Amelia Earhart: Lady Lindy

by Ann Hood

  “Maybe you’re right, Meelie,” she said.

  “Let’s get home, kids,” Meelie’s father said. “Get you out of these wet clothes and get some warm food into you.”

  Felix threw his arm around his sister’s shoulders.

  “You were amazing,” he told her.

  “I was, wasn’t I?” Maisie said.

  “And modest, too,” Felix teased, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

  “You know what?” Maisie asked. “I’m ready to go home. I think that between the gorilla and the plane, I’ve had enough excitement for a while.”

  Felix sighed. “All we have to do is find the person, give him the compass, get a lesson—”

  “Stop!” Maisie interrupted. “Let’s just figure it all out. Soon.”

  Meelie’s mother had baked chicken and creamed corn and roasted potatoes waiting for dinner. And a big bowl of Meelie’s favorite: radishes. She’d made biscuits, too, and she put a small pitcher of honey beside them.

  “So?” she said after they all had sat down and piled food on their plates. “Was the fair exciting?”

  Meelie and Pidge glanced at Maisie.

  “No,” Maisie said, forcing her voice to sound casual. “Fun,” she added, chewing on one of the flaky biscuits. “But not exciting.”

  “We saw an aeroplane!” Pidge blurted.

  Her father cleared his throat. A warning for her to keep their adventure to herself.

  “I’d like to fly in one of those,” her mother said dreamily.

  “It’s awful!” Meelie said fiercely. “The wind is in your face the whole time, and it’s so noisy you can’t even hear yourself think and then the stupid thing almost crashed.”

  Everyone stared at Meelie.

  But it was her mother who spoke first. “You went up in an aeroplane?” she said, her nostrils flaring in anger.

  “I . . . ,” Meelie began.

  Her mother turned to her father.

  “You let her go up in one of those flying machines?” she demanded.

  “Why, you just said yourself how much you’d like to fly in one!”

  “Yes, but I’m a grown woman! Children shouldn’t ride in aeroplanes!”

  “I didn’t,” Pidge said quickly. “I stayed right on the ground and watched.”

  Her mother looked from her husband to Meelie and back again.

  “It was an adventure!” Meelie’s father said.

  “It was terrible,” Meelie said, taking another piece of chicken as if to end the entire conversation.

  “Good,” her mother said. “Maybe that will teach you a lesson, Miss Amelia Earhart.”

  Felix gasped.

  “Uh-oh,” Pidge giggled. “You know you’re in trouble when Mother uses our real names.”

  “You’re . . . you’re Amelia?” Maisie sputtered. “Earhart?”

  “What of it?” Meelie said.

  Maisie and Felix broke into big grins.

  “Oh,” Felix said. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

  Maisie poured some honey on another biscuit.

  “Do you know what I think, Meelie?” she said, still grinning. “I think you will fly in an aeroplane again. And I think you’ll love it.”

  Mr. Earhart laughed. “You certainly have a lot of predictions about these aeroplanes, Maisie.”

  “I did a big report on aviation in school,” she said.

  Mr. Earhart laughed harder. “A big report?” he said. “There’s not much to say about it, is there? You’ve got the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk but not much else.”

  “I don’t care what you say, Maisie,” Meelie said. “I’m done with flying machines.”

  “Amelia Earhart,” Maisie said smugly, “I’m willing to bet that you fly all the way across the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane. Alone!”

  Meelie rolled her eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything more ridiculous in my entire life.”

  “Imagination is a good thing to have, Maisie,” Mr. Earhart said. “And you certainly have a big one.”

  “All this nonsense does not get either of you off the hook,” Mrs. Earhart said sternly. “Next thing I know, you’re going to tell me you actually paid for the honor of almost getting yourself killed up there.”

  They all looked down at their plates.

  “What?” Mrs. Earhart said. “How much?”

  “When will they ever get the chance to fly in an aeroplane again?” Mr. Earhart said.

