The Sky is the Limit: Part Three

The next few days, all it did was pour sheets of rain, and Harry was trapped inside his own home. The rain pounded at his windows, as if to angrily beckon him outside.

      Forcing himself to get out of his cozy bed, he stumbled to the kitchen to have some breakfast. When he was done, he sat with a blank expression on his face, staring out the window into the bleak and dreary fog that surrounded the house.

      Out of sheer boredom, he took the book from Tila out from under his bookshelf, dusted it off, and started reading. Mildly interested, he thumbed through the pages quickly, as he was a rather swift reader.

      Minutes turned to hours, and the hours flew by quickly. By supper time, Harry had read through a good 400 pages of the manual, even allowing the time for a few pages of notes and sketches.

      Although he wanted to practice a few of the things he had learned, he knew Tila wouldn't want anything to do with him, and Anthony was probably too busy. Besides, the weather wouldn't allow for any stunts, much less let an airplane into the clouds.

      Harry scowled as the wind rattled the windowpanes and made pitiful moaning sounds. He curled up in his bed once again and skimmed through a few more pages of the skydiving book before turning off his lamp and pulling up the covers.

      ***

      The next morning, to Harry's surprise, birds were chirping and the sun shone brightly in through his window, cheerfully lighting the whole room.

      The Mootix smiled and stretched. Today would be a perfect day for some practicing. He knew what he had to do, and that was to confront Tila in spite of their recent spat.

      After a quick breakfast, Harry slipped on a pair of shoes and burst out the door, taking a large breath of fresh air and sighing with content.

      Before he knew it, he was knocking on the Cooty's door. He eagerly waited for her to open her door and greet him, and he imagined that she would be very happy to see him, and realize how foolish she had been.

      But he was wrong. Dead wrong.

      The door creaked open, and Tila stood in the doorway, glaring at Harry. "What do you want?" she demanded. "I'm rather busy, and if you think you can just come over any time you want, you're wrong."

      "But Tila, I--" Harry started to defend himself, bewildered by his friend's unexpected reaction to his arrival on her doorstep.

      "You what?" Tila snarled.

      "I was thinking... I mean, we were being pretty stupid, and--"

      The Cooty cut him off again. "We were being stupid? I was not being the slightest bit so."

      "Er right..." he said, scratching his back. "Well, I was wondering, now that it's in the past... could you, uh, help me? I mean with skydiving? I really need to practice some tricks, and--"

      Again, the poor Mootix was cut off. "Harry, I don't believe you. We haven't talked for the past few days, and you suddenly decide that everything is okay, and that I'm just going to warm up to you straight away and take you SKYDIVING? You're insane. If you're just going to use me to convenience you, I don't want any part in this friendship. Goodbye." With that, she slammed the door hard in his face.

      Harry sighed. "Well, that went well," he said to himself.

      ***

      It was the third class, and Harry found himself in front of the group of students once again. "This time," he instructed, "you are all going to come with me, one by one, on a jump. I'm going to teach you all how to skydive today. Next week, we'll work on technique and a few simple tricks, but for now, we'll stick with the easy stuff."

      Harry walked over to Darren. "Did you finish your graph?"

      "Yeah, here it is," the Vernax replied.

      Looking it over, Harry nodded with satisfaction. "Excellent. I'm proud of you, Darren," he smiled, inwardly rejoicing that he didn't have to nag the young student.

      Darren beamed with pride.

      "Okay everyone, last week I taught you how to use all the equipment, so you should all know how to put it on right, but just in case, I'll check it before you board the plane with me," Harry said. "Now, who's first?"

      A rush of hands immediately raised, all wanting to go first.

      "Uhhh... How about you, Marawyn?" he said, gesturing to a small but ambitious Zytch.

      She eagerly made her way to the skydiving equipment and started putting it on.

      Harry was about to help her tighten one of the loose ropes, but when he tried, it fell apart in his hands. Confused, he picked up another rope, but it too fell apart. Somebody had cut the ropes.

      He was only too sure it was Darren. Walking over to him, he hardly had to say a word. He could see the guilt plain as day in the Vernax's face. "Why did you do it?" he asked, struggling to maintain his anger.

