Fly to the Rescue Read online

  When it was time for bed, Jake made sure to say good night to his parents downstairs so they wouldn’t find out about the miniature genius in his room. Then he climbed into bed and turned out the light. “Good night, Sir Isaac,” he said in a sleepy voice.

  Click!

  It felt like Jake had only been asleep for a few minutes when a bright light shone in his face. He rolled over and buried his face in the pillow. “Five more minutes, Mom,” he mumbled.

  Click!

  Suddenly, it was dark.

  Click!

  Then light again.

  “Remarkable!” Sir Isaac breathed.

  Jake sat up and rubbed his eyes. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  The light kept flashing—click, click, click. That’s when Jake realized that Sir Isaac had discovered the light switch.

  “The power of the sun, under my command!” Sir Isaac marveled. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” His face shone with glee.

  “It is little wonder that the queen has sent me to this land of mystery,” he continued. “A land where giant children roam, a land where light has been captured and contained. Get up, so that we may begin our investigations!”

  Jake flopped back down on the bed. “It’s okay, Sir Isaac,” he mumbled. “It’s just a light. It will be here in the morning. We can investigate it tomorrow.”

  “One must never hesitate when given the opportunity to uncover the marvels of the universe!” Sir Isaac scolded. “If you must be a lie-abed, so be it, but I shall not rest until I learn the secret to this sorcery!”

  Click!

  Click!

  Click!

  Jake sighed and pulled the blanket over his head. It was going to be a long night.

  When Jake awoke the next morning, he couldn’t tell if the sun was shining in his face—or if Sir Isaac had turned all the lights on. The answer, it turned out, was both. Even after Jake got ready for school, Sir Isaac was squinting his eyes as he stared directly at the blazing bulb.

  “Still obsessed with the light switch, huh?” Jake asked as he searched for his reading log.

  “Look here,” Sir Isaac announced. “From what I can determine, the source of this light is a globular orb of glass with some sort of silver tentacle twirled within it. If only I could examine it up close!”

  “Listen,” Jake began. “I have to go to school, but I have something here that’s just as interesting as that lightbulb. More interesting, even!”

  With a flourish, Jake presented Sir Isaac with his science fair instructions. Sir Isaac barely glanced at them before turning all his attention back to the lightbulb.

  Jake felt that familiar panic mounting in his chest. What’s the point of having an actual genius here if he won’t help me? he wondered.

  Suddenly, inspiration struck. Jake ran to the hall closet and grabbed a brand-new lightbulb, still in the package. Then he dashed back into his room.

  “Here,” he said, offering the lightbulb to Sir Isaac. “You can have this lightbulb.”

  That got Sir Isaac’s attention. When he reached for the bulb, Jake held it just out of his reach.

  “But promise me you’ll look at the science fair instructions—I mean, the queen’s assignment,” Jake said. “I really need your help.”

  “Yes, yes, of course,” Sir Isaac replied impatiently.

  “Great,” Jake said as he placed the lightbulb on the desk. “Now, I have to go to school—”

  “Grammar school?” Sir Isaac said with a loud sniff. “I do pity you. Never could abide the place, myself.”

  “Really?” Jake asked. Could it be true that one of the world’s greatest thinkers disliked school as much as Jake did?

  “Of course!” Sir Isaac said. “I never could determine who was the greater half-wit, my teacher or my fellow students.”

  “I see,” Jake said. Of course Sir Isaac didn’t like school when he was young. He was too smart for his classes. That sounds like a pretty good problem to have, Jake thought wistfully.

  “I’ll be back around four o’clock. Until I get home, you should stay in my room, okay? And whatever you do, keep the door closed,” Jake warned Sir Isaac. So much could go wrong. If Mom worked from her home office—if Flapjack mistook Sir Isaac for a new chew toy—

  But Jake pushed all those worries out of his head as he slid down the banister. After all, Sir Isaac was one of the smartest people of all time. Surely he had enough common sense to look out for himself.

  What could possibly go wrong?

  * * *

  When Jake got home after baseball practice, he was so excited to see what Sir Isaac had accomplished that he bounded up the stairs two at a time.