  Maisie smiled at Felix but decided to keep quiet. They had found Amelia Earhart and gone on her first flight with her. Now all they had to do was give her that compass, and they would be home in no time. Maisie knew Amelia Earhart had already given her the best advice: Be brave. And Maisie had already taken it. She’d saved all of their lives by landing that plane. Stage fright was nothing compared to that.

  CHAPTER 10

  JAMES FEROCIOUS

  Maisie woke up to the sound of rain on the roof of the shed. She snuggled deeper into her sleeping bag, waiting for the door to burst open and Meelie and Pidge to come in like they did every morning. But this morning would be different. Maisie would give the compass to Meelie and she and Felix would be home in no time.

  No sooner did she think that, then the door burst open and Pidge ran in, alone.

  “It’s just terrible!” Pidge cried.

  Maisie and Felix both sat up at once.

  “What’s happened?” Felix asked her.

  “James Ferocious is sick, and Mother says we can’t take him to the veterinarian because it costs too much money and Father gave all the week’s money to go in the aeroplane!”

  “Dogs get sick all the time, Pidge,” Felix said. “Don’t worry.”

  “But Meelie wouldn’t listen,” Pidge continued. “She took him to the veterinarian, anyway.”

  “Well then, he’ll make him better,” Felix said.

  “But how will we pay?” Pidge sobbed. “You have no idea the money troubles we have. Grandfather thinks Father is a spendthrift and a bad lawyer and irresponsible.”

  “So Meelie is at the vet’s?” Maisie asked, already disappointed that she would have to wait to give Meelie the compass. “When will she be back?”

  “How would I know that?” Pidge said.

  “It’ll be okay,” Felix said, patting Pidge on the back. “You’ll see.”

  “Want to play a game or something?” Maisie asked, eager to make the time pass as quickly as possible.

  “I don’t think I can concentrate on a game,” Pidge said, shaking her head.

  Then, as if another idea had just popped into her head, she slapped her forehead.

  “Back in Atchison, our neighbors had a big black dog named Magic. That dog had the very same symptoms as James Ferocious and the veterinarian put him to sleep!”

  “I think James Ferocious is going to be fine,” Felix said.

  “Let’s play cards,” Maisie decided. “Do you have any cards?”

  “That veterinarian back in Kansas,” Pidge continued as if neither Felix nor Maisie had spoken, “he said that someday they would be able to do an operation to save a dog like Magic, but that day had not yet come.”

  She turned her teary face to Felix.

  “What if Meelie comes back without James Ferocious?” Pidge asked him.

  “Let’s do something to get your mind off this,” Maisie tried again.

  Pidge looked at her angrily. “Do you have a dog?” she demanded.

  “No—”

  “Then how would you know anything about it?”

  “I’ve always wanted a dog,” Felix said. “But our mother refused.”

  Pidge kept her gaze on Maisie.

  “I’m tired of playing with you,” she said. “Where is your mother, anyway? When Meelie comes back, I’m going to tell her that I
don’t want you to sleep in the shed anymore.”

  “When Meelie comes back,” Maisie said, “we’re leaving, anyway.”

  “Good,” Pidge said, crossing her arms.

  “Good,” Maisie said.

  The rain kept falling, and Maisie, Felix, and Pidge kept waiting for Meelie to come back. Pidge sat by the window in the shed and watched for her. Maisie retrieved the compass and held on to it, ready to thrust it at Meelie as soon as she walked in the door.

  It seemed to take forever, but finally Pidge shouted, “Here she comes! And she has James Ferocious with her!”

  Pidge ran and opened the door, letting a very wet Meelie and James Ferocious inside.

  The shed filled with the smell of wet dog, and James Ferocious set about shaking off all the rain, spraying water everywhere.

  “I was afraid he was incurable,” Pidge said, hugging the dog’s neck.

  Meelie chewed her lower lip.

  “I’m afraid he is incurable,” she said finally, looking longingly at the dog.

