The Amazing Flight of Darius Frobisher by Bill Harley

Author:Bill Harley [Harley, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781561457502
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers
Published: 2006-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

11

Crash Landing

Darius did not do the one thing that Daedalus had asked of him: he did not tell Aunt Inga about his trips to Daedalus’s workshop every morning. He wanted to, because the old man had insisted. But the subject never came up again, and Darius didn’t see any point in volunteering the information to his aunt. You and I both know that kids should do what their elders say. We know that adults are usually wiser than kids. But I don’t think you can really blame Darius for not telling the whole truth this time. Not to Aunt Inga.

All the days that Darius was rebuilding his bicycle, Aunt Inga never once woke up before ten o’clock. Darius always arrived home a quarter of an hour before she got up. Darius knew how lucky he was to have this time free. Sometimes he wondered what would happen if Aunt Inga rose early one day and noticed that he was missing. But he decided to worry about that when the time came.

Still, even though he spent the early mornings with Daedalus and some of each afternoon at the library, there were hours and hours of the day that needed to be filled. You can really only spend so much time by yourself before it begins to drive you crazy.

Darius could think of many things he would like to do rather than sit alone in the basement at Aunt Inga’s.

He would have preferred to travel with his father to Borneo.

Or to throw water balloons off the roof with Miss Hastings.

Or even to be in school with other kids. Imagine that.

But Darius had no power to do these things. That is the problem with being a kid—very little money and no car keys.

Sometimes he thought about how nice it would be to spend the afternoons and evenings at Daedalus’s house. But his friend had made it clear—the afternoon was his time to think. Darius couldn’t imagine anyone doing nothing but thinking all afternoon every day, but he was sure that if anyone could do it, Daedalus could.

Since the unpleasant incident with Anthony, Darius had done his best to avoid him. But Anthony was the only other person around who was anywhere near his age. Every day Darius could hear him outside, yelling and riding his bike back and forth over the ramp he had made in the middle of the street. It always sounded like he was having a great time. Finally, one day, Darius couldn’t stand it any longer.

He walked out to the street and watched Anthony ride over the ramp time and time again.

“Too bad you don’t have a bike,” said Anthony for the millionth time. “You could fly like me, except not as well.”

Why does he have to make everything into a contest? Darius wondered. Darius was sick of Anthony’s bragging, but he bit his tongue. Even though he knew that Anthony’s ordinary bike and puny jumps were nothing compared to what he had seen, Darius didn’t say a word.

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