ON THE WINGS OF THE WIND: The Untold Story of History’s First Flight. By Richard Kigel. Part 23.

THERE HAD TO BE SOME WAY TO REGAIN OUR BALANCE. IF WE COULD SOMEHOW REACH THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FLIER, THE SIDE NOW ON THE HIGH END, WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO FLATTEN OUT. I REACHED FOR THE WOOD FRAME ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE, STRETCHING AS FAR AS I COULD.


***********************************************************************************************************


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.


***********************************************************************************************



Oh, no, I thought. Bad mistake. The angle of the flier was becoming way too steep. We were flying cockeyed. The flier was flipping. All we could do to save ourselves was to hang on to the wood frame and scream.


This is it, I thought. The flier was almost in a vertical straight line. We were hanging on to the lower edge and about to tumble off. Our flight to freedom was going to end here and now.


There had to be some way to regain our balance. If we could somehow reach the other side of the flier, the side now on the high end, we might be able to flatten out.


I reached for the wood frame on the opposite side, stretching as far as I could. I would have let go and make a leap for it and grab it before falling completely off the flier.


I sprang up, reaching with all my strength and grabbed hold of the wood frame first with one hand, then both.


“Follow me!” I hollered to Randall, pointing to the wood frame on the high end of the flier. “Hold tight!”


Randall made a quick dive upwards and I managed to grab him by his shirt and pull him up. Now he was holding on to the wood frame for dear life.


Already, the high end of the flier was starting to lower because of our added weight. The angle of the flier was no longer so steep. That would make it a little easier for Emily who was still dangling from the lower side of the wood frame.


Poor Emily. I didn’t know how to get her up with us. I reached down to her, stretching my shoulder almost out of the socket. She had to let go in order to grab my hand. Grappling with my fingers, she struggled to hold on. But she could not get a strong grip.


Finally, she had to let go. Her body slid down the incline toward the lower edge of the flier. Reflexively, I reached for her and was able to grab
her shirt. I pulled her back up and put both her hands on the wood frame beside me.


“Now you hold on!” I yelled at her.


She tried to wrap her little fingers around the wood but she didn’t have the strength to hold on. A moment later she was slipping down again. I watched in horror as her little legs went over the side with the rest of her body following as her arms reached out for me in desperation.


As long as I live I will never forget the look of panic on her sweet young face as she slid off the flier.


I let go and dove down toward her, stretching as far as I could. I reached for her but I couldn’t get there quickly enough. Emily was sliding over the edge. She was going down.