When the Wind Blows - James Patterson [83]
“So can I, then,” Wendy said. “I’ve been waiting to fly all my life.”
“I fly in my dreams, all day and all night,” Icarus told us. They were so sweet and good with one another. How could anyone even think of harming them?
“Better let me go first,” Oz said, pushing past the smaller twins.
“No, me!” Peter insisted, holding his ground.
“Come here, Peter,” Max said, firmly. “I’m going to be right next to you the whole time, every second. Don’t mess around, you little messers! Come here!”
“Oohh! She’s mad, ” Peter said, and he crossed his eyes.
“On the count of three, we’ll jump together,” Max told them. “Any objections? Well, keep them to yourselves.”
I stood directly behind the children. Actually, I wanted to say, “Me next!” I wanted to fly, too. I was overwhelmed with a sense of the possible.
It was a full moon, and I could see so clearly. The children suddenly pushed off from the rock, all five of them. Together.
“Look at that,” Kit whispered. “Uh-oh.” Kit gently squeezed my fingers.
I gasped. It was Peter! His first movements were understandably unsure. Then he simply plummeted! “Hey… helppp! ” he called out.
Max swooped beneath him.
She deftly grabbed his lower torso and the boy flapped his wings harder and harder. He was putting everything he had into it.
“Push the air down,” Max urged him. “Push that darned old air out of the way.” She was teaching him what to do. “Relax, Peter. Don’t tighten up. You were made for this!”
With that Peter leveled off. Max had given him just enough confidence. He seemed to float, then the boy rose steadily. The others were doing fine. The sky was a kind of plum-blue and was a magnificent background for the air show.
“My God, Frannie,” Kit said beside me. “No one has ever seen anything like this. Not even those fricking scientists.”
“Will you look at them go!”
There were no mishaps. The children flew as if they’d been doing it together for years. Max appeared to be giving them simple instruction: how to bank and how to create drag. They had whistled in the woods, and they whistled now.
“Chhee-rup. Chhee-rup. ”
At first I hadn’t gotten it. Now I understood that the whistling was a way for Icarus to see.
“Chhee-rup. ”
Together the children flew across a deep, scary ravine. They circled and formed a figure eight in the air. I couldn’t catch my breath as I watched them perform.
Max called out, “I’m right here, Ic.”
Icarus whistled, then he spoke. His voice echoed through the night air. “I feel you. I feel you moving in the air!”
And although it was a little too dark to clearly see his face, I could swear that Icarus was grinning his little fool head off.
Chapter 88
I CUPPED MY HANDS together and called out clearly and loudly to Max, “Time to come down. Okay, Max? Right now.”
To my relief, she waggled her wings and gave crisp orders for her tiny squadron to land. One after the other they did land, small feet smacking the dirt floor, accompanied by squeals of laughter and the purest delight that only children seem able to feel and display.
Actually, I felt guilty about giving them orders, knowing how discipline had always been instilled into them. But it had to be done. We still weren’t safe in these woods. Not even close. Men with guns would be coming soon, if they weren’t already nearby.
I hugged them all, and even Pip was delirious with happiness. But there was no time to savor the astonishing event.
The air was cooling down fast, as it does in the mountains at the end of the summer. Kit didn’t want to make a fire and he was right, unfortunately. It would be a lot safer without one. But a whole lot colder.
We found a reasonably protected place in the lee of a couple of large boulders. We pitched away loose stones and twigs and cleared a flat place for sleeping.
We gathered piles of leaves and loose wood to use for warmth during the night. The kids wrapped their wings around and were insulated.
“We’ll be in a better place tomorrow,” I told the children. “Maybe at my house.” And maybe not.
“You promise?” said Oz.