Amelia Earhart and the Flying Chariot Page 2

  A little window gave them an amazing view of New York City and the Hudson River. The buildings and buses and cars looked like pieces of a board game.

  “I never get tired of this!” Amelia said, shouting over the roar of the propeller. “When I was your age, I was drawn to thrilling things: bicycles, horses, fast sleds. Everyone told me to be more ladylike. But why go through a gate, if you can jump over it?”

  The plane climbed through a layer of clouds, bouncing like a roller coaster. Doc and Abby gripped the side of the bench.

  Amelia turned to them and smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ve been flying for ten years!”

  “Is it true that no one wanted to teach you at first?” Abby asked.

  “There’s this silly idea that women can’t handle the pressure of flying! But there were a few women pilots out there, and I found one who would teach me. I was working in an office back then, filing, sorting mail; it was awful! But I saved every penny for my lessons. I had no thought of becoming famous. I just lived for this moment—the freedom of the air!”

  Doc looked out the window. The clouds were gone now, and he could see straight down, giving him a spectacular view of …

  “Huh?” he said, elbowing Abby and pointing.

  Abby said, “Ms. Earhart?”

  “Call me Amelia, please.”

  “Amelia,” Abby said. “I think we made a wrong turn.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Amelia Earhart’s red plane soared above a blue-green sea. The water glittered in bright sunlight and was dotted with small rocky islands. Far in the distance, small waves washed against a white beach.

  Amelia leaned to her left and looked down.

  “New Jersey?” Doc asked.

  “Not a part I’ve ever seen,” said Amelia. “Looks more like … the Mediterranean?”

  “Uh-oh,” Abby said.

  “Yeah,” agreed Doc.

  Amelia turned to face them. “Do you two know what’s going on?”

  “No,” Abby said. “But this is like what happened to the astronauts. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin—they were going to the moon, but they suddenly landed in Texas.”

  “In the 1800s,” Doc added. “There were angry cowboys.”

  “How very inconvenient,” Amelia said.

  “We wound up fixing everything,” Abby said. “Sort of.”

  Amelia Earhart shook her head. “I really must get to Newfoundland tonight. I’m not the only woman who wants to be first across the Atlantic, you know. Another delay, and someone’s sure to beat me.”

  “We’ll help you,” Doc said.

  “And how do you propose to do that?” Amelia snapped. Then she sighed. “I’m sorry, children. I know this is not your fault.”

  It wasn’t. Was it?

  Amelia flew toward the land.

  “First things first,” she said. “Let’s figure out where we are.”

  They sailed over the coast, above rocky hills and forests of pine trees. A few minutes later they spotted a clearing, an area of flat land between green slopes. There were white marble buildings with tall columns and dirt paths between the buildings.

  And two large fields. They looked like stadiums. One was empty, but the other was packed with thousands of people.

  “It looks like Olympia,” Doc said. “I mean, I’ve only seen pictures.”

  “Olympia?” Abby asked. “Where the Greek gods lived?”

  “That’s Mount Olympus,” Doc explained. “Olympia is different. The site of the ancient Olympics.”

  “Uh-oh,” Abby said again.

  There really was some kind of competition going on in the stadium. Athletes stood at one end of the field. One of them ran forward with a long spear in his hand. He heaved it high into the air, and it sailed down the field and stuck point first into the reddish-brown dirt. A man in a purple robe ran out to mark the spot. The fans stood and cheered.

  “The javelin throw,” Doc said.

  “Excuse me,” Amelia Earhart said. “But are you telling me that’s the ancient Olympics down there?”

  “Looks like it,” Doc said. He pressed his face against the window. “And the athletes do appear to be naked.”

  Abby cringed. “Why was that a good idea?”

  Doc laughed. “Supposedly they wore loincloths at first. But then this one guy tripped on his in a race, so he got rid of it. And he won!”

  Amelia dove lower for a closer look.

