5 A helping wing

Chapter 5 A helping wing "We can't let Orville and Wilbur give up," said Yasmin in determination as they cycled back down the boardwalk. "It's too important." "Cuckoo," agreed Tempo, perched on Yasmin's handlebars. The ocean breeze was blowing her feathers around, so she

looked more like a mop than a bird. "They seem pretty certain that they couldn't do it without that propeller," said Min-Jun gloomily. "I think it's time to call the others," said Yasmin. "They may have some ideas." They wheeled their bicycles in among the sand dunes, to get out of the wind. Then they laid them down carefully on the sandy ground, and pushed up their sleeves. Their special Timekeeper watches blinked at them. Yasmin and Min-Jun both flipped them up, and pressed a button.

The other Timekeepers appeared: a tiny gallery of faces on the screens concealed inside the watches. "Hey there," said Kingsley. "How's it going?" asked Rosa. She still had a speck of mud on her nose. "Not great," Yasmin confessed. "DeLay has stolen a propeller from the Wright brothers' plane. We can't find it anywhere. They're talking about giving up and going home to Ohio before they've made the first powered flight in history." Sarah looked concerned. "You've looked everywhere you can think of?" "There's too much ground to cover," said Min-Jun. "Kitty Hawk beach is enormous. The propeller could be

anywhere. And we've only got a couple of bicycles between us." "I wish we could borrow a plane to cover a wider area," said Yasmin gloomily. "But we can't borrow a plane which hasn't been invented yet!" The other Timekeepers looked thoughtful. Tempo started pecking Yasmin's watch screen. "Cuckoo," she said. She sounded insistent. "Cuckoo, cuckoo!" "Tempo!" said Sarah suddenly. "That's it!"

"What do you mean?" asked Min-Jun. Tempo spread her wings and flapped them vigorously, clinging to Yasmin's arm. "Humans may not be able to fly yet," Sarah said, "but Tempo can!" "Cuckoo!" shouted Tempo. Finally, she seemed to be saying! "Of course!" exclaimed Min-Jun. Yasmin rolled her eyes at herself. They'd had a perfect flying machine all along, and hadn't even realized it! "Thanks guys," she said gratefully. "You're the best." The others waved and disappeared. The screens on Yasmin and Min-Jun's watches went dark. "Looks like this is up to you, Tempo,"

Yasmin said to the little cuckoo perched on her arm. "Fly up as high as you can, and tell us if you see anything!" "Up," said Min-Jun, pointing helpfully at the mass of clouds in the December sky. "Up!" Tempo cocked her head. Then she spread her wings and took off, spiraling up into the sky until she was just a striped dot far above their heads. Down on the