Chapter Two
Fortunately for Edward, nobody had seen him stealing the bread. So the rest of the day was spent pretty much as usual. At the orphanage all the children had to go to bed early since power for electricity was expensive and lights were switched off. Usually Edward fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow, but tonight he couldn’t sleep. He kept tossing and turning trying to fall asleep until the boy sharing the bed with him woke up.
“What is wrong, Edward? Are you sick?”
“No, I just can’t fall asleep tonight.”
“You must be hungry. Go and drink some water. That might make you fall asleep.”
“Okay, I will do that” carefully Edward climbed down from the bed and went to the next room where there was a water tap. His friend settled back in to sleep once more.
After drinking some water Edward felt reluctant to return to his bed. He was still not sleepy and his tossing and turning would only disturb his friend. So instead he stood near the window staring out watching a moving light far away in the sky. He guessed it to be a flying machine of some sort; it was too dark to see anything other than the moving light. The thought that his friend Lieutenant Oscar would be flying out of his life in just a few hours was not something he wanted to dwell on, but he couldn’t push it to the back of his mind. How was he going to survive in this unfriendly city without his friend, the one thing he loved about his current life?
Later he realized it was the moving light which gave him the idea. Supposing he could fly to Orleanais and join his father just as Oscar would join his son tomorrow! But he needed a flying machine to get to Orleanais and the second flyer parked next to the one Oscar was flying, immediately came to his mind. Supposing he could manage to take that flyer and go to find his father!
The very thought made the world spin madly around him. He thought the excitement would kill him. Then he began to realize the practical difficulties. First, he didn’t know how to fly the flyer. Secondly, he didn’t know how to get to Orleanais and worst of all; he didn’t know how he could steal the flyer. A grey disappointment filled his mind and he felt like crying in spite of being a brave little lad who never cried.
He wiped the tears from his eyes and decided he didn’t care how great the practical difficulties were. Once the thought of flying to Orleanais had crept into his mind, Edward couldn’t get rid of it. He settled down on the window sill and stared out at the star filled sky, his brain working furiously. Every little moving light in the sky reminded him that Orleanais was within flying distance to him. His determined chin jutting out, he promised himself he would find a way to go to his father.
Edward quietly collected his few clothes and pitiful collection of little knick knacks he had in this world to call his own. He did not possess any kind of bag since he never went anywhere. Finding an old t-shirt discarded on the floor, he wrapped them up into a little parcel he could carry. He moved stealthily among the sleeping children because he didn’t want to wake anyone. He would have liked to have bid his special cronies good bye, but he didn’t dare to make any noise. Besides what if they tried to stop him or wanted to join him? With almost a grown up sense of realization, Edward knew even if he succeeded in stealing the flyer, he could be facing death in this daring venture. He didn’t want anyone else to risk their lives with him.
The doors were all locked at night and the matron of the orphanage kept the keys in her room. A long time back the orphans had found their own way of getting out of the building without permission. If the staff knew of their secret, which was doubtful, it was never reported to the matron. The orphans climbed up to the little attic on the top story of the building and climbed out from the window on to the large tree with spreading branches almost touching the window sill. It was a matter of few minutes for the boys to climb down the tree to the ground.
Very soon Edward was on the road outside the orphanage. He knew he had to make sure that nobody followed him or tried to join him in his adventure. No adult out so late at night would even notice him. Most of them would be drunk, others absorbed in their own pursuits. He knew it would be the street boys who would notice him. But then it was not for nothing that he had been prowling the streets of New York for so long. He knew all the places where the street boys would stay at night.
Carefully avoiding the places frequented by the street boys, he took a somewhat circuitous route and at long last reached the camp. He did not really have a plan to get into the camp, but luck was with him. A soldier who knew him well was guarding the little gate the senior officers used. Edward immediately thought of a plan to get in and walked up to the gate boldly.
“Who is this?” the soldier armed with his laser gun called out. The gate was built in such a way; it looked like part of the high fence. Only a person who knew where it was could find it in the dark. Tonight, except for an eerie moonlight, there were no lights outside the camp. Inside, there were the usual guard lights burning.
“Jenks, its Edward.”
“Edward? What are you doing here so late at night?” the soldier sounded amazed.
“Jenks, Lieutenant Oscar is leaving to go back to France at dawn. I have to see him before he goes!”
“Are you crazy, Edward? I can’t call the Lieutenant here at this time.”
“Of course you can’t. He will not have the time to come here anyway, he told me he had a lot of work left to finish before he went and will be working all night long. Can’t you let me in so that I can speak to him?”
“Of course not, you know I can’t. Nobody is allowed in the camp at night.”
“Well, you can take me to him then, can’t you?”
“Edward, I can’t leave this gate at night. I am only supposed to leave this gate at seven o’clock in the morning.”
“I really have to meet Lieutenant Oscar, Jenks. He is like my father to me and he is leaving me forever. I brought a gift to give him. See!” he lifted up the parcel in his hands and showed the young soldier.
Like everyone else at the camp, Jenks too knew Edward’s story and also how close the child and the lieutenant were. He was in a quandary as he couldn’t leave the gate to take the gift to the lieutenant. He knew Oscar was flying off at six o’clock and he didn’t dare to leave the gate before seven o’clock. At the same time he felt that if Edward was not allowed to take his gift to the lieutenant, the child would be bitterly hurt. He was already hurt and upset that the lieutenant was leaving the camp. Jenks was too kind hearted to hurt the child any more.
“Edward, I will most probably be sent home if I get caught for letting you come in, but you are a good boy and you are not usually up to mischief. I know you must be sad at losing the lieutenant, so I am going to let you in, see that you hand over the gift to the lieutenant and come back at once. Otherwise I will sound the alarm, so that you can be found and brought back”
“Ooh, thank you so much Jenks! This means so much to me, being able to see the lieutenant once more before he leaves. I will always be grateful to you for this!”
