An extra for our off-week for Thanksgiving. Happy reading! —-jeff

Along Came A Parade Balloon

by Jeff Baker

Thanksgiving in New York City was pleasant and actually warm. The young photographer grinned to himself as he aimed his camera and took a picture of the band marching past the Newspaper Building across the street. He grinned again at the sight beside the Newspaper Building.

“My jolly boss is getting his shoes shined by that shoe shine dog,” he said watching the dog in the red vest and striped ballcap work at the shoes with the rag. He waved at them as his editor looked up, cigar clamped in his teeth. “Figures he’d pick somebody cheap,” he said to nobody in particular. If he got a really good picture of the parade he might frame it and give it to his Aunt for Christmas.

He heard a cheer from a block away.

“Aha! Just on time! Here come the balloons!” They had been the young photographer’s favorite when he was growing up. As they drew closer he could make out a cartoon cat, a mouse, a big candy cane…”

Suddenly there was a scream.

One of the large balloons had torn loose from its handlers and was bouncing against one building than another. Then a second and a third balloon joined, following almost as if they had minds of there own.

“Uh, oh” the young photographer said to himself. “Time to duck out of sight and swing into action. But first the camera…”

Across the street, the cigar smoking editor gawked at the rampaging balloons.

“There should be pictures of this!” he said, his voice rising to a yell. He looked across the street. “PAR…” he began. But the photographer wasn’t there.

Behind the editor, the anthropomorphic dog dashed from the shoe shine box and ducked into an alley behind some trash cans. In another instant there was a burst of energy and a blurred, caped figure soared skyward.

“The parade’s in trouble, I must act fast. And so it’s up and awayyyy at last!”

Now attired in his own familiar disguise the erstwhile photographer swung up the building on a slender web just in time to meet up with the flying dog. Beneath them a large orange cat balloon followed by a dog flying on a doghouse and a mouse in gloves were swirling over people’s heads seemingly of their own volition.

“I’ve seen a lot of crazy things as a New Yorker but a costumed dog superhero and crazy balloons…If I had eaten dinner I’d put it down to spoiled cranberry sauce!”

“The man with webs in front of me,” the dog said hovering “I’ve seen you fight crime on T. V.”

“You too, canine crusader,” the webbed wonder said. “But I think we’d better take care of the parade before someone gets hurt!”

“I agree! Follow me!”

The two of them zipped down to parade level and zoomed and swung around the balloons which started to soar after them. There was a glint of something metal around the edges of the balloons.

The dog pointed. “The balloons are being flown by jets! Spray them quickly with your nets!”

“Uh, actually, they’re webs but, right!” he said aiming his shooters.

The chemical webbing did its job as the three cartoon balloons were stopped and attached quickly to the ground. Moving at superhuman speed the caped canine disabled the jets attached to the balloons and zipped along the route to check for more with the web swinger swinging behind.

“That must be all of them,” the webbed superhero said at the end of the parade route. “I’ll take one of those jets and see if I can find out what spoilsport is behind this.”

“There’s no return label on these jets, analysis would make some safer bets,” the dog said hovering a few feet over the ground. “Harm did not seem the intent, just a prank by a mind quite bent.”

“At least we stopped this before any damage could be done,” the webbed wonder said. But, uhhh, I have to be somewhere.” He was thinking of his automatic camera he’d set up hoping it might get a picture the paper would buy.

“It’s the same for me, I think…” the flying dog said. “I must be gone quick as a wink.”

And with that he zipped up into the air and was gone.

The cobwebbed crusader sighed as he jumped up a wall.

“I’ll track down the baddies who did this stuff. Then I’ll make them say ‘Enough.’ Oh my gosh, he’s got me doing it now!”

And to all my readers I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and a…hey, what’s this? A copyright notice?!? ——-jeff

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