Joe Rose has planned a postcard-perfect afternoon in the English countryside to celebrate his lover's return after six weeks in the States. To complete the picture, there's even a "helium balloon drifting dreamily across the wooded valley." But as Joe and Clarissa watch the balloon touch down, their idyll comes to an abrupt end. The pilot catches his leg in the anchor rope, while the only passenger, a boy, is too scared to jump down. …showed first 75 words of 1558 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1558 total…says it more elegantly near the beginning of the novel. Upon first observing the giant helium balloon, Joe considered it "a precarious form of transport when the wind rather than the pilot set the course." But then he thinks, "perhaps this was the very nature of the attraction." So, too, the human need for love is sometimes so great that it pays little heed to the course it takes, regardless of how reckless ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**