Try and make it short. Short Story of a real experience in your life. be mature and stick to the theme. Respect others.
Here is mine.
Genre: Adventure
My story is about an experience that happened 35 plus years ago
My Adopted brother name Daryn and I decided to take parachute lessons in the summer of 1982 bout 80 miles or for you Euro Fancies abou, 135 kilometers away, that's East of the San Francisco bay
Daryn and I (Daryn being 22 and I being about 15 years of age) and a friend of mine name Jeff (who was going into the US Army) had drove just west of Stockton a few miles and started class for Parachuting from what I believe was a Cesna type plane. large with no seats in the back other than bench.
We took a class (like an orientation and training to jump properly). I remember the instructors had us jump from a high platform and said, if you land correctly that is about the amount of impact on your shins and knees and feet. Then I can't remember if we were horse playing but I remember balancing on a surfboard as well. the plane can kind of jerk around and you dont want to fall accidentally out of the plane even with a chute because you might slam your head on the wheel extension of the plane on the way out
On the second day we had an instucture strap us to his chute as a tandem jump. the second time you had to pull the chute for the, tandem as to pretend as if he has passed out.
Next day (depending on the jump with the tandem instructor goes, you get to jump and the instructor is next to you and watches you pull the chute and for him to attach himself to you if you fuk up.
So now we get to the two of us to go Jumping. The Friend Jeff chickened out. he wasn't ready to go at it alone. but he came up with some BS story.
So Daryn and I went at it as 2 guys jumping for the first time on their own. He went first, I second. it was a rush. you hear the beep beep when it's time.. it is piercing. a device that measures altitude and tells you when it's best to pull.
the next few times was fun but costly. a guy who had a smaller plane said he would do it for half the price but we both had to sign waivers (i didn't tell him I was only 15)
we went up and Daryn said to me he said "Dude, he only checks on us like 2 times, we could smoke pot back here I bet. I said No because he would smell it. But thinking for a comeback and only coming up with something odd I jokenly said "we can bring the cat up|. he nicked named him a typical stoner name for a cat. bannur. ban nurrr. Daryn grinned all pothead face and was totally down for bringing the cat.
bannur had been placed in backpack which was green and kind of the canvas color of the parachute. the plane was pretty loud and shook a lot and the cat didn't cry much in the plane.. just in the car when we placed him in it. the pilot already had his headgear on and we just got in the back.. bannurs actually like the buzzing sensation of the plane it seemed.. he kind of fell asleep. the backpack was facing forward like a Native American woman's Cradle Board but placed in front and had a view of looking down for the cat if it looked through the mesh window it had.
Daryn jumped and then I jumped and pitched forard to catch up with them and Daryn with Cat in bag and I formed a 2 man star so I could look at Bannurs cute fwace when it was free fallen. He had this "Fuck You" stare looking at me, but only if Bannur had been stuck in a freezer with a stick shoved up his ass and frozen solid with. that face, oh my goshness that face.
I thought he might of had a terrible heart failure and died with it's eyes open and became concerned.. Daryns beeper went chirping away and then mine.. Chute open we hit and ran.. well I fell down when I hit the ground and rolled.
the cat didn't say shit. it just had this crooked mouth kind of half pissed off half confused.
we took him home right away. he just went back to his normal self. and I jokenly said summin like "Hey, he might have learned a bad habit of having fear to jump off of stuff. so It would be responsibility to bring him back up. like the old addage "You need to get back up on that horse little doggy" regarding falling off a horse.
He was like "Yeah. We should." and we did. we took him up until he wasn't afraid anymore. he looked excited even. running towards the bag on days we didn't even go. he was now expecting this to be his normal routine.
So I says to Daryn, I says to him Hey, I bet we could get one of those animal parachutes they used in WWII or other wars. and we went to a hunting like store and found they sold not just parachutes but animal parachutes. the cat weighed a few pound. maybe 8-9 tops. this parachute was 55 bucks and for an extra 80 bucks there was a device added for the auto chute to happen. it's called a ADD (These were 1980 prices and today is way way more- like 1500 bucks for a ADD chute for main and reserve)
So we realized the cat wouldn't go so easily. we asked the owner (who says people do this often. especially training dogs but sometimes cats as well) and he said, a trick was to place the cat on a chair. like a foldable cheap chair that will get destroyed on impact. so we bought one that locks into place (The chair, not the cat) and we attached the cat to the chute. pilot didn't know and when he told to us "we got to height and mark Go Go Go"
He had me use a fish-rod toy for cats and get the cat to focus on the wiggly thing while he pushed the chair out.
