“Hold your ground, Miss!” The carriage driver yelled to Nellie Bly as he urged his horses forward. Bly was standing on the seat next to him, barely able to maintain her balance with the carriage bumping over the rocky terrain.
“My dream!” she yelled. “It’s escaping!”
Ten feet above them and twenty feet ahead, a hot air balloon was suddenly propelled by a gust of wind. The pilot dropped a flimsy rope ladder from his basket while he desperately worked to maintain control of his balloon.
The carriage driver whistled to his horse and snapped his reins. The horses sprinted forward, catching up to the balloon. On her tiptoes now, Bly reached for the dangling ladder. She jumped and grabbed for it, but missed. She fell back on the carriage seat with a loud thud. The frightened horses surged forward, nearly pitching Bly out of the carriage. The driver steadied her with his powerful arm. She sat back on the seat, trembling.
“We’re too late. It’s time to give up,” the driver yelled.
Since she was a child, Bly had dreams of soaring through the sky like a bird. This could be her once-in-a-lifetime chance to make those dreams come true. Besides, the experience would make a great first-person story for the local newspaper. As she looked skyward, she thought of her father, Judge Cochran. She twisted his gold band, which she wore on her thumb to remind her of his last words to her: “It’s okay to feel fear, but never let it win!”
“I will never give up!” she yelled to the driver.
“You asked for it!” he said shooting her a wicked smile. He urged his horses on with startling ferocity.
Bly stood up again on the seat, struggling harder than ever to maintain her balance. Just before the carriage caught up to the basket, she looked at the ground whizzing past her, then up at the ladder. She quickly assessed her odds, then she leaped like a cat. She gripped the ladder. Her hands burned and her shoulders shrieked with pain. Still, she held on as if her life depended on it – because it did!
As the massive balloon lifted her into the air, her heart raced. She looked down and saw her driver pull a hard right, nearly tipping his carriage. The ground, which had been fifteen feet below her, suddenly plummeted to a thousand feet as the balloon sailed past the cliff and over a treacherous river gorge.
Bly’s stomach dropped like the ground beneath her. When she looked down, her left hand lost its grip. Hanging only by her right hand, she forced herself to look up instead of down. The flimsy ladder twisted in the wind. Her heart pounded. It’s okay to feel fear, but never let it win. She took three deep breaths, the way he father taught her. She must focus only on success. With absolute certainty, she reached with her left hand and grabbed the ladder. She mustered all her strength and pulled herself up, hand over hand. Slowly but surely, she inched up the ladder.
