The Amazing Flight of Darius Frobisher (16 page)

D
arius dashed out the front door and looked down the street. His heart leapt when he saw a tandem bicycle approaching. Pedaling away on the front seat was Daedalus. Behind him, on the second seat, sat a familiar figure Darius hadn’t seen for ages.

“Miss Hastings! Daedalus!” Darius waved wildly. “Miss Hastings! What are you doing here?”

His housekeeper was wearing a helmet that looked like a mushroom. She smiled nervously, but didn’t raise her hand from the handlebars. “Hello, Darius! Hello!” she called out. “I came to find you. We were out looking for you!”

Daedalus rang the bell on the handlebars.
Ching ching ching!

Darius started to run toward them, but then a terrible sight sent chills down his spine. Turning onto the street, only a few hundred yards behind Daedalus and Miss Hastings, was Colonel Crimper’s big black car.

Darius’s heart stuck in his throat. He was trapped. Which way to go? Daedalus’s house was at the end of a dead-end street. Darius thought about trying to reach Daedalus and Miss Hastings before Colonel Crimper and the others caught up to them, but he gave up on that idea. The car was coming too fast.
If his aunt and the colonel and Anthony got ahold of him, there was no telling what they would do.

The big black sedan was cruising down the street, heading straight for him. When it passed Daedalus and Miss Hastings on their bike, the car seemed to pick up speed.

Darius had to get away. He turned and started running toward Daedalus’s house.

The colonel honked the horn. Aunt Inga was hanging out the passenger side window. “Stop!” she shrieked. “Stop right now, Darius!”

“We’ll get you, you pathetic worm,” yelled Anthony from a back window.

Darius darted around to the side of the porch. There was the red bike, waiting for him, sparkling in the sun. He strapped on the helmet, flung himself on the seat, and started pedaling. He twisted the handlebars one way and another, making his way through the maze of bicycle parts in Daedalus’s yard.

“Wait, Darius! No! Wait!” Daedalus was calling to him, but Darius was too scared to stop. He was determined not to end up at Crapper Academy. Through the jumble of bicycles, he saw an opening into an alley, and beyond it the backyards of other houses. Between the houses he saw another street. He pushed the pedals even harder, riding into the neighboring backyard.

Colonel Crimper’s car screeched to a halt, skidded a few feet, and crashed into the fence in front of Daedalus’s house. Bikes toppled down from the fence onto the hood of his car.

“Keep going!” screamed Aunt Inga. “He’s getting away!”

“I’ll get that twerp,” Anthony said. He threw open the car door, almost smashing it into the tandem bike.

Daedalus swerved to avoid the door and guided the bicycle
up onto the sidewalk. He hopped off the bike and turned to Miss Hastings.

“Are you all right, Gracie?” he asked.

“My goodness, yes,” she answered. “How exciting!”

“Gimme a bike, you old geezer,” growled Anthony.

“I wouldn’t give anything to anyone as rude as you,” replied Daedalus.

“Then I’ll just take one,” Anthony shot back. He turned and ran through the yard, looking for a bike. “This is all junk!” he bellowed, rummaging through the dismantled bicycles. “Trash! Worthless!”

“You are as blind as a bat,” said Daedalus. “These things are priceless.”

“Don’t say my son is blind! He can see perfectly well,” Mrs. Gritbun squawked.

Aunt Inga was peering at Miss Hastings as she took off her helmet. “Haven’t I met you somewhere before?” she asked.

“Yes, I am Miss Hastings. Darius’s housekeeper.”

“I knew it! I should have known you were behind all this!” Aunt Inga breathed heavily.

“I am behind nothing. It’s about time that you realized—”

A loud whoop stopped her in midsentence.

“Finally!” Anthony roared. “Here’s a bike I can use! It’s pretty weird looking, but it’ll do.” He wheeled out Daedalus’s flying bicycle, loaded down with fins and extra equipment.

“No!” pleaded Daedalus, running toward Anthony. “Not that one! It’s not safe! You mustn’t ride it!”

“Back off, you old fart. You just don’t want me to catch the little creep!”