Illustration of Bannur saying No in kitty voice.
the cat FREAKED OUT and had all four claws dug in on that chair.. it was not spinning like we hoped. and Daryn and I shot forward and down to catch up and we did the star formation and caught up to the cat. they usually launch chutes earlier than later for cats because they weigh so little I guess the chute needs more time to fully deploy?
anyways i grabbed the chairs front feet and shook it violently and the cat leaps off and i would say 5-6 seconds later that fucking chute deployed. then the beeper went off and we deployed. we passed the cat (which was a good thing) and landed. ran to wear the cat was to land because we knew that fucker would bolt into the nearby wooded area, prolly never to be seen again.
he bolted just as we got up to him because we had to remove the chute and pack. they caught wind and started to tug off behind us and the cat luckily ran directly into his chute and basically netting him.
This caused the material on the parachute to tear and not be usable again. I said "it might seem cruel but we have to do this again. I'll pay for the chute this time. he can't have his last memory in terror. it has to feel natural for him|". Daryn agreed and I bought a blue parachute which was a little cheaper than the orange one. but it was a bright powder blue.
We knew he would say "Fuck a chair" so we made a little stand with a remnant of a carpet glued onto it.. he was using the carpet as a play toy and as a catch-scratching post.
dude was scratching and nibbling his way the entire flight on the same little stoop stole with its magic-carpet like he was a Genie
this time Daryn played with the cat a bit with his fingers and I started to slide the cat to the edge. wind blowing mad and he seemed like nothing was up. Only Daryns fingers mattered to bannur. and off he went, suddenly clinched as fuck with Grave's-Disease eyes and frozen in place.
we bailed out and caught up with bannur. both Daryn and I are rocking the thing in mid air, back and forth and a side draft hitting us letting us to know the AAD on his would go off sooner detecting a differentiation in wind pressure.
fucker wouldnt let go and his AAD shot open, us moving faster and faster looking up at us and we got the chirp to pull or burn in. we caught him. parachute was fine. and we literally got right under him and he wouldn't let go of the carpet for a minute. then looked to be normal. 'Bannur was fine' and we smiled.
for us It was a solid drop sensation. we hit the ground much harder than we felt we should have. I bruised my foot a bit. Daryn said he needed to smoke more pot because his back was hurting. we both stayed in for 2 days getting high. and the cat chilled with.
we did this for the rest of the summer and on one of the last Bannur let go of the step stool carpet magiggy thing and it busted to pieces with shreds of carpet torn from it.
So it's our last Jump for the summer of 80 whatever and I said. OK lets buy another fold chair and do this. I bet he goes willingly.
We get to the plane and the pilot was taking a piss and we boarded. he comes back and he's feeling a bit edgy. so we go up and he's barking about unrelated shit to us and his wife is leaving him. he's bumping and a rocken the plane a bit more than we were used to.. he goes "point in site.. on count" backward counts. he never did this before. and I open the chair and bannur claws a bit into the frabic on the folding chair. it cost a little more but the regular models are slippery metal on the seat. so he's actually digging what he sees as his little thrown (lol thrown alright, vertically)
I said, I'll shake the chair before his chute opens. For some reason (and told me later on ) daryn heard me say "you shake the chair's feet" and then the pilot yells "IS THAT A CAT. I AM NOT INSURED FOR ANIMALS AND I'M ALLERGic to them". and unbolts his seat belt and starts to come at.
Daryn, the cat, the chair and I went flying out and his plane took a dive and pitched off into the distance. later he got control of it? I dont know
but for some reason, and because of this angry fuck we never saw again. had caused Bannur to clinch up and freeze. So I got to shake the legs but at the same time Daryn shakes the legs on his side and we somehow folded the chair into bannur and his chute pinning the fucker inbetween the backing and the bottom like a flying metal-sandwich comet thing.
Oh fuck oh fuck. never heard the AAD and we were warned by our altimeter to pull. we did as the chair plummeted.
We buried Bannur near the landing zone area without telling the airport we did so. closer to the endpoint next to a public road. We made a headstone with a dremml and it's probably still there to this day.
I'll miss Bannur. but it's always good if you buy a folding chair. that it has a locking mechanism. I had purchased the wrong type of chair.
The End
