8. Sky High

8 Sky High Stanley kept his eyes trained on Lily as her wheelchair lifted off. They climbed swiftly, but then he felt a terrible lurch—the wheels of the Escapist had snagged the barbed wire at the top of the fence. "Lily!" screamed Stanley. No matter how hard the wind pulled, it couldn't blow them free. The force against Stanley was so great, he could barely breathe. Caught like a bug in the spotlight, Lily took a spoke from the Escapist's wheel, and pulled

it apart into two handles. They were wire cutters! Lily was snipping the barbed wire! All at once, the Escapist was free, and Stanley blew out over the bay. Almost immediately, he felt a series of hard, jagged tugs on the wires that ran down to the wheelchair. Lily must be bumping the rocks on her way to the water! thought Stanley. He angled upward, pulling her higher. The San Francisco skyline twinkled up ahead, a slim pyramid-shaped building leading the way. She must be over the water by now, thought Stanley, and he slowly descended until he felt a smooth bump in the lines. Lily's wheelchair was skimming the surface of San Francisco Bay.

Down below, a spotlight caught Lily in its circular halo. But it wasn't coming from Alcatraz. It was

coming from across the bay, from Oda Nobu's press conference. The world was watching Lily speed along, miraculously rolling on the surface of the water. Doing the impossible. Stanley was overcome by a wave of happiness. Then a faint sound filled his ears: people cheering from the shore. Lily was almost there! Stanley got ready for the moment his friend would detach the wires, rolling onto the shore without anyone knowing how she'd crossed the bay. He felt a slight jerk as the line was released,

and he let himself safely descend, floating down like he'd learned to do at the wind farm in Texas. Stanley fluttered on top of a building overlooking the press conference. Below, TV cameras were swarming around Lily. From the stage, his friend Oda Nobu said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lily Fox, the first person in history to escape from Alcatraz!" The crowd went wild. Lily beamed. "Thank you! Thank you all!" she shouted into the microphone. "I couldn't have done it alone! I had someone special looking down on me!" She scanned the rooftops, her eyes twinkling. And Stanley, invisible in his suit, took an invisible bow.

Two hours later, Stanley was out for a crab dinner on Fisherman's Wharf with his parents; his