  Fans heard the buzz of the engine and looked up, pointing. The only person who didn’t notice the strange thing in the sky was the next javelin thrower—his eyes were closed, focused on the toss he was about to attempt.

  With a grunt, he burst forward and threw his spear. The spear soared in a sky-high arc and—

  “Look out!” Doc cried. “Javelin!”

  —hit the side of the plane with a

  Doc and Abby looked up.

  The javelin had pierced the side of the plane, right above their heads. Doc touched the pointed tip with his finger.

  Amelia turned to look. “Easily fixed,” she said calmly. “It’s just wood.”

  “Wood?!” Doc asked. “This plane is made of wood?”

  “They all were back then,” Abby said.

  “You were going to cross the Atlantic in a wooden plane?”

  “I still am, Doc. Hopefully,” Amelia said. “Right now, I better find somewhere to land.”

  She circled a few hundred feet above Olympia. The grassy areas around the stadium were crowded with people and tents. The only open space was in the second arena—a huge dirt field surrounded by gently sloping hills.

  “It’s the hippodrome,” Doc said. “The field for the chariot races.”

  “That’s our spot!” Amelia said.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  A young woman with long black hair stood in the hippodrome. Shielding her eyes with her hand, she looked up at the bright sky.

  The woman was Kyniska, a Spartan princess and the owner and trainer of one of the teams in the upcoming chariot race. She’d come to the hippodrome to get in one last workout with her driver and four-horse team.

  She watched the red airplane make a slow turn and come in for a landing. Out on the track, her horses trotted along, pulling the chariot and driver—their backs to the approaching plane.

  “Talos!” Kyniska shouted. “Get out of the way!”

  The driver turned his head and was startled to see that a flying machine with a spear in its side was about to land on him. Screaming, he yanked the reins, and the horses swerved, tossing him out of the chariot.

  The plane landed, bounced, and rolled to a stop in a cloud of dust.

  The propeller slowed and stopped. The cockpit window slid open. Amelia Earhart stuck her head out.

  Kyniska ran to her driver. Amelia, Abby, and Doc jumped out of the plane and rushed over.

  Talos was on the ground in a ball, holding his leg. Kyniska and Amelia kneeled beside him.

  “My knee …” Talos groaned.

  “May I check?” Amelia asked. “I was trained as an aide at a military hospital in Canada during the Great War.”

  Kyniska glared at Amelia Earhart.

  “They didn’t call it World War I back then,” Abby explained. “No one knew there was going to be a second one.”

  “Who cares about that?” Kyniska snarled, eyes burning with fury. “This is my driver—the best driver in Greece! The race is tomorrow!”

  Abby and Doc backed away. Kyniska was still yelling at Amelia Earhart.

  “That lady seems pretty upset,” Abby said.

  “Should we stay with Amelia?” Doc wondered. “Try to help?”

  “How?” Abby asked. “The only way to help is to figure out what’s going on.”

  “Agreed.”

  They ran up the grassy slope surrounding the hippodrome. Doc still had the olive branch crown in his hand.

  They looked around. Thousands of fans were streaming out of the stadium, talking and laughing. Vendors pushed carts through the
crowds selling grilled meat, bread, and wine. Artists selling sculptures and paintings competed for attention with musicians, dancers, jugglers, and actors.

  And there was the smell.

  Abby sniffed the air. Pine forests and wood smoke—that was the good part. But there was more.

  “Garbage rotting in the heat,” Doc explained. “And body odor. There’s not really anywhere to bathe. Plus, they use the dry riverbeds as the bathroom.”

  “Doc, is everything you know about the Olympics disgusting?”

  “That is my specialty,” Doc said. “But I know other stuff. See those guys?”

  He pointed to a group of bearded men in long purple robes.

  “Those are the official judges,” Doc said. “Maybe they’ll know something.”

  He held up the olive crown.

  “Hold on,” Abby said. “They’re gonna think we stole it.”

