ISBN 1-56145-381-1 $14.95 HARLEY Middle reader fiction www.peachtree-online.com is an accomplished BILL HARLEY Life is an storyteller, musician, and writer who has adventure for been writing and performing for kids and eleven-year-old Darius One night, in his dreams, Darius climbed The Amazing Flight of Darius Frobisher Frobisher. He doesn’t families for more than twenty years. He mind one bit staying has appeared at the National Storytelling on the newly repaired bicycle and pedaled at home with his Festival and at scatterbrained, much-loved housekeeper Miss Hastings while his father is away dozens of regional madly. The bike went faster and faster, on his festivals and is a exotic journeys. and then, suddenly, Darius was in the regular commen - But when his father flies off one day in a hot air balloon and doesn’t tator on NPR’s “All air, pedaling over the houses and roads, come back, Darius’s happy, carefree life Things Considered.” Photo Photo by SuSan WilSon suddenly comes to an end. He has received a Grammy Award, as looking down at the earth beneath him. He is torn away from Miss Hastings and well as several Parents’ Choice and ALA sent to live with his notoriously nasty Aunt Inga. Most of his waking hours are spent trying awards. The idea for the book came to to dodge his cranky aunt and the neighborhood Harley one morning after he wrote a bully, who is hungry to do horrible things paragraph describing a boy’s bike taking to someone smaller than himself. off unexpectedly into the air. How did a Darius sees a ray of hope when he finds that happen? he wondered. He had to rusty old bicycle in Aunt Inga’s basement and write THe AmAziNG FLiGHT oF DARiuS begins to repair it in secret. Could this be his first FRobiSHeR to find out. step toward a reunion with Miss Hastings? All his efforts seem to be in vain until an extraordinary sight in the sky ISBN 13: 978-1-56145-381-8 over Aunt Inga’s house leads Darius “...this pleasant blend of melodrama and fantasy will make ISBN 10: 1-56145-381-1 youngsters frown over Darius's misery and then smile in to a magical journey all his own. anticipation of the predictably happy ending.” —School Library Journal Printed and bound in the united States of america Reinforced trade binding Published by PEACHTREE PUBLISHERS 1700 Chattahoochee Avenue Atlanta, Georgia 30318-2112 www.peachtree-online.com Text © 2006 by Bill Harley Jacket illustration © 2006 by Michael P. White First trade paperback edition published in 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. An earlier version of this story appeared for a limited time period as an e-book on the website of the Maricopa County Library District under the title of Flyboy. Book design by Loraine M. Joyner Typesetting by Melanie McMahon Ives Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 (hardcover) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 (trade paperback) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Harley, Bill, 1954- The amazing flight of Darius Frobisher / by Bill Harley. -- 1st ed. p. cm. Summary: When his adventurous father disappears during a hot-air balloon flight, ten-year-old Darius is torn away from his beloved housekeeper and sent to live with an obnoxious aunt until a strange bicycle repairman with a secret changes his life. ISBN 13: 978-1-56145-381-8 / ISBN 10: 1-56145-381-1 (hardcover) ISBN 13: 978-1-56145-494-5 / ISBN 10: 1-56145-494-X (trade paperback) [1. Orphans--Fiction. 2. Flight--Fiction. 3. Bicycles--Fiction.] I. Title. PZ7.H22655Ama 2006 [Fic]--dc22 2006013993 For the Kidney family— Dave, Kim, Jenna, and Will, who read it first Thanks to Jane Murphy who helped bring Darius back to life, and whose questions made me rethink the whole story. Thanks to Tim Wadham at the Maricopa County Library District, who immediately liked what he read. Thanks to the Library itself for their online edition, which made me feel like Charles Dickens. Thanks to Carmen Agra Deedy for her faith and encouragement and clear eye and heart. Thanks to Margaret Quinlin for reading everything. And thanks especially to my editors, Emily Whitten and Vicky Holifield, for their care and insight, and for noticing things I hoped would go unnoticed. Thanks and love to my wife, Debbie Block, who has patiently read all the versions. CONTENTS 1 We Meet Darius . 1 2 Good-bye, Miss Hastings . 