“Of course I don’t. But this bike’s not safe. And you don’t have
a helmet. I must ask that you not ride that bike. It’s for your own good.”

“Buzz off, old man,” said Anthony as he turned the bike in Darius’s direction and climbed on. “I’m outta here!”

“Please, no!” Daedalus ran toward Anthony, desperate to stop him.

Anthony gave Daedalus a shove and sent him sprawling back into a pile of training wheels.

Daedalus struggled to disentangle himself from the little wheels and frames. “Whatever you do, don’t push it into the last gear,” he shouted frantically, trying to get to his feet. “Don’t use the seventh gear! You’re not ready for it! Listen to me!”

“Forget you,” said Anthony. He rode off, dodging a heap of handlebars, and followed Darius into the alley.

Everyone watched the boy pedal off, chasing Darius.

“If he uses the seventh gear,” said Daedalus, “we may never see him again.”

“Why?” asked Miss Hastings. “What will happen?”

“I’m not sure,” said Daedalus. “He’ll go careening off to some other part of the universe, I think.”

“Stop him! Please stop him,” pleaded Gertrude Gritbun.

But no one had ever learned how to stop Anthony. Not even Colonel Crimper.

Darius, heart pounding, stood on the pedals and pumped so hard his legs ached. He veered around the next corner and narrowly missed colliding with a delivery truck. He glanced behind him. Anthony, bigger and stronger and riding Daedalus’s much more powerful bicycle, was gaining on him fast. The boy was
now so close that Darius could hear him panting. Anthony drew closer and closer as the two bikes screamed down the street.

Darius didn’t know how much longer he could keep up this pace. The pain in his legs was almost unbearable, and the wheels on his bike were beginning to wobble a little from the speed. He looked down at the shifter. He was in fifth gear. Darius read the sign again. The warning was clear.

Darius couldn’t think of a bigger emergency than this. If Anthony caught him, he would be sent away to Crapper Academy where he’d have to live with that bully for twenty-four hours a day, along with five hundred other boys who were probably just like him. He would lose Daedalus—and Miss Hastings, after he had just found her again. A wicked laugh interrupted his thoughts.

“I’ve got you, you worm!” Anthony called out.

I know what you are wishing.

For once, your wish has been granted.

Darius couldn’t imagine the bike going any faster, but he figured it was his only hope. “Here we go!” he screamed, and he flicked the gear shifter into sixth gear.

As soon as the sixth gear locked into place, the most amazing thing happened. The pedals seemed to give way under his feet, as if the chain had fallen off the teeth of the sprocket. He could no longer hear the solid hum of the wheels on the pavement, only a high-pitched whir.

“Oh no!” Darius cried. “Oh no!” He was sure his bike was broken. He looked back at the rear wheel and saw that the chain was still on the sprocket. He kept pedaling, faster and faster. The next time he looked back, he felt a cold thrill and his heart almost stopped. The wheels were no longer on the road. They were spinning freely two feet above the pavement. By the time Darius turned his head back to the front, he was climbing over a car stopped at an intersection. He was flying!

Twenty feet in the air!

He gained in altitude, rising to the tops of the trees and over them. The street below him got smaller and smaller.

“Yeehah!” Darius screamed. “YEEHAH! YEEHAHAH!” He tilted the handlebars to the right, and the bike made a wide banking turn, so he was leaning over, looking down at the entire town.

When Darius took off into the air, Anthony cursed and yelled. Without a thought, he shoved the gear shifter up to the sixth notch. Anthony’s stomach lurched as his bike left the ground and soared over the rooftops. “Aieeeee!” he shrieked, holding onto the handlebars for dear life. His legs trembled in fear and he stopped pedaling. As soon as he did, the bike started to descend, heading toward a tree.

“Help!” Anthony screamed. Someone help me! He started to pedal again, more frantically than before. The bike angled upward, lifing just in time to brush the top leaves of the tree. A flock of blackbirds rose out of the branches like a dark cloud and surrounded him, whistling and shrieking.

