Chapter 7

Jay had to laugh at himself. The irony was too rich. Since the day he and Dave had gotten lucky to be at the front of the crowd when they started handing out the first sets of wings, their lives had been a whirlwind. First, there had been the flying itself, with which they had both fallen in love. Every spare moment they found was spent in the air, perfecting tricks, building speed and endurance, and just for the shear wild freedom.

Second, had been the rescue. With it all caught on tape by two different network affiliates, both brothers had been proclaimed heroes, and asked to appear on just about every show filmed or recorded in New York City. If that hadn't kept them busy enough, it seemed like every women either of them had met since getting their wings wanted to hook up!

There had been the two cuties they'd been flying with for the rescue. Then there was the hot young mother of two, whom he'd personally rescued. She had insisted upon a personal and intimate thank you. There had been the two college chicks who were roommates living in the same building he and Dave did. After every TV appearance, hot women rubbed up against them, kissed them, and occasionally, shoved their telephone numbers into a pocket, or even more shockingly, into their underwear.

Yes, he was living the life of Riley.

Yet the real irony was, he still didn't know how they would make rent next month. In fact, if it hadn't been for all the dinner invitations, and the fact that they always got to graze at the buffet when doing appearances they'd been doing in the last two weeks, they both would have been putting a new notch in their belts, just to keep their pants up!

Still, it was hard to get too worried about it. With the after glow of sex with a beautiful enthusiastic lover still fresh in his mind from last night, and several prospects for more of the same later in the day, Jay just couldn't bring himself to worry. Then there was this. He rested lightly on the top of the Statue of Liberty's torch, waiting for the sun to rise. This had become a ritual for him. Every morning, before dawn, he'd don his wings and Grav belt, and wing over the Hudson River to Liberty Island, and take up his vigil. The play of sunlight on the city and over Long and Staten Islands was breathtaking, and unique each day. The patterns from the clouds and waves, the color of the water, and even in two weeks, the changes in the foliage in the parks and gardens, all varied, day to day, and even minute to minute at this time of day.

It had also served, once discovered by the others, as the meeting point for the day's group activities. Now, some of them had day jobs. Others lost interest or didn't like the competition. However, every day since the second day he'd started coming here, Jay's morning vigil had been ended by the arrival of a growing crowd of other fliers, all looking to him to lead the day's activities.

Today, watching the sunrise, he'd gotten a vague impression that he could make his living with this group, it had yet to crystallize into an actual idea, though. He smiled warmly at the first arrivals. Amy and her friend Mary were the first to show up every day.

She always brought hot coffee and still warm donuts from the bakery Amy's father ran, in midtown. She was Polish with a seventeen letter last name with exactly two vowels, and she helped out in the bakery from midnight to 6am. Just eighteen, Amy was short, muscular, and had improbably large breasts that made her cute face seem incongruously young.

Mary was even younger, just seventeen, but a certified genius, and a gorgeous blonde, with wide flaring hips, a taut belly, tight ass, and even bigger breasts. Jay wasn't sure which one he liked better, and then grinned to himself.

Until they force me to choose, I'll be happy making out with both of them. Still, if I caught the signals right last time, Mary was hinting that she was more into Dave.

Amy handed him his coffee, and a warm raised, glazed donut. She opened her own, then asked, nonchalantly, "Where's your not so little brother?"

Jay snorted, and then replied, "Who knows? Last I saw him, was leaving the Late Show, with two redheads, one on each arm. I think they were dancers from one of the Broadway shows."

"You two need to be more careful. I know you're young and don't want to be tied down, but one or both of you are gonna get hurt by one of those women," Mary said jealously.

Yep! There it was. She was jealous. Guess I'll have to tell Dave to make up his mind. Personally, I think he'd be an idiot to pass Mary up. Not only is she gorgeous, but also she's also a genius, and the daughter of the Dean of Columbia University.

Amy said, in mock outrage, "Yeah! Not like you can throw any stones, Jay! You've been too busy to even hook up for the last three days! What do I have to do? Make out with you on top of the Statue of Liberty to get your attention?" She slid closer, gave him a smoldering smile, which she quickly turned into a passionate kiss.

When she pulled back to catch her breath several minutes later, Amy blushed scarlet, as Jay said shakily, "Yep! That's what you need to do every day. If you want to get me for yourself."

"Hey! Break it up you two! Or get a room," came the catcalls, from six approaching fliers.

Jay only recognized three of the new arrivals, but before he could do more than get his arm loose from around Amy's waist, were he had been surprised to find it. One that he didn't recognize tossed in the gauntlet.

"Hey, ain'tchu da dude from da fire? I been hearing what a hot flier you are, but I bet I can fly faster'n you! Yer meat!"

Angry, he arose, and started to snap a retort to the effect that he could fly rings around anybody. He stopped cold.

Not meat, but meet! That's it!

The half formed idea he'd been mulling crystallized into a plan! Mind racing, he started filling in the details, and ignored the rest of the new guy's bravado.

A moment later, a concerned Amy grasped his hand and called his name several times before he would respond. When he did, Jay looked right at his challenger, and raised his voice in answering challenge.

