8 First flight

Chapter 8 First flight Yasmin felt a flutter of excitement as she and Min-Jun joined the crowds down on the beach. The numbers had swelled as word had spread of this latest attempt to conquer the sky. Was this it? Was this the moment? Someone started playing a barrel organ. Someone else had started

selling ice cream. There was a carnival atmosphere as the residents of Kitty Hawk prepared to watch something astonishing happen. Yasmin heard the throaty roar of an engine. The nose of the Flyer appeared. Then the rest of the machine. The runners lifted off the ground. The whole machine drove forward into nothing. And... liftoff! "Ooh!" cried the crowd. "Aaah!"

Yasmin watched as the Flyer zoomed over her head. She was dimly aware of a man with a camera on legs beside her, bending down and—SNAP!—taking a photograph of the moment so that it would be captured for all time. Five seconds in the air...then ten... The Flyer gently dipped down and skidded to a halt on the sand some way down the beach. It had been airborne for a full twelve seconds. Orville Wright had just made the first powered flight the world had ever seen. The crowd erupted. They threw their hats in the air, and waved their scarves like banners. What a moment! Yasmin breathed it in. She turned to Min-Jun.

"Mission accomplished," she said with satisfaction. He nodded with a wide smile. It was time to go. The children slipped away quietly from the celebrating crowd, and made their way around the side of the hangar. It wouldn't be good for the people of Kitty Hawk to see them vanish into thin air. It would have been one miracle too many. DeLay was waiting for them, scowling. His white hair blew around his head as he stabbed the air with a long bony finger.

"You might have put history back on track this time, but this isn't the last you've seen of me," he threatened. "I'll be back. And next time, I'll succeed!" Min-Jun folded his arms. "We're not scared of you, DeLay," he said. "Whatever you throw at the Timekeepers, we'll be ready!" Yasmin added. DeLay gave a sly grin. "That's what YOU think. I have time to get it right one day. Plenty of time...HA!" There was a flash of fire, a cloud of smoke, and the clattering sound of chiming clocks.

Then he vanished, as if he'd never been there at all. "Cuckoo!" Tempo fluttered down from her perch on the hangar. She zoomed around Min-Jun and Yasmin, around and around in a blur of brown stripes, until Yasmin felt dizzy. Everything went white... Yasmin felt her feet touch down on the familiar stone floor of the History Hub. Beside her, Min-Jun dusted himself down and offered Yasmin a high-five.