      Darren's whole body trembled. "I-I don't kn-know," he stuttered. "I was angry because you made me do the parachute graph."

      By now, Anthony had come to see what the fuss was about, and was enraged when he found out. "You cut my ropes?" he demanded furiously.

      He was answered with a nod. "Yes sir, I did," he said, looking miserably at the ground.

      Now it was Harry's turn to reprimand him. "Do you know what could have happened if we had attempted to skydive with ruined equipment like that?"

      Anthony was red with rage. "Do you know how many thousands of Neopoints worth of equipment you blatantly destroyed?"

      The Vernax was clearly regretting what he had just done. "I... I didn't know. I'm sorry."

      "This time Darren, sorry is not enough this time. Someone could have been injured, and now, you'll have to pay for new skydiving gear. And I think Tony and I both agree that you no longer have the privilege of attending this class," Harry said. Anthony nodded in agreement.

      Darren turned and walked away dejectedly as the class of students watched him leave, whispering amongst themselves.

      "I'm sorry to say that Darren has ruined your chances of skydiving for today," Harry said regretfully. "Instead we will just have to review."

      Anthony turned to Harry after he had let the class out. "I'll have new equipment by next week," he promised. "I am most terribly sorry that this must have happened to such a wonderful instructor," he said, patting the Mootix on the back. "I will see you next week."

      ***

      Later that week, Harry finished the skydiving manual, and decided to return it to Tila.

      He stepped out of his house and slowly started making his way to Tila's neat little house. When he arrived, he saw her bent over a small flower bed, tending to a few various wildflowers.

      From outside her tidy white picket fence, he called to her. "Hey Tila!"

      She turned around and grunted in disgust. "Oh, you," she scoffed, standing up and walking over to him.

      "You seem happy to see me," he replied sarcastically.

      "What do you want?" she asked, clearly very uptight.

      "I just wanted to give this book back. I read it all, and found it interesting," he said, handing the thick book over the fence.

      Harry almost thought he saw Tila smile. "You read it? The whole thing?" she asked.

      "Yeah. Well, thanks for letting me borrow it. Um, I guess I'll see you later then?" he asked hopefully.

      "Doubtful," she replied, "but we'll see."

      ***

      Monday came around again, and Harry forced himself to get up out of bed. "Just two more weeks after today," he encouraged himself. "Then I'm finally free again."

      He ate a quick breakfast then straightened up his small house, then was on his way to teach another skydiving class.

      After the fifteen minute walk to the park, he was greeted energetically by Anthony, and then proceeded to help him set up and get everything ready before the students started to arrive.

      "So, how much did all this new gear cost you?" Harry asked, still slightly upset with Darren for wrecking it all.

      "Thousands. It still baffles me that a student would do such a terrible and uncalled-for act. He seemed such a decent fella' when he signed up for the class. Sad, really, how some people can mask themselves like that, eh my boy?" Anthony said.

      "Yeah, it sure is," Harry replied, thinking about how he and Tila were acting towards each other. "Can I ask you a question, Tony?"

      "But of course! What is it you want to know?" Anthony said, skilfully folding a parachute.

      "Well, say you had a really good friend, but suddenly you got into this ridiculously pointless fight, but neither one of you wanted to forgive each other because you were too stubborn, and you were sure that the other person was wrong and you were right... what would you do?" he asked.

      "Well, I can't say that I've been in that situation myself, as I am pretty quick to forgive. But I will tell you this: whatever this friend of yours may have done, no matter how serious, you need to make it right with them. If you don't, you will surely be throwing away something very precious--a friendship. And a friendship is one of the most priceless gifts a body could ever have."

      Harry nodded. "Yeah, I suppose you're right," he sighed.

      "I know I'm right," he responded, a sparkle in his eyes. "Well, everything is set up. Now, my boy, here come a few of the students now," Anthony said.

      The Mootix looked, and to his surprise, Darren was approaching him, a determined look on his face.

      "Darren?" both Harry and Anthony chorused.

      "What are you doing here?"

To be continued...