ON THE WINGS OF THE WIND: The Untold Story of History’s First Flight. By Richard Kigel. Part 21.

EVERYTHING WAS PEACEFUL UNTIL RANDALL SPOKE UP.

“I HAVE TO PEE,” HE SAID. I FELT IT TOO, A SHARP, PAINFUL PINCHING DEEP INSIDE THE BOTTOM OF MY BELLY.

“HOLD IT IN,” I TOLD HIM. “THERE’S NO PALCE TO GO UP HERE. AS SOON AS WE GET DOWN, THAT’S THE FIRST THING WE’LL DO.”

THIS ANNOYED RANDALL AND HE POUTED AND LOOKED AWAY.

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SUMMARY: THE STORY SO FAR…


Josiah, a young slave 12 years of age, lives in a cabin in the slave quarters of a Virginia tobacco plantation with Auntie Bee, Mose, the plantation handyman, two young children, Randall and Emily. He notices Mose leaving the cabin in the middle of the night and follows him to his secret workshop in the woods where Mose is building some sort of strange contraption. Mose tells him it is a machine that will fly him to freedom. Now that he knows Mose’s secret, he stays to help build the flier. After mishaps, false starts and setbacks—the flier tumbles down the mountain and is seriously damaged—they are attacked by snakes—mountain lions lurk all around them—they realize someone has been spying on them and they think their escape plan has been discovered. Finally, their time has come. Now they are in the air, riding on the wings of the wind.


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There were so many things I could do now that I was free. I had no desire to do anything but look up at the giant puffs of white clouds drifting across the brilliant blue sky. I studied them carefully, fascinated by their changing shapes as the birds flew by, zipping in front of them from all angles. I was content.


Everything was peaceful until Randall spoke up.


“I have to pee,” he said. I felt it too, a sharp painful pinching deep inside the bottom of my belly.


“Hold it in,” I told him. “There’s no place to go up here. As soon as we get down that’s the first thing we’ll do.”


This annoyed Randall and he pouted and looked away.


“Don’t forget, when we reach the Promised Land we’ll be free,” I said. “Then you can pee any time you want.”


“Free?” Randall repeated. “Free and pee?”


Randall seemed satisfied. He repeated it again. “Free and pee. Free and pee.”


Then he said it again. “Free and pee. Free and pee.”


He kept saying it over and over, chanting the words in a sing-song voice. Then his body started rocking to the rhythm of his silly little ditty. “Free and pee. Free and pee. You and me. Free and pee. You and me. Free and pee. You and me. Free and pee.”


Randall serenaded us. He varied the rhythm of his song, sometimes lengthening the first syllable, then speeding up. He added new sounds, slowly drawing out the vowels: “ Peeeeeeeee-o.”


Then he quickened the pace, going staccato: “pee-o, pee-o, pee-o.”


And mixing them both: “Peeeeeeeee-o…pee-o, pee-o, pee-o.”


There was no stopping him. He was crooning. “I want to peeeeeeeee-o…pee-o, pee-o, peeeeeee-o.”


I wanted to punch him. I gave him the Auntie Bee cold hard stare. It was my best mean face to scare him into shutting up. Instead, I only managed to make Emily laugh.


Finally, he got tired of his stupid song and appeared to drift off to sleep.


I thought I’d better take a good look around us to get a sense of our position and where we were going and immediately I was alarmed. We weren’t exactly heading in the direction we wanted to go. The mountains were supposed to remain on our left side all the way north. But now, instead of following the mountains we were moving away from them at an odd angle. We weren’t heading due north any more. We were moving more toward the east.


I guess all that ruckus with me and Randall made us veer off course.