  “Oh no!” Felix said.

  Meelie nodded. “He has what Magic had back in Atchison,” she told Pidge.

  “Something called an ‘obstructed bowel,’” she explained to Maisie and Felix.

  Felix smiled. “They can fix that!” he said happily. “When we lived in New York City, our upstairs neighbor had a standard poodle named Gogo with an obstructed bowel, and the vet operated and Gogo was fine.”

  Meelie was looking at him, confused. “Maybe in New York City they can do things like that, but here in Des Moines, our veterinarian says an operation like that, on a dog, is impossible. At least in the foreseeable future.”

  “Oh,” Felix said.

  “Are you lying to me?” Meelie asked him. “About this dog, Gogo?”

  He shook his head.

  “You two say some very strange things,” Meelie said thoughtfully.

  “I’m tired of playing with them,” Pidge said.

  Meelie didn’t respond. She just kept studying Felix and Maisie.

  Felix squirmed uncomfortably beneath her gaze. “They’re way ahead of the times in New York City,” he said finally.

  “Hmmm,” Meelie said.

  Maisie had been quiet up until now. But she stepped forward and rubbed James Ferocious behind the ears. The dog rested his big, shaggy head in her lap.

  “What if I told you that we could bring James Ferocious home with us and save his life?” Maisie said.

  “I wouldn’t believe you,” Meelie said, and Pidge agreed.

  “The only thing is, we would have to keep him then,” Maisie explained. “We couldn’t return him to you.”

  “You want James Ferocious?” Pidge asked, offended.

  “We could save his life,” Maisie said to Felix.

  “I’m not sure it would work,” he said, even though he recognized the determined look on his sister’s face. She had decided to take the dog home with them to save his life, and Felix knew how impossible it was to talk Maisie out of anything once her mind was made up.

  “I think it would work,” Maisie said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Pidge said. “You can’t have our dog. Can she, Meelie?”

  “Well,” Meelie said, thinking. “The question is whether James Ferocious alive but far away is better than James Ferocious dying. Because the veterinarian said he would die.”

  Pidge’s face crumpled.

  “We would take very good care of him,” Maisie said.

  “I thought your mother refused to let you have a dog,” Pidge said almost desperately.

  “We haven’t asked in a while,” Felix admitted.

  “And we have so much room where we live,” Maisie added. “He could run around the grounds, and we could take him for walks on the beach.”

  She looked at Meelie. “He’d be happy,” she said. “I promise.”

  Maisie took the compass from her pocket, fingering its smooth surface. “We would leave you this,” she said, showing it to Meelie.

  Meelie frowned. “What’s that, anyway?”

  “It’s from an aeroplane,” Felix said.

  “But I don’t need anything from an aeroplane!” Meelie insisted. “I’m never flying in one again!”

  Maisie held out her other hand for the leash.

  “Felix,” she said, “maybe you should hold on to the leash, too. Just to be sure.”

  Felix did. He put his hand over Maisie’s, which had the leash tucked into it.

  “You’ll take good care of him?” Meelie asked.

  Maisie and Felix nodded.

  Meelie leaned close to Felix and whispered in his ear. “Are you fortune-tellers or something?”

  “Something like that,” he whispered back.

  “Here,” Maisie said, offering the compass to Amelia Earhart. “Just in case you ever do fly again.”

  Meelie took a deep breath and cocked her head at Maisie and Felix.

  “All right,” she said at last, and she reached her hand out to take the compass from Maisie.

  But then Meelie paused.

  “Let’s make a pact,” she said. “The three of us.”

  “What kind of pact?” Felix asked.

  “Let’s promise to do something brave in our lives,” Meelie said. “Something so brave that the whole world will take notice of us.”

  Tears sprung to Felix’s eyes.

  “Amelia Earhart,” he said softly, “I think the whole world will take notice of you. But if you ever get the crazy idea to fly around the world, don’t do it, okay?”

