Read 52 - How I Learned to Fly for Free Online Page A

toward home. I didn’t want Ray
and Ethan to see me. I didn’t want to show them that I could fly—not yet.
    I wanted to show Mia first. Mia. Wait till she sees this, I thought, soaring
higher.
    And wait till Wilson sees me fly. HA! This will shut him up—FOREVER!
    I floated through the air, dreaming about all the things I would do—now
that I could fly.
    I gazed down at my house.
    And saw our car roll up the driveway. “Oh no, Morty! Mom and Dad are home!”
    Did they see me?
    If they did, I was doomed.
    They would think it was way too dangerous up here.
    They would never let me fly.
    Please, please—don’t let them see me! I prayed.
    “Hey—look up there!” I heard Dad cry.

 
 
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    I swooped down behind the garage.
    I placed Morty gently on the ground.
    “What did you see?” I heard Mom ask Dad.
    “A bird on the garage roof,” Dad replied. “I thought it was a condor.”
    “They’re so rare,” Mom commented, slamming the car door.
    Whew! I breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn’t seen me.
    “Hey—!” I gasped when I realized that Morty had started to rise up again.
“Down, boy! Down!” I cried. I tied the end of his leash to a small rock.
    He took a few wobbly steps. He didn’t have any trouble walking with the rock.
And it was just the right size to keep him grounded. He headed straight for his
doghouse.
    I charged into the kitchen.
    What a mess.
    Powdery trails of yeast and flour stained the kitchen floor. Cracked
eggshells sat in a slimy puddle of yolk on the table. And globs of the horrible green dough stuck to
the kitchen chairs, the counters—everywhere.
    I could hear Mom and Dad unlocking the front door.
    No time to clean up.
    I tucked the small black envelope into the flying book. And I ran out the
back door with the book. I tore out to the garage and slid the book back into
the folds of the old mattress.
    “Jack! We’re home!” Dad shouted through the house.
    “Where are yoooou?” I heard Mom call.
    “Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!” I burst through the back door, into the kitchen.
    “Whoa! What happened in here?” Dad gazed around the room, wide-eyed.
    Mom sniffed the air. “What is that horrible smell?”
    “In here?” I stalled, trying to come up with a good excuse.
    Mom and Dad nodded, staring at me. Waiting for an explanation.
    “Oooh, you mean in here,” I said, sweeping an arm through the air. “Uh…
just a science experiment. For school. It didn’t quite work out.”
     
    I woke up really early the next morning. I wanted to try to fly again. Before
school. Before Mom and Dad woke up.
    I dressed quickly. I walked silently into the kitchen.
    “Hey, Jack! You’re up early!” Dad sat at the kitchen table, eating breakfast.
“It’s only five a.m.!”
    “I—I couldn’t sleep,” I said, shocked to find him there. “What are you doing up?”
    “The phone woke me up. It was a guy who said he had an act I had to
see—‘ Nelson and His Amazing Needles’.”
    “Amazing Needles.” I gulped. “What does this guy do?”
    “Well, Nelson is not a guy,” Dad started to explain. “Nelson is a chimpanzee.
And his needles are knitting needles. His owner says Nelson can knit a sweater
in ten minutes. Sleeves and all.”
    A monkey that knits? I let out a long sigh.
    Dad sighed, too.
    “Well, the phone call wasn’t a total waste. At least I’ll get an early start
today,” Dad said, finishing his breakfast.
    By the time he left, Mom was out of bed. Too late to try to fly now.
    I’ll have to wait till after school. Mom will be at work. Dad won’t be home
either. That’s when I’ll fly for Mia, I decided.
    I couldn’t wait!
     
    When the last bell rang, I charged out of school before Mia and Wilson could
catch up.
    I didn’t talk to them all day. I didn’t want to talk to them now. I was afraid I might give away my secret. Afraid I might
tell them that I could fly. And I didn’t want to do that.
    I wanted to show them!
    I ran all the way home. I threw