Flashback Four #4 by Dan Gutman

Author:Dan Gutman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

OVER THE RIVER

THE FLASHBACK FOUR SETTLED INTO THE LITTLE rowboat that would take them across the river. To distribute their weight evenly, Isabel sat in the front, Julia went to the back, and David and Luke sat in the seat that went across the middle, each of the boys taking an oar.

“Okay, let’s go,” Julia said.

She gave a little shove, and the boat slid away from the dock. Julia waved good-bye to Benjamin Franklin Washington and promised to bring his boat back when they were done with it, even though he said they could keep it.

“Stroke . . . stroke . . . ,” David said as they pulled away from Manhattan. He and Luke made a good team, having rowed a lifeboat together after escaping from the sinking Titanic. This one was much easier, because it was only the four of them in a smaller, lighter boat.

Isabel pulled the TTT out of her pocket.

“I’d better let the Gunner know where we are,” she said, typing on the keypad . . .

WE GOT A ROWBOAT. GOING ACROSS THE RIVER.

A couple of seconds later, a reply arrived . . .

NO! LET US BRING YOU BACK HOME!

TOO LATE, Isabel texted back, WE ALREADY LEFT.

She smiled, shut the TTT case, and slipped it back in her pocket.

In Boston, Ms. Gunner slammed her fist against a table. She wasn’t used to people ignoring her instructions. But there was nothing she could do about it. The kids were two hundred miles and over two centuries away. Ms. Gunner was already starting to question the wisdom of sending kids to do this mission.

Luke and David had settled into a nice rhythm, and the little boat pushed its way across the Hudson River. The water was smooth, almost like glass, because no other boats were out on the river so early in the morning. The floor of the boat was dry.

At least they didn’t have to worry about getting hit by a Jet Ski, a ferry, a giant cruise ship, or an airplane landing in the middle of the river. (In fact, two hundred years later, Captain “Sully” Sullenberger would land a US Airways jet at almost this exact spot after a flock of Canadian geese flew into the engines. But that’s a story for another day.)

As the boys pulled the oars through the water silently, the sun was starting to peek over the horizon. It was getting warmer. Luke and David were working up a sweat.

“Are those boats?” Isabel asked as she shielded her eyes to peer into the distant fog. “Why would anybody be out on the water this early in the morning?”

“Maybe they’re fishermen,” guessed Julia.

“Maybe they’re Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr,” said David.

“Come on, let’s pick up the pace,” Luke said. “We need to get to Weehawken before they do.”

Both boys pulled harder. It doesn’t look like it’s very far across the river, but the Hudson is over a mile wide at that point. It takes almost two hours to travel that distance by rowboat, no matter how fast you’re rowing.

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