Bravo Zulu, Samantha! by Kathleen Benner Duble

Author:Kathleen Benner Duble
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV013030, JUV041010, JUV001000
ISBN: 9781561457113
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2012-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Colonel was impatient, and when he asked for a tool, he wanted it put in his hand immediately. But he was also a painfully slow worker.

“How did you ever get so much done in just a year?” Sam asked one day when the Colonel had taken almost an hour to adjust some bolts.

“I’d already designed it,” the Colonel barked. “But you should always be thorough when building a plane. It’s not like you get a second chance if you make a mistake, now do you?”

From now on, Sam thought, I’m going to work as slowly and carefully as he does.

“That kid Billy hasn’t been here lately,” the Colonel said.

“His parents forbid him to come out here or something?”

“How should I know?” Sam muttered morosely as Billy’s face and smile floated through her mind. Sam turned her thoughts back to the plane. Billy wasn’t here. He wasn’t involved. And it was better that way.

The Colonel raised an eyebrow at her tone, but to her relief, he didn’t ask any more questions.

They worked hard over the next few days, climbing the ridge as soon as Grandma had gone off to work and hurrying home just minutes before she pulled into the driveway at night. They even packed their lunches. The first weekend after Sam had discovered the plane was torture for her. Sam found herself wishing that Grandma would go back to work so she and the Colonel could be alone.

“Why didn’t you just build this thing in the barn?” Sam asked, one morning after they had hauled several awkward bundles of wire to the top of the ridge.

“Your grandma would have figured that out fast,” the Colonel said. “She’d know I was up to something if I did it within range of the house.”

“So when do you plan on telling her?” Sam asked.

“Never,” the Colonel declared. “She’d shut me down faster than a jet engine in afterburner.”

“I think she might understand.”

“No way,” the Colonel said. “I’m not telling her.”

“How do you plan to fly to Wisconsin then?” Sam asked.

The Colonel was silent for a minute. “Okay,” he said, “you have a point there. I guess we’ll tell her when it’s finished, right before I take the plane for a test flight. Then she can’t really argue.”

“Well, she could,” Sam disagreed. “I mean she might not let you go up. She could be too afraid something will go wrong.”

“I built it,” the Colonel said, his voice rising. “What could go wrong?”

“Telling her that way probably won’t win her over,” Sam pointed out.

The Colonel dropped his pliers into the seat of the cockpit.

“But you just said she would understand.”

“I said she might understand.”

“Aargh,” the Colonel shouted, wiping his hands and throwing down the oily cloth.

“She definitely won’t understand if you approach it like that,” Sam said.

“Then just how do you suggest I keep damage control to a minimum with her?”

Sam nearly fell off her ladder. Was the Colonel actually asking her opinion? Of course, it was about Grandma, not the plane, but it was advice nonetheless.

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