  But right before he burst into his room, Jake paused. He tapped quietly on the door, then pushed it open.

  “Sir Isaac?” he called in a low voice. “I’m ba—ahhhhh! What have you done to my room?”

  Jake was so stunned that he dropped his backpack. His room had been completely transformed—and not for the better. For starters, Sir Isaac had gotten into the paper clips again. He had strung them together in long, glinting chains that swooped down from the ceiling. Jake realized that Sir Isaac must have gone on some sort of school supplies scavenger hunt throughout the entire house.

  The paper-clip garlands weren’t the only clue that Sir Isaac had ignored Jake’s advice and left the room. A glittering crystal bead hung from each paper clip, filling Jake’s room with thousands of shimmering rainbows. Jake recognized the beads almost immediately: They came from Julia’s favorite sparkly tiara.

  Jake gulped. This is bad, he thought.

  “Greetings, young squire!” Sir Isaac exclaimed from Jake’s desk.

  “We have to take all this stuff down and put Julia’s tiara back together again,” Jake said.

  “Take it down?” Sir Isaac replied. “In case you failed to notice, I am in the midst of an experiment!”

  “For the queen’s assignment?” Jake asked him doubtfully. Was this crazy rainbow-crystal-paper-clip contraption supposed to be the science project Jake would present to the whole school?

  Sir Isaac looked confused. “No, I haven’t had time for that,” he said. “Not when I’m in the midst of splitting beams of light into the spectrum of visible color—”

  “Jake!”

  Julia’s voice was halfway between a shout and a shriek. Too late, Jake realized that he’d accidentally left the bedroom door wide open.

  And Julia, in the doorway, had just discovered what had happened to her favorite tiara.

  “What did you do?” she screeched.

  “Shhh!” Jake panicked. “Don’t tell—”

  “MOM!” she screamed.

  “Work it out, you two.” Mom’s voice floated up the stairs.

  Jake grabbed Julia’s hand and yanked her into his room, then shut the door behind them.

  “What did you do to my tiara?” Julia said as her cheeks turned bright red. “You wrecked it!”

  “Please, Julia,” begged Jake. “You can’t tell Mom or Dad or—or—or anyone! I swear, it wasn’t me!”

  Julia’s eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth to yell for Mom again.

  Jake had no choice but to tell her everything. “It was him,” he said, pointing at the tiny genius on his desk.

  “Him?” Julia asked. “One of your dolls from Aunt Margaret?”

  “A doll?” sniffed Sir Isaac. “Young lady, I am Sir Isaac Newton, Fellow of Trinity College at Cambridge University and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, president of the Royal Society of London, and member of Parliament.”

  Julia looked suspicious. “It talks?” she asked. “I didn’t know it had batteries.”

  “No batteries,” Jake said. “He’s—well—he’s alive.”

  The expression on Julia’s face shifted like a kaleidoscope, going from anger to shock to disbelief to, at last, wonder. “I want it!” she said. “Trade?”

  “No way,” Jake replied, shaking his head.

 
; Julia’s lower lip stuck out in a pout. “But it was my favorite-best tiara,” she said in a small voice.

  “Don’t cry,” Jake said. “I’ll—I’ll save my allowance and buy you a new tiara. How about that?”

  Julia shook her head as a single tear slipped down her face. “I want him,” she said firmly.

  “No,” Jake said, louder than he meant. “He stays in my room.”

  Julia’s lip quivered.

  “But you can play with him whenever you want,” Jake quickly added. “Okay?”

  Julia grinned. Then, suddenly, she ducked into the hall. A few moments later, Jake heard a loud thunk—thunk—thunk. He peeked out of his room to see Julia dragging her dollhouse toward his bedroom.

  “What are you doing?” Jake asked.

  “Mr. Newton can live in my dollhouse,” Julia said. “It’s just his size.”

  “Absolutely not,” Jake began. But before he could finish his sentence, Sir Isaac’s face lit up.

  “Splendid!” he exclaimed as he examined the bright-pink dollhouse, which had three stories, working lights, and a doorbell that played “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider.” “These accommodations are grander than I ever anticipated, and I thank you, kind miss.”