  “No, we can explain,” Doc said. Waving the crown in the air, he shouted, “You guys missing one of these?”

  The judges stared at the waving crown.

  “We didn’t steal this!” Doc explained. “It just sort of appeared in a bag belonging to this famous pilot!”

  “The stolen crown!” one of them shouted.

  “Grab that thief!” shouted another.

  “Told you,” Abby said.

  “It was worth a shot,” Doc said, shrugging.

  The judges started shoving their way through the crowd toward Doc and Abby.

  “Seize those dogs!” a judge roared.

  “Should we run?” Abby asked.

  Doc nodded. “Run!”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  But it wasn’t so easy to run. The field was packed with fans and vendors and performers.

  Abby tripped over a pile of firewood. Doc slammed into a sword-swallower just as the man was about to lower the blade into his gaping mouth.

  Abby scrambled to her feet. Doc picked up the sword he’d knocked from the sword-swallower’s hand.

  “So what’s the trick?” Doc asked the performer. “Do you actually put the whole—”

  “Not now, Doc!” Abby yelled.

  “Right,” Doc said, handing back the sword. “Careful with this.”

  They took off again, swerving around tents, leaping over campfires. Doc glanced over his shoulder but couldn’t see the judges through the crowd.

  “Are they chasing us?” Abby asked.

  “I’ll find out!” Doc said.

  Beside him, an actor was standing on a box, reciting a passage from the Odyssey in a loud and dramatic voice: “When young rosy-fingered dawn shone once again, the Cyclops lit his fire and—excuse me, young man!”

  Doc had just jumped onto the box with the actor.

  “Sorry,” Doc said. “I just need to …”

  From that height, he could see the judges. They were definitely chasing, clearing their path by knocking over a vendor’s cart, sending fruit flying.

  “They’re getting closer!” Doc said.

  “Where do we go?” Abby asked.

  A tent flap opened, and a girl’s voice whispered,

  No time to ask questions—Abby and Doc dove into the tent. The girl crawled outside.

  Abby and Doc huddled on the dirt, panting as quietly as they could, listening to the action outside.

  The actor continued his performance. “The Cyclops lit his fire and snatched up two more men for his morning’s meal, and then—hey, get off my box!”

  “Get off yourself! We’re looking for two thieves!”

  That sounded like one of the judges.

  “They’ve stolen a branch from the sacred grove of Zeus’s temple!” another judge howled. “They must be thrown off Mount Kronos!”

  “Fine by me,” the actor said.

  Then a girl’s voice shouted: “There they go! Heading toward the hills!”

  “Toward the hills!” a judge shouted.

  “The hills!” the others called.

  The actor cleared his throat and resumed. “And then the monster rolled aside the boulder from the opening of the cave …”

  The tent flaps opened, and the girl crawled back in.

  “They’re gone,” she said.

  “Thanks,” Abby said.

  “Say nothing of it, my friends.”

  The girl was wearing robes, like everyone else in Olympia. But she looked familiar to Doc and Abby.

  They’d definitely seen her somewhere. Very recently …

  “Um …” Abby said. “Sally?”

  Yep, it was Sally—the girl from the library—with a huge grin on her face.

  “Very,” Abby said. “What are you doing here?”

  “I was jealous!” Sally said. “It just seemed so fun!”

  “But how’d you get here?” Doc asked. “You know about the, um … the cardboard …”

  Sally laughed. “I’ve always adored the ancient Olympics. I’ve read stacks of books about the games. So how could I resist! You know, the Olympics were so important to the Greeks they called a truce. Enemy cities were always fighting one another, but they actually stopped wars for a few weeks so athletes and fans could travel here safely. It all started when the ruler of Elis asked advice from the oracle of Delphi and—”

  “Sally, that’s very interesting,” Abby cut in. “But Amelia Earhart is supposed to take off for Europe very soon.”

  “From Canada,” Doc pointed out. “In 1932.”