9 3 Hello, Aunt Inga. 18 4 Darius Makes a Discovery . 25 5 A Strange Occurrence . 34 6 More Books and Bikes. 43 7 Enter Daedalus . 54 8 Remote Control . 59 9 Feathers and Wax . 65 10 Inside Daedalus’s House . 74 11 Crash Landing . 84 12 Gertrude Gritbun’s Terrible Idea . 92 13 Darius Tells His Story . 99 14 A Visit from the Colonel . 105 15 Remember, You Can Fly . 114 16 One Last Chance. 126 17 Flyboy . 133 18 Back on Earth . 144 19 What Happened a Long Time Ago. 151 20 Time Will Tell. 158 We meet Darius1 ll stories begin somewhere, and this one begins with a large red water balloon sailing through the air toward a Ablack car as it pulled into a driveway. “Uh, oh,” said Darius. “Oh dear!” exclaimed Miss Hastings, “I didn’t see them com- ing at all.” “Neither did I,” said Darius. The moment he finished his sentence, the water balloon exploded on the front windshield of the car. The tires screeched and the car lurched to a halt. Darius and Miss Hastings watched with some concern from their perch on the roof of the house. They had been shooting water balloons out into the street with a giant slingshot made of rubber tubing. It was Miss Hastings’s idea. Of course, that isn’t exactly normal behavior for a house- keeper. But Miss Hastings was trying to cheer Darius up. When you are only eleven years old and your father has disappeared in a hot air balloon, your housekeeper is likely to try anything to lift your spirits. Especially if she loves you. The Amazing Flight of Darius Frobisher We Meet Darius Darius peered down at the car. The doors flew open, and two carrying a shiny black briefcase that matched his suit. “My name men and a woman hopped out. They were dressed in sleek is Migby.” black, like the car, and they staggered a little as if the water bal- “You poor dear,” said the woman to Darius. “My name is loon had hit them and not the car. Katrina Zarnoff. You may call me Aunt Kitty.” She reached out “You stay here,” whispered Darius. “I’ll go see who it is.” and stroked the side of Darius’s face. Then without asking, she “I had better come down, too,” said Miss Hastings. “They look whisked by him into the house with Figby and Migby close at important.” her heels. They nearly ran over Miss Hastings in the entryway. Darius scrambled back through the third-floor window of “Please, do come in,” said Darius. “Since you already have.” the old house and headed to the stairs as Miss Hastings did her Darius thought this was the kind of thing his father might best to keep up. Darius scampered downstairs and opened the have said to people who entered your house without asking. His front door. The woman and two men standing before him still father hated pompous people. Darius felt a sharp pang in his seemed slightly shaken, and their faces looked stern and serious. heart. Darius had never seen these people before. Since his father There was something about Darius’s father that made him had vanished, there had been a lot of adults around him that he different from other people—and very unlike Figby, Migby, and didn’t know, clucking their tongues and shaking their heads and Katrina Zarnoff. (You may call her Aunt Kitty if you like, but looking at him with sad eyes. They gave him the creeps. But Darius isn’t going to and neither am I.) Rudy Frobisher was these three were the worst yet. They reminded Darius of the quick to smile and he smiled with his whole face, especially his three gloomy ravens in a song that Miss Hastings often sang to eyes, which were a very bright blue, like the sky on a clear fall him at bedtime. afternoon. This magical smile could raise your spirits even on But he didn’t say this. Instead he was polite and asked, “May I the dreariest of days. Darius’s father lived life boldly, too, which help you?” is not something you would expect from an insurance salesman. “Someone…hit our car…with a water balloon,” sputtered the On the days he wasn’t selling insurance to make a living, he went woman, sucking in air as if her breath were trying to get away on the most marvelous adventures. from her. Rudy Frobisher had sailed to Antarctica and stayed with a “I’m sorry to hear that,” said Darius. He decided not to volun- family of penguins. He had trekked across the steppes of teer any more information than necessary. “Are you all right?” Mongolia and lived on yak’s milk.