Read Online The Wings of Morning by Murray Pura - Free Book Online Page B

sweet?”
    She held a lemon pie in her hands. Peter whistled and took off his straw hat. “May I eat it here?”
    “What?” Sarah laughed. “The whole pie?”
    “Oh, no,” the boy said quickly, “just as many pieces as others don’t want.”
    “Start with two,” Sarah said, cutting the slices for him, “and tell me what you think.”
    Peter sat on the grass and dived into the lemon pie with a fork while Sarah watched, half-smiling and half-frowning. “Do you even taste it?” she asked.
    “It’s very good.”
    “Oh, so how good?”
    “Only my mother’s and my nana’s are better.”
    “Then this pie is a third-place pie?”
    Peter smiled with his mouth full. “Well, outside of my family, it is a first-place pie.”
    Sarah clapped her hands. “So a good answer. It’s my pie. I baked it.”
    “No.” Peter stopped eating.
    “
Ja
.”
    “What is this happening now?” Benjamin Kauffman, holding one of his little boy’s hands, jerked his beard at the sky and the buzz of engines. “Part of the show?”
    Lyyndaya glanced up from cutting apple pie for him and his boy. “What do you mean?”
    “Those other aeroplanes.”
    From the north three Curtiss Jennys were flying close together, fairly high, yellow like Jude’s plane, but with stars on their wings. Jude was a few hundred feet below and slightly ahead of them, slowly banking to the left. It appeared the three Jennys were going to continue south and, as everyone watched, Jude began dropping in elevation and heading toward the Stoltzfus hay field. Lyyndaya glanced away and back to the Kauffman boy, handing him his slice with a wink, when she heard people gasp and shout. She spun around and looked back in time to see, one after another, the three Jennys with starred wings dropping down and diving straight at Jude so steeply that their engines screamed.

S EVEN
     
    A s the planes dived upon Jude he continued toward the hay field as if nothing were amiss.
    He doesn’t see them
, Lyyndaya thought in a panic,
but why should he be looking for them? Why should he expect to be attacked?
As he drew closer to the hay field, the other planes were almost upon him. If they weren’t careful they could make him crash into the ground. And it didn’t look as if they were being careful.
    My Lord, open his eyes
, she prayed,
make him look up and back, make him look behind
. She continued to pray with her eyes open and, because she didn’t know what else to do to help him, she reached as high as she could and pointed.
Oh, this is ridiculous
, she thought,
why would he be looking over here? Why would he be looking for me?
Nevertheless, she half-ran from the pie table and the large oak it was under and, standing on her toes and stretching, pointed behind his plane with every fiber of her being.
I know it’s a crazy prayer, but please, God, please, something is not right about those other planes
.
    Suddenly Jude’s aeroplane put on a burst of speed. He flew over the hay field and headed north and away from the picnic and the crowd of women, children, and men. The three Jennys sped over the field in hot pursuit. Jude threw his Canuck into a steep climb. The Jennys matched the feat. Then, as everyone watched, Jude looped quickly and neatly back over the Jennys and was on their tails. People clapped.
    “Oh, ho!” cried Bishop Zook, standing beside his daughter Emma. “Such a stunt!”
    The three planes were now being chased by Jude. They swerved left and right, dove and climbed, but they couldn’t shake him. Finally two of them put on speed and kept heading higher and further north, with no obvious intention of grappling any further with Jude and his Canuck.
    The third plane seemed to stall, but that caused Jude to fly past him, and the other pilot then resumed the pursuit of Jude’s Canuck, opening the throttle and racing after him from behind and below. Yet it almost seemed to Lyyndaya as if Jude had anticipated this. He immediately dove to the right and banked at