  “You’re welcome!” Julia replied as she hoisted the dollhouse onto Jake’s desk—dropping it right on the science fair instructions. “Would you like some tea?”

  “Why, yes, I believe a cup of tea would be just the thing,” Newton replied.

  Jake stifled the urge to groan as he buried his head in his hands. From the twinkling crystals to the shimmering rainbows to the doll-sized mansion, he barely even recognized his room anymore!

  The next day, things got even worse. When Jake got home from school, he discovered his favorite baseball glove in tatters.

  “Sir Isaac!” Jake howled. “What have you done?”

  Sir Isaac popped his head out from under the lampshade. He was wearing a protective leather smock that looked awfully familiar. It was made out of Jake’s glove!

  “You’re back,” Sir Isaac said.

  “That was my best glove,” Jake said. “Why did you wreck it?”

  “Safety first,” Sir Isaac said, gesturing to his smock. “The temperature cast from the bulb is exceedingly hot. Now I will be protected from the heat.”

  “That’s wonderful,” Jake said sarcastically. “I’m glad you have so much time to spend with a lightbulb.”

  “As am I!” Sir Isaac agreed. “Now, boy, I have an important task for you.”

  “For the queen’s assignment?” Jake asked hopefully.

  “Oh, no,” Sir Isaac said with a wave of his hand. From the pocket of his protective smock, he pulled a miniature scroll of paper. “I am in need of some additional materials for the next stage of my investigations.”

  Jake pinched the tiny list between his thumb and forefinger and squinted as he tried to read it. “Calipers? Scales? Sealing wax?” he read. “I don’t know what half of these things do.”

  “You don’t have to know what they do,” Sir Isaac said. “You just have to fetch them.”

  “I’m not getting you anything else until you at least look at these instructions!” Jake said. He walked out of his room, slamming the door behind him. The science fair was in a couple of days, and Jake was even further behind than when he’d first wished for help. Jake wandered into the kitchen, where Dad was starting to cook dinner.

  “Hey, champ,” Dad said. “What’s up?”

  “Just getting a snack,” Jake replied glumly as he took an apple out of the fruit bowl.

  “How’s that science project going?” Dad asked.

  Jake forced himself to smile. “Good,” he said—a little too quickly. “It’s, uh, pretty interesting stuff.”

  “Fantastic!” Dad said. “I’d love to take a look. After dinner, do you want to show me what you’ve done so far?”

  “No!” Jake yelped. “I want it to be a surprise.”

  “I see,” Dad said, nodding. “Sounds very exciting! Maybe I’ll see if Aunt Margaret can come.”

  “She’s probably too busy,” Jake said right away. “It’s just the fourth-grade science fair.”

  “Your aunt always loved the science fair when she was growing up,” Dad said. “I’ll email her later to see if she has time. I bet she’d get a kick out of coming back to the Franklin Elementary School science fair.”

  “Great,” Jake said weakly. Sir Isaac has to help me, Jake thought. He took a big bite of his apple as he trudged back upstairs. But at the top of the stairs, Jake paused. He sniffed the air. What was that strange smell?

  Oh no, Jake thought in a panic as he raced to his room. Flapjack was scratching at the door, whining anxiously. Now Jake was sure that something was seriously wrong—and it was all his fault for leaving Sir Isaac alone!

  Jake burst into his room and looked around. Everything seemed fine. Julia was calmly hanging toilet-paper curtains in the dollhouse.

  “Julia,” Jake said urgently, “what is that smell?”

  “I think it’s Sir Isaac’s experiment,” she replied without looking up.

  Jake glanced over at the lamp next to his bed, where Sir Isaac was holding a bright-red crayon right next to the lightbulb. The crayon sizzled as it started to melt from the white-hot bulb, leaving a shiny red patch of molten wax on Jake’s desk.

  “My dear girl, would you bring me the blue one?” Sir Isaac asked Julia.

  Jake crossed the room and yanked the crayon out of Sir Isaac’s hands. “Do you guys have any idea how dangerous this is?” he yelled.

