware he had been holding his breath until the canopy of the first dot had opened.

Beginners jumped with two instructors each side holding them. All the first time jumpers had to do was jump out of the plane, body arched and arms flung wide. First one instructor let go and then, assured that the student would pull his ripcord, the other let go. It only took five crowded seconds to decide that if the canopy did not open or had a malfunction, the student had to use the reserve parachute and failing that the automatic opener should operate.

One of the instructors was the first to land, swinging in fast in a steep sharp curve and stepping neatly on to the ground. He coiled his landing lines and waited with the ground instructor by the arrow. The student jumper came down more slowly, the other instructor drifting wide behind him.

Phil watched enviously. With his two friends, he had paid over the money earned from his last Christmas job of strawberry picking to do the Accelerated Freefall Course at the skydiving club. Anyone from fourteen years old could jump in tandem and from sixteen could do the Accelerated Freefall Course if they had their parents' permission. Otherwise jumpers had to be eighteen years old.

Herbie was eighteen. Seventeen old Julio had shrugged and admitted leaving his written permission home, as did Phil. However the instructor had actually rung Julio's parents to check. Julio's father had confirmed he had signed the form. Phil had to hastily admit, his face reddening, that he had not had his mother sign the release form and not to bother to ring her anyway.

With the others he had practiced the procedures of emergency malfunctions and landing procedures. He had hung suspended from the harness in the hangar, learning how to handle his reserve chute if the main chute failed to open and practicing his arching. The instructor had agreed that he was just as ready as the others were, but he was adamant.

Without permission Phil had to wait until he turned eighteen. Phil had to wait another two agonizing months to even turn seventeen. His two best friends, Herbie and Julio, had already made their first jumps. Phil could only watch, go over and over the checklist and practice landing rolls.

This morning, the two veterans stood with him on the field, watching the other three students do their jumps.

Herbie, a lowly electronics apprentice in the Air Force received regular money, even if he did complain it was not enough. Julio had his job of apprentice mechanic at the local garage.

Phil's mother kept him in books and clothes, but ignored his pleas for permission or money to learn the useful skills of sky diving.

'I might want to join the Red Berets, or be in a plane about to crash. You wouldn't want your youngest son not to know how to use a parachute?'

His mother's face tightened. The mention of a plane crash was a mistake. Since his father's death in the crop dusting accident two years ago his mother had turned unreasonable. Even twisting his knee in the school sports high jump became a major drama.

'You don't mind me spending my weekends as a lifesaver?'

'That's different!'

Phil gave up arguing, but not his ambitions to be a skydiver. His sister Jennifer had extracted grudging permission from his mother for him to go just once with the jumpers as a Christmas present.

The highlight of Phil's holidays. It made him determined to earn his sky diving 'A' certificate and perhaps move to the more advanced 'B' certificate.

Every time his mother became too suffocating, Phil relived the exhilarating memory of that flight, buckled into a chute, and bundled into the small plane cleared of seats and other encumbrances.

The squad of jumpers, climbed in after him, jamming him hard against the back. The pilot yawned, checked his own chute was buckled, settled into the one seat in the aircraft, and the plane shuddered into life.

Phil shuddered in empathy. The engine noise grew louder. The plane bumped across the field to lurch into the air. The field diminished with each labored beat of the engine, and the countryside spread out below in checkered paddocks and toy like farms.

This was when Phil knew that he was meant to fly. The petty irritations of life, like homework, crabby math’s’ teachers, neurotic unreasonable mothers and inadequate pocket money dwindled to unimportance.

He tried to breathe deeply and calmly, to settle his racing pulse and his intoxication. He knew all about rapture of the deeps, but he had not realised that there was a similar rapture of the heights.

Air was his natural element. He was going to be a pilot like his father, even if he did have the most sarcastic and crabby math’s’ teacher in the school …and he was going to be a skydiver.

He yearned to jump with the others.

He waited for the plane to disintegrate. The doors had been removed revealing flaking splintered plywood around the sides. The cockpit window was almost too dirty to see through; the tyres on the wheels were bald; and the engine coughed, spluttered and missed in its frantic struggle to reach its required height.

Phil's hand tightened on his safety clip, waiting for the urgent command to abandon the plane. The tail fins should snap in the gusty wind at three thousand feet, but by some unhappy miracle, didn't.

The plane laboured and wheezed, spiralling and shuddering higher and higher to reach the drop zone of ten thousand feet. One by one, the members of the squad waved and jumped, the plane bouncing and lurching as each one left. Phil felt more cheated with each departure.

Without the extra weight of the squad, the plane banked smoothly. Phil watched the synchronized flight of the squad as they linked into patterns and their graceful back flips as they separated. One by one the vividly coloured canopies opened, to glide down towards the drop zone. It seemed no time at all before the plane bumped