“Aughh!” he said. “Get out of here, you creepy birds!” The blackbirds veered away from him and Anthony kept pedaling, heading up into the blue.

“Whoa, baby!” he shouted. “I’m flying!!”

Darius looped around and passed Anthony going the other way.

Anthony made a wide turn and followed him. “Look out, here I come!” he called out. “I’m catching you and I’m not even in seventh gear yet. Faster and higher than you!” He caught up with Darius and soared past him. Anthony seemed to have forgotten about catching Darius—now he was just showing off.

Darius coasted along, not at all interested in a race with Anthony. Here in the sky, it was strangely quiet; there was only the whir and click of the bicycle wheels. The sun shone between large puffy clouds, and for a brief moment, Darius forgot about everything else.

“I’ve never seen the sky so blue,” he said out loud.

He looked down directly beneath him. Daedalus’s yard, filled with bicycles, was a wonderful jumble of color and design, shining in the sun. It was like his father’s maps, but more vibrant, more alive. It was real.

No wonder my father loved flying so much! he thought. Quite clearly, in his mind’s eye, he could see his father smiling at him. And then he saw a jumble of images—Darius couldn’t tell whether they were in his mind or up ahead through the clouds. First, he saw an enormous balloon, drifting through the air over a great blue ocean, with gigantic crests of waves rising and falling, stretching away to the far horizon.

Then, just as clearly, he saw and felt his father holding the bicycle for him on the street where he had grown up. His father’s hand was on his shoulder, and Darius heard the
ching ching ching
of the change in his father’s pocket as he ran along beside the bike. The next instant he felt himself riding down the street alone and free. The bike wobbled as he turned back, and he saw
his father standing there in the middle of the street, his arms outstretched. “Come home, flyboy!” his father called. “Come back, all on your own!”

Then the sun came out from behind a cloud and shone down on Darius’s face. The image he had just seen disappeared.

“Come back!” A familiar voice drifted up to him from way below. Darius looked down and once again he saw Daedalus’s house. In the front yard, gathered around Colonel Crimper’s car and the tumble of bikes, stood the tiny figures of Daedalus, Miss Hastings, Aunt Inga, Mrs. Gritbun, and the colonel, all looking up into the sky, shielding their eyes from the bright sun. Darius shook his head in disbelief. He must have been imagining the ocean and his father’s balloon. It had seemed so real, but now here he was, on the shiny red bicycle, back over the bike shop again.

Something in Darius still wanted to go on, go faster.

To fly away.

Chasing his father.

Off into the sky.

Forever.

Like Icarus, who flew higher than anyone else had flown.

“Come back, Darius,” Daedalus called again, waving and flapping his arms. “Come back! We love you!”

“We love you, Darius!” Miss Hastings cried.

When Darius heard those words, his heart lifted up in his chest. He remembered the silver wings on the chain Miss Hastings had given him. She’d been right. He
could
fly.

He stopped pedaling for a moment, coasting in midair. He looked down at the group of people beneath him.

And then Darius realized something.

Flying was exciting and beautiful. It was exactly what he had dreamed of. If he chose to, he could soar away and never have to worry about Aunt Inga or Crapper Academy ever again. But now that he was flying free, Darius realized that he didn’t want to go higher or faster. He wanted to be with Daedalus and Miss Hastings. That was what he had wanted all along.

In that moment, Darius wasn’t afraid of Aunt Inga or Colonel Crimper anymore.

Miss Hastings and Daedalus were calling to him, and he would fly to them.

Darius slowed his pedaling. The bike began to descend toward earth slowly, like a balloon leaking air.

Suddenly Anthony was beside him.

“Gotcha!” the older boy said. He turned his handlebars and bumped into Darius’s bike—both boys wobbled in the air.

“Stop it, Anthony,” said Darius. “I’m going back down.”

“No you’re not. This is way too much fun. Look at this!” Anthony turned the bike in a hard loop and circled around Darius. He rose in the air, then pulled the bike over in a series of somersaults, turning upside down in wild loops.

“How do you like that!” he chortled. “And I haven’t even tried seventh gear yet. You won’t stand a chance of beating me then.”