Bea picked herself up from the sidewalk, and brushed the snow off her jeans.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cSo guys, what do you think? I\u2019m going in through the roof,\u201d she said, motioning toward Bob, who was neatly folding his wings into a more settled posture.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt does appear to be anatomically feasible,\u201d said Nola. \u201cHe reminds me a bit of a fruit bat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019d say,\u201d added Michael-Dan, holding up his hands like a T-square and eyeing the pony from the front, then the side, \u201cthat he\u2019s got roughly the dimensions of a Wright glider. It could work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cNo kidding!\u201d said Odin. \u201cHe\u2019s almost a classic ornithopter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhat he hasn\u2019t had,\u201d cautioned Nola, \u201cis any practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBea looked straight into Bob\u2019s eyes, as if to convince him of her plan.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe don\u2019t have time to practice,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd the mice figured it out fast enough. I think it must be one of those natural animal things, like swimming. Besides, who knows what craziness is going on in that building as we speak? I\u2019m going.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tShe felt her way through the furls of feathers on Bob\u2019s back, and pulled herself aboard behind his wings. Then she patted his rump behind her.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOdin, there\u2019s room,\u201d Bea said. \u201cYou come too. Bring your phone. You never know when you might need technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cFor communicating with the outside world, for example,\u201d said Michael-Dan, holding up his own phone.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBeatrix,\u201d said Odin, trying hard to sound reasonable, and not panicked. \u201cThe implications of two passengers on a novice flyer…\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOdin!\u201d Bea insisted. \u201cCome!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOdin hastily stuffed his phone in his pocket, and scrambled astride Bob, behind Bea.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBetter hang on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n\tThen Bea said \u201cyah!\u201d and gave Bob a gentle kick. His first response was to turn his head and eye her peripherally, to see if she really meant it. He was a cart pony after all, not a racehorse.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut after another encouraging prod, he took off down the street at a trot.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cUp! Up! Up!\u201d shouted Bea, nudging Bob to go faster.<\/p>\n
\n\tThey were two blocks south of Bean-Tek headquarters when Bob finally unfurled his wings, and Bea and Odin felt the full force of the power of wind. The thrust of air against Bob\u2019s wings lofted them into a gliding canter with Bob\u2019s hooves rarely clopping against the pavement.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAerodynamically speaking,\u201d said Odin hesitantly, \u201che\u2019ll need to increase velocity to initiate lift-off.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe can beat his wings Odin!\u201d said Bea, drawing back on Bob\u2019s reins until he slowed to a walk. \u201cHe\u2019s not an airplane!\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYou tell him that,\u201d said Odin. \u201cI don\u2019t speak horse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBea eased Bob into a u-turn and urged him to trot, then canter.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cFlap Bob!\u201d encouraged Bea. \u201cFlap!\u201d She waved her own arms up and down for a second, then re-gripped his mane for safety as Bob reached a full gallop, raised his wings straight up in the air, and gave them a mighty flap.<\/p>\n
\n\tBea felt a moment of weightlessness, as if she were in an elevator coming to a stop. Bob had soared up, eased down, then flapped again, gaining even more height.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBea…\u201d began Odin. \u201cBea! That\u2019s the second floor…of a building! That\u2019s…the third floor! Nola and Michael-Dan are…down there!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tOn the ground by the wagon Nola and Michael-Dan were shielding their eyes and gazing up, from two blocks north and five stories below.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cNo kidding!\u201d said Bea. \u201cKeep hanging on!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBy now Bob seemed to have discovered the joy of flight, and Bea had forgotten that she was supposed to be in charge and telling him what to do. They were soaring in swooping arcs down Glummer Place, five or six stories in the air. Bea, whose stomach was doing a flip-flop, had completely lost her orientation to where they\u2019d started. And it didn\u2019t help that snow was still blowing lightly into their faces.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOdin,\u201d she said, \u201cI don\u2019t know where we are at all. I\u2019ve totally lost Nola and Michael-Dan.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt is…a bit of…a disorienting…perspective,\u201d he replied choppily. \u201cMaybe we\u2019d best land…there.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhere?\u201d demanded Bea.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere!\u201d replied Odin. \u201cThat building there, with…the helicopter landing pattern on the roof…the one that says \u2018Bean-Tek!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBea tried to pull herself together as well as anyone could while on a flying pony six stories above ground. She couldn\u2019t afford to lose focus now, no matter what her stomach thought.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cGood plan,\u201d she said. Still, convincing a flying horse to land wasn\u2019t something she\u2019d ever exactly thought through. Just plain whoa<\/em> seemed like a bad idea when you were six stories up.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOkay Bob,\u201d she said calmly, leaning into the pony\u2019s mane as much as she dared shift. \u201cThere…go there!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tBea pointed toward the Bean-Tek roof, hoping Bob would see her gesture and catch on. Instead, he beat his wings with more force and began to soar higher, in a great corkscrew that swiftly carried them at least another two stories above the highest rooftop.<\/p>\n \n\tOdin gripped Bea harder. \u201cSay…something…else!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cBob!\u201d said Bea firmly. \u201cLand Bob, land!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cTHEY HAVE KOO-BARS THERE!\u201d shouted Odin frantically.<\/p>\n \n\tSuddenly Bob stopped mid-corkscrew, high above the Bean-Tek helicopter pad. Bea felt sudden weightlessness, as the g-force of the corkscrew vanished. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWeeee\u2019re…going…doooown…\u201d said Odin.<\/p>\n \n\tBob lifted his wings, then stretched them outward. Like two parachutes unfurling, the muscular wings lifted pony and riders upwards another five feet. Then, slowly, they drifted downward, toward the precise center of the landing pad target.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bea picked herself up from the sidewalk, and brushed the snow off her jeans. \u201cSo guys, what do you think? I\u2019m going in through the roof,\u201d she said, motioning toward Bob, who was neatly folding his wings into a more settled posture. \u201cIt does appear to be anatomically feasible,\u201d said Nola. \u201cHe reminds me a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}