  “Me?” Meelie laughed. “You don’t have to worry about that. If I never see another aeroplane again, it will be too soon.”

  “I promise to be braver,” Maisie said, already imagining what that might mean.

  Felix said, “So do I.”

  With one of her big, toothy smiles shining on them, Meelie took the compass.

  The last thing Maisie and Felix saw in 1908 was Amelia Earhart and her sister, Pidge, staring down at the compass in Meelie’s hand.

  The next thing Felix knew, he was back in The Treasure Chest with James Ferocious licking his face.

  “He’s here!” Felix shouted happily.

  Maisie peeked over the dog’s shaggy body, smiling.

  But Felix’s own smile faded quickly. He looked around The Treasure Chest, half hoping the Ziff twins were here, too, safely returned from the Congo. But the room was empty, except for Great-Uncle Thorne, who stood right where they’d left him.

  “So?” he demanded immediately. “Did you see her?”

  Maisie shook her head.

  “Tarnation!” Great-Uncle Thorne roared, and without another word he stormed out of The Treasure Chest.

  “If only Rayne and Hadley were here, too. I hope they’re okay,” Felix said.

  “Maybe they got back sooner?” Maisie said.

  Felix brightened slightly at that notion. But he deflated just as quickly.

  “No,” he said, thinking out loud. “If they were back, Great-Uncle Thorne would have seen them. He would have known.”

  Maisie and Felix let this information settle in.

  “So they’re still in the Congo,” Maisie said hopefully.

  “Let’s figure out what to do next,” Felix said, taking James Ferocious’s leash and walking toward the door.

  “Wait until Mom sees that we brought a dog home,” Maisie said.

  “A dog that needs surgery,” Felix reminded her.

  “I think Great-Uncle Thorne will be so impressed by our ingenuity that he’ll pay for the operation,” Maisie said.

  They walked out of The Treasure Chest, leading James Ferocious down the stairway and out into the hall, where to their surprise they walked right into their father.

  “Dad!”
Maisie shrieked.

  Felix stared at his father, taking in his curly hair and his hands speckled with paint.

  “What are you doing at Elm Medona?” Felix asked him.

  Their father pointed at James Ferocious.

  “What are you doing with a dog?” he asked.

  “We . . . rescued him,” Maisie said.

  “Your mother let you have a dog?” their father said in disbelief.

  “She doesn’t exactly know about him yet,” Felix admitted.

  “His name is James Ferocious,” Maisie told her father. “Isn’t he beautiful?”

  “He’s shaggy, that’s for sure,” he said, bending to pet the dog’s big head.

  “But why are you here?” Felix asked again.

  “To see you two,” their father said. “And to talk to your mother,” he added.

  “She’s been kind of upset,” Maisie told him.

  “I know.”

  “She doesn’t want you to marry Agatha the Great,” Felix said softly.

  “Agatha the Great?” his father repeated.

  “Oops,” Felix said, turning red.

  “The thing is,” their father went on, “as it turns out, I’m not going to marry Agatha. The Great,” he added with a small smile.

  “You’re not?” Maisie said, half disappointed and half relieved.

  “Why did you change your mind?” Felix asked.

  “I didn’t. She did.”

  “How could she?” Maisie said in disbelief. “You’re the best!”

  Their father sighed. “I think it all happened too fast. The divorce and the move and Agatha and me.”

  “Does Mom know?” Felix asked.

  He shook his head. “She’s not home.”

  “Let’s go downstairs and you can make us some normal food,” Felix said. “Everything here is French.”

  “Happily,” their father said.

  Happily, Maisie thought. She liked the way that word sounded.

  They were sitting in the Library eating grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup when their mother got home. Their father made the best grilled cheese sandwiches in the world—extra buttery and extra gooey. He also made the best tomato soup, even though it came from a can. Instead of water, he made it with milk, and he added celery salt as his secret ingredient. Comfort food, he always called grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. Maisie wondered if her father needed comfort, if Agatha the Great had broken his heart.