  “We need to get her back there,” Abby said. “And we need to figure out who’s twisting things up. Stop it from happening again.”

  “And if we could find my hat,” Doc said, “that would be awesome.”

  Sally nodded. “Okay, I’ll help.”

  “You shouldn’t even be here,” Doc said.

  Sally looked hurt. “It’s lonely at home. I don’t have many friends.”

  “Sorry,” Doc said. “We’re glad you came. We’re lucky you did.”

  “So what now?” Abby wondered. “We can’t go out there. Especially you, Doc—the judges got a good look at you.”

  Doc asked, “Do they really throw people off mountains?”

  “Let’s not find out,” Abby suggested.

  “I have an idea,” Sally said. “Wait here.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  In the hippodrome, Kyniska sat in the cockpit of Amelia Earhart’s plane. She grabbed the control stick, shoving it left and right, forward and back.

  “Gently, please!” Amelia pleaded. She was crouching behind Kyniska. “It’s the stick. You use it to move the plane up and down. Pushing it forward causes the nose to dip, and you pull it back to climb.”

  Kyniska yanked it back. “It’s not working.”

  “It also tips the wings,” Amelia explained. “The pedals work the rudder.”

  Kyniska rested her sandals on the pedals.

  “You use your feet to move the nose left and right,” Amelia said. “These are your instruments,” she said, pointing to the panel of dials. “They show your airspeed, height above the ground, engine temperature, oil pressure—everything you need to know.”

  “I like it,” Kyniska said. “I’ll take it.”

  Amelia laughed.

  Kyniska wasn’t joking.

  “But, I …” Amelia began. “It’s mine. I bought it.”

  “Yes, and for some reason you chose to crash it into my chariot driver. Do you have any idea how long we have been training for this race?”

  “Sorry. How long?”

  “Years,” Kyniska said. “No woman has ever won an Olympic event. None has ever dared to compete! But I, Kyniska, Princess of Sparta—I am going to be the first winner!”

  “But wasn’t that other fellow going to drive?” Amelia asked.

  “What of it?” Kyniska sneered. “Everyone knows it is the owner of the chariot who is considered the champion. It is the owner who wins immortal fame and glory!” She continued in a softer voice. “This has always been my dream. Since I was a young girl, I have loved games and sports, any sor
t of competition.”

  “Me too!”

  “I bred these horses myself,” Kyniska said. “Trained them, day after day. I have the greatest team, the finest chariot. I have the greatest driver—or I did, before you broke his leg.”

  “I think it’s just a bad bruise,” Amelia said.

  “He is in no condition to compete.”

  “No, that’s true. How can I make it up to you?”

  “You can’t.” Kyniska shook her head. “And so dies my dream, here, on the plains of Olympia.”

  They sat in silence.

  “What if …” Amelia began. “What if I were to be your driver?”

  “You?” Kyniska scoffed. “What do you know of chariot racing?”

  “Not much,” Amelia admitted. “But I grew up around horses. You could show me.”

  Kyniska moved the airplane’s control stick back and forth. “Well, if you can handle this flying chariot …”

  “Exactly!” Amelia cried. “It will be an adventure! What could go wrong?”

  “Many, many things,” Kyniska said, smiling for the first time since she’d met Amelia Earhart. “Come, I will show you!”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Sally crawled back into the tent. She was holding a fake beard, long and gray, with a string to hold it on.

  “When I was walking around before, I noticed a vendor selling these,” Sally said. “For women who want to sneak in to watch the events.”

  “Women aren’t allowed in the stadiums?” Abby asked.

  “Nope,” Doc said. “Men only. And kids.”

  “That’s lame,” Abby said.

  “I know,” Sally agreed. “Put it on.”

  “What about me?” Doc asked.

  “No one will be able to see you,” Sally said.

  She explained her idea.

  Moments later, Sally stood outside the tent. “All clear,” she said.