Stanley and the Magic Lamp - Jeff Brown [7]
“I wish!” shouted Stanley. “Flying! Arthur and me both!”
For a moment the brothers held their breath, expecting to be swept up into the air. Then Arthur tried small flapping movements with his elbows.
“Oh, collibots!” said the genie. “Not like that. Just think of flying, and where you want to go.”
It worked.
Stanley and Arthur found themselves suddenly a few feet off the floor, face down and quite comfortable, and however they wished to go, up or down, forward or back, was how they went. It was like swimming in soft, invisible water, but without the effort of swimming. Prince Haraz gave advice as the brothers glided happily about the room: “Point your toes…. Heads up! … Good, very good…. Yes, I think you’re ready now!”
He opened a window and leaned out. “Hmmm…. This breeze may be coolish higher up. We’d better wear something extra.”
Stanley and Arthur put on bathrobes and gloves, and the genie chose a red parka and a dragon-face ski mask. Then he said, “Away we go!” and the brothers floated through the window after him, out into the night.
Up! Up! UP! they went, leveling off now and then to practice speeding, but mostly rising steadily higher. Stanley and Arthur flew side by side, gaining confidence from each other, and the genie kept an eye on them from behind.
It was a beautiful night. The sky above them was full of stars. Below them the lights of the city twinkled as brightly as the stars. The brothers’ white bathrobes and the genie’s red parka shone in the moonlight.
They flew above the big park, where an orchestra was giving a concert. Music floated up to them: the clear, sweet tones of flutes and violins and trumpets; the deep, strong notes of cymbals and drums.
“Oh, I’m enjoying this!” Prince Haraz called through his dragon mask. “So different from inside that lamp!”
The three fliers joined hands and circled the blaze of light from where the orchestra sat. It was like ice-skating to music at a rink, but much more fun.
In the distance, the wing lights of a big airplane blinked across the sky.
“Let’s chase it!” Stanley shouted.
Prince Haraz laughed. “Go on! I’ll catch up!”
Whoooosh! Whoooosh! Holding their arms by their sides, Stanley and Arthur flashed like rockets across the sky, their bathrobes flapping like the sails of a boat. The big airplane was fast, but the brothers were faster. Catching up, they flew around and around it, looking through the windows at the passengers reading and eating from tiny trays.
Arthur saw a little girl with a comic book. Zooming close to her window, he stretched his neck, trying to read over her shoulder. The little girl looked up and saw him. Being mean, she held the comic book down where he couldn’t see it, and stuck out her tongue. Arthur stuck his tongue out at her, and the little girl scowled and pulled a curtain across her window.
On the other side of the plane, Stanley saw a very tired-looking young couple with a crying baby across their laps, keeping them awake. Flying up next to the window so that the baby could see him, he made a funny face, puffing his lips and wrinkling his nose. The baby smiled, and Stanley put his thumbs in his ears and wriggled his other fingers. The baby smiled again, and went to sleep.
Stanley flew back around the plane, past the cockpit, to join Arthur on the other side.
There were two pilots in the cockpit, and one saw Stanley fly by. Turning his head, he now saw both brothers hovering above a wing tip, waiting for Prince Haraz to catch up.
“Guess what I see out there, Bert,” he said.
“The stars in the sky, Tom, and below us the mighty ocean,” replied the other pilot.
“No,” said Tom. “Two kids in bath robes.”
“Ha, ha! What a joker!” said Bert, but he turned to look.
Only Prince Haraz could be seen now above the wing, his parka flapping as he looked around for Stanley and Arthur, who were hiding from him behind the plane.
“So what do you see, Bert?” asked Tom, keeping his own eyes straight ahead. “Two kids in bathrobes, right?”
“Wrong,” said Bert quietly. “I see a guy in ski clothes,