That's My Helicopter

• Freddie Yob, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2017

“You’re fired!” said the Boss angrily.
“But why?” Jake asked.
“Because whenever you’re put on patrol you never report in on your radio!”
“I’m sorry,” said Jake, “but I get distracted sometimes.”
Boss gave Jake a confused look.
“OK, most of the time,” Jake said quietly.
“You have until the end of the day to find all of your things, and pack them into the blue shipping container out the front of the airfield. Now get going!”
“OK, I should get packing then,” Jake said sadly.
“Oh, and one more thing… if you leave anything behind it goes to a hanger at the back of the airfield to be auctioned off and never to be seen again!” the Boss said.
Jake closed the door and began to pack his things into the blue shipping container.
“All done,” Jake said to the Boss.
“OK, just sign this form and you can go on your plane to Australia,” the Boss said. “Oh, and when you sign this form, anything you leave behind is ours. Clear?”
“OK”, said Jake and he signed the papers and handed them over to the Boss.
“Alright, now get out of my face!”
Jake walked out to his car miserably and drove off. He pulled over to a gas station and started to fill up when he realised that he’d forgotten to put his helicopter into the shipping container! He jumped back into the car and raced back to the airfield, ran to the Boss’ office and told him, breathless, “I forgot to pack my helico-“
“Doesn’t matter. It’s ours now!” his Boss said with a straight, unflinching face.
“But I bought that with my own money.” Jake said feeling stressed.
“You signed the form, not me”, he said, grinning now.
“Now get out of my office,” he yelled!
Jake left but as he walked across the airfield he concocted a plan to get his helicopter back. And he knew the perfect time to do it.
About a week later, Jake got dressed into his aviator gear, got into his car and headed to to the airfield. On the way there, he turned on the radio, “…and now we will talk about the airshow that is happening today, and the weather report, after this short break…”
Jake turned the radio off and parked his car out the front of the airfield. As he was walking in through the crowd, two fighter jets flew over the top of them.
Jake’s plan was to get his helicopter back when they were letting off fireworks at the end of the evening, and to leave when everyone was distracted. Jake had been wandering around all day when he finally heard an announcement over the speaker:
#@#@#@ And the fireworks will begin in 5 minutes #@#@#@
Jake began to casually make his way over to the hanger where they were keeping his helicopter. He walked over to the security guard and said, “Um, I have to fly this heli and the Boss thinks we should get the engines warming.”
“Are you sure?” the man asked suspiciously, to which Jake nodded his head seriously.
“Ok then, if the Boss said…”
Jake couldn’t believe his luck. He jumped into the helicopter, started the engine and locked the doors. As be began to lift off, he saw the Boss running towards him, screaming and swinging his arms madly in the air. Jake started to get higher and set the co-ordinates to Australia!