“Go ahead, Edward! Grateful indeed! I suppose you will feed me when I lose my job!” But the soldier opened the gate and let the boy in, locking it securely again after he was in.
Edward waited until he finished locking the gate to assume a wheedling tone and say,” Jenks, if the lieutenant allows me to help him pack or anything, I can stay to help, can’t I? It would be so nice if I can stay with him until he leaves.”
“What more do you want? Shall I ask them to serve you breakfast as well?” the sarcastic tone didn’t scare Edward. He knew Jenks was too kind hearted to not let him stay if the lieutenant allowed him to.
“If the lieutenant has finished packing and is sleeping, I won’t disturb him. I will sit at his back door and wait for him to wake up. As soon as he leaves I will leave the camp Jenks.”
“Ok, ok, just be very careful that nobody sees you. I am going to totally deny that I opened the gate to you, so don’t you get me into trouble if you get caught.”
“I won’t get caught and I will not mention your name. I will tell them I climbed up the fence!”
“Climbed up the fence! The alarm would have gone off and all the camp would be up then!”
“Don’t worry, I won’t get caught.” Repeated Edward as he left Jenks and walked stealthily through the camp.
He did not go near the lieutenant’s chalet. Instead he walked close to the runway where the two flyers were parked one behind the other. There was no one in the area since this was right inside the camp, and the fence round the camp was guarded well, making it impractical for interior guard points. A pale pink light was slowly streaking the eastern sky, so Edward knew dawn couldn’t be too far away. If he was going to steal the second flyer, now was the time. Since it was parked behind the one the lieutenant was taking off in, Edward felt that there were no travelling plans for the second machine yet. Lying full length on the ground, he started creeping towards the second flyer, his parcel clutched in one hand. He moved forward inch by inch hoping nobody would come to that area.
With a sigh of relief, he came close to the large wheels of the machine without being observed. Moving his head he checked to see whether any one was about yet. But the camp was very quiet, the officers fast asleep. Edward slowly stood up making sure he was standing within the shadow of the craft. Then taking the plunge, he went towards the driver’s door and tried to open it, praying that it would not be locked. To his greatest joy and relief, it opened noiselessly. Edward quickly climbed in and closed the door. He had watched how Oscar had secured the doors once they were inside in the other craft. He didn’t want anyone trying to open the doors of this flyer from outside until he was gone, so he secured both doors from inside. After that, he crept between the two sets of seats in the craft and laid himself on the ground, hidden from anybody walking past the machine.
Edward really couldn’t believe he had made it this far without a hitch. For the first time since he started on his adventure he began to hope that he just might be able to steal the craft and start on his journey to Orleanais.
He carefully watched the eastern sky from his position on the floor of the flyer to time his next move. With the doors fully secured, he could not hear any outside sound from where he was. Oscar had earlier explained to him how the air vents worked in the machine. The machine had a built in air recycling system, so that inside the machine, the air always remained fresh when flying. He studied the panel of buttons carefully from where he was lying. He remembered exactly how Oscar had flown the other machine.
When the streaks of pink light in the eastern sky turned red, Edward slowly sat up and looked around. There was movement around him now. He could see the tops of a few heads as they walked towards the machine in front of him. Soon they were packing various bags into the machine. Edward realized the lieutenant’s personal belongings were being placed in the flyer.
Yesterday, Edward had seen how the lieutenant set the path for the machine to travel. He had to just pick a route on the computer screen pressing a button. This part was tricky since Edward could not set the path until he started the machine. And he couldn’t start his flyer until the lieutenant started his, otherwise the noise could warn someone.
Then right in front of him, he saw the lieutenant approaching his machine. For a moment he wondered whether he would ever meet the lieutenant again and if he did, whether he will ever be forgiven for what he was trying to do. Bleakly, he bid the lieutenant a silent farewell.
The other officers who had come to wave off the lieutenant started moving away. As all eyes were turned towards the other flyer, Edward took a chance and sat at the controls of his flyer. He could see a little dust cloud at the back of the other flyer now, so taking all his courage in his hands, he started his flyer. As the computer screen came on, he set a random path as he really did not know how to set the path to Orleanais even if he had had sufficient time to do it.
He sensed rather than saw the excitement of the officers on the ground when the second flyer started. Luckily for Edward, Oscar, unaware of what was happening behind him started his ride along the short runway. Edward immediately followed him, praying he would take off without stopping.
Oscar did spot the craft following him as he reached the end of the runway, but he had no option but to take off since stopping would only cause a collision. Edward followed him miraculously without any trouble.
Pandemonium broke out in the camp at the same time. Alarms started going off all over the camp. Officers and soldiers ran towards their aircraft as fast as they could.
But Edward had luck on his side. The new flyer was famous for its speed and everyone knew that they could never hope to catch it. Only Oscar would have been able to do anything to stop the second flyer as his machine could fly as fast. But he and Edward had set very divergent paths and the two crafts flew out in two entirely different directions. So it was impossible for Oscar to turn back soon enough to catch up with the other flyer.
The boy’s luck held. The stunned radar operators of the camp watched two very fast flyers disappearing from their screens, one on a pre-approved path. The other, nobody knew where. Once Edward passed beyond the atmosphere they knew they could not hope to catch him. Who had stolen the craft and how had he done it? The camp commander vowed there would be no rest for anyone until everything was found out.
But Edward, flying through the unknown, not knowing what would happen next, still felt exhilarated that his plan had worked and that he was at long last on his way to find his father.