"Ready to put your money where your mouth is, bud? Meet me in front of the Museum of Natural History, in Central Park, in four hours."

Puzzled, he asked, "Four hours? Why four hours?"

"I need to get the events and courses set, and arrange for officials: starters, timekeepers, and the like. Sorry to disappoint you, but it won't just be you and me," he answered.

Then raising his voice to carry to everyone, he continued, "It will be a series of open events, and we'll all get to see how we all stand. In fact, anyone that wants to compete can help pass the word, anyone that wants to help me organize, come with me."

Bemused, Amy asked, "What are you planning Jay?"

"Roughly, the equivalent of a Track and Field meet. I already have about a dozen events in mind. Some are for speed, some for distance, and some for agility. I think I've got the start of a whole new sport here! I'm betting that some of the shows I've appeared on will be willing to send a camera crew and get the word out. So we'll have free publicity to get it started," Jay answered.

With a grin, he picked her up and spun her into a hug.

Four hours later, Central Park was jammed with people. There were hundreds of contestants, and tens of thousands of spectators. They had all shown up to see the first ever "Air Meet". The announcements were on every major network's morning show, and had brought out all the hawkers, con men, pickpockets and vendors.

Since he hadn't had time to get permits, they couldn't charge admission, but competitors were charged a fee, and the donation jars had been emptied six times already by the time they were ready for the first event.

The first event was a sprint of four hundred yards, and had attracted scores of entrants, so they had broken it down into over a twenty preliminary heats. Each preliminary heat had ten competitors, and Jay had arranged it so that he and his tormentor from the morning would be in the first heat.

Before the heat began, Jay went over and offered his hand to the young tough, whose name he still didn't know.

"Name's Jay, and I want to thank you! I had sort of been trying to put this together in my head, but it didn't all come together until you gave me that challenge this morning," said Jay cheerfully.

His tormentor, tried to brazen his way past his discomfort, and replied acridly, "Names Tom. Whatchu think? All this is gonna put me off my game? You're goin' down in front ah all deeze people, dude!"

Jay just took his hand anyway, and laughingly said, "Hey, man, chill out! I think I'll beat you, but if I don't, I've still won. Don't you see? This is going to happen every week, in every city all over the country! Soon all over the world! Thanks to you, it was MY idea!"

Tom glared angrily, and stalked toward the starting line.

The Official called their heat, and both took their starting positions. The race was from one end of the lake in front of the Museum of Natural History, to the other. That way no one would be directly below, yet thousands of spectators lined the shoreline. When the starters pistol went off, all ten contestants beat their wing covered arms furiously to gain speed, but only Jay was going up at a 45 degree angle, the rest skimmed along, just above the surface of the lake. At the one hundred yard mark, Tom had an obvious lead of nearly five meters on the closest competitor and over thirty meters on Jay. The crowd roared in appreciation of the first event, but even so, some mutterings could be heard, rippling through the crowd. What is he doing? Why is he going up?

At one hundred fifty meters, Jay's hand darted to his belt and gave it a quarter turn, returning 25% of his weight. He started a long thirty-degree dive; the potential energy that he'd gotten for translating 27% of his distance into the equivalent altitude gave him a huge boost in speed. The crowd roared louder as they saw the reason for his maneuver. Fifty meters from the finish line, Jay swooshed passed a laboring Tom, reached down and turned his Grav Belt back to null, and stroked across the finish line with a full twenty meter lead.

Amy and Mary both drew him into a hug, and they both kissed him, one after the other. Mary's kiss was quick and excited, in admiration of his coup. Amy waited then leapt into his arms and kissed him passionately.

Mary said, reproachfully, "You know you just made sure half of the people will try something like that maneuver in this race. None of them have ever done anything like it before. I hope nobody gets hurt too bad from screwing it up."

Jay just smiled and answered over Amy's shoulder, "Why do you think I made this the first event, and it's over the lake?"

Amy pulled away from the hug, and accused, "You sneaky little devil! You planned this all along! Well we have been flying with you every day, since the first day. So we know all of your tricks!"

Now, Jay laughed aloud, and managed to reply, "I have a couple more surprises for the other events! But you have to admit, you're looking forward to the first splashdown in the lake!"

As they watched the next couple preliminary heats, they were all both entertained, and proven right. In the second heat, three people tried to duplicate Jay's maneuver, but one fumbled his attempt to turn down his gravity in time, and caught a wingtip on the surface of the lake, cart wheeling spectacularly into the shallow water.

One of the other two had turned up the gravity too far, and had rocketed downward, then successfully turning off gravity in time, found that the speed gained bled off too quickly to make up all the distance she'd lost, and finished a distant third. The third pulled off the maneuver as well as Jay had, and actually finished with a faster time.

Jay offered, "You two want to go practice before your heat?"

"Nah. Like I said we've been following you all over the city, copying every trick you could come up with every day for nearly two weeks. This is just one more trick, and we'll get it," Amy said breezily. She shared a nod with Mary as they headed back towards the starting area.

Since there were twenty heats of ten fliers, with two advancing to the quarterfinals, Jay anxiously watched the time. The time for each race was less then thirty seconds; but with getting everyone to line at the right time, it took over an hour to finish off the preliminary heats.