  “The only thing to fear is ignorance.” Sir Isaac sniffed. “If the greatest discoveries must be born of the greatest danger, so be it.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Jake muttered. “You’re not about to be grounded for all eternity. Won’t you please look at these instructions with me? I really need some help—” Jake waved the instructions, which he’d retrieved earlier from under the dollhouse.

  “My mind will not be quieted until I have discovered all the secrets of the spectrum,” Sir Isaac declared.

  Jake took a deep breath—and a huge bite of his apple. Crunch! Flecks of apple sprayed across his desk. A look of disgust crossed Sir Isaac’s face as he brushed a piece of apple off his leather smock. But when Sir Isaac realized what Jake was eating, his expression shifted to panic.

  “Good heavens, boy, what’s wrong with you?” Sir Isaac exclaimed, scrambling backward across Jake’s desk. “Take care with that thing!”

  “It’s just an apple,” Jake said.

  “It’s an apple the size of a haystack!” Sir Isaac shouted back. “An apple that size could kill a man if it fell on him!”

  Those words sparked something in Jake’s memory. “That’s how you discovered gravity, isn’t it?” he asked. “You were in an orchard or something, and an apple fell on your head and you wondered—why?”

  Sir Isaac’s shoulders stiffened. “You’ve got it half right,” he said. “But the apple didn’t fall on my head. I saw one fall from the tree outside my bedroom window and wanted to know why apples—or anything else, for that matter—fall in just one direction. Nothing falls sideways, you know, or upwards. They always fall down.”

  “That’s amazing,” Jake said. “I mean, that’s one of the greatest discoveries ever … and it came from something so ordinary.”

  “The world is full of wondrous miracles—for those who want to see them,” Sir Isaac replied. “Now, I’d thank you to dispose of that apple.”

  “Throw away my apple?” Jake asked. “No. I’m going to finish eating it. This is my room, after all.”

  In an angry huff, Sir Isaac pulled off his smock and threw it down. “You can solve your own scientific inquiries, then!” he snapped.

  “No!” Jake exclaimed. “Wait—”

  But Sir Isaac had already stalked off to the dollhouse and pulled the toilet-paper curtains closed with a whoosh.

  “Arrrgghhh!” Jake groaned. A genius-level tantrum was t
he last thing he needed.

  “You weren’t very nice,” Julia told him.

  “He’s the one who’s not very nice!” Jake protested. “All he’s done since he got here is insult me and order me around! Why are you taking his side anyway?”

  “He told me I could be his helper!” Julia said.

  “But he was supposed to be my helper!” Jake exclaimed. Then he shook his head. “Forget it. Obviously, I’m on my own. If only …”

  “What?” asked Julia.

  “Nothing.” Jake sighed. “I just wish I had a different helper.”

  POP!

  Jake dashed across the room, waving his arms wildly through the thick cloud of smoke. As the air began to clear, he saw movement among the sparks that were still glittering on his desk. A small woman, no bigger than three inches tall, pulled herself to her feet and dusted off her leather coat.

  “Now that was a bumpy landing,” she said, peering through a pair of goggles that was strapped to her face. “Must’ve been ejected on impact. Where’s the Canary?”

  Julia squealed with delight. “You brought your pet?” she cried.

  The woman chuckled. “I suppose you could say that,” she replied. “The Canary is my airplane. Bright yellow, she practically named herself. Any sign of her?”

  I don’t think you traveled here by plane, Jake thought. But what he said was: “Wait a second. Who are you, exactly?”

  The woman crossed his desk with long strides and held out her hand. “I’m Amelia Earhart,” she declared.

  “The famous pilot,” Jake realized as his mouth dropped open. He carefully took hold of her tiny hand to shake it. “I’m Jake Everdale. This is my sister, Julia.”

  “A pleasure to meet you both,” Miss Earhart said. She swept her long white scarf over her shoulder.

  Jake wracked his brain, trying to remember everything he’d heard about Amelia Earhart before. Her daring sense of adventure had led her to become one of the first woman pilots. She’d set lots of new records and broken several others. But something had gone terribly wrong on her final flight. Miss Earhart—and her plane—had vanished without a trace.