Last Witch Standing (Mountain Witch Saga) Read Free Page B

that temperature drops at higher elevations
and wanted to test it out. So far, they hadn’t found this, but their device was
crude and they probably didn’t fly high enough. Also, as the craft descended
the thermometer would return to ground temperature. Katie was working on a
modification that would capture the temperature at maximum elevation. Dan
couldn’t see how they could do this, but he wasn’t about to bet against his
little sister’s ingenuity.
    “I want to try something new.” Katie held the thermometer
and a roll of electrical tape in her hands. “If we put it up like this.” She
held it vertically for Dan to see. “It may not change so quickly when it lands.
You can land it quickly and I can run and check the temperature before it
changes.”
    “Why do you want to do that, anyway? Who cares what
temperature it is fifty feet up?” Jimmie stood between them, hands on his hips.
“Let’s just fly it. I want to try a barrel roll.”
    “I don’t know if that would work, Katie,” Dan said,
ignoring Jimmie’s comments.
    Katie picked up the plane and started rolling tape around
the fuselage. It started buckling in the center from the tightness.
    “ She’s gonna break it.” Jimmie
pushed Katie away and she stumbled and landed on the pavement.
    Dan hit him. They both stared at each other, then Jimmie
picked himself up and walked away without saying a word, got on his bike and
rode home.
    Dan looked up at the sky. “We’d better go, Katie, it’s
getting late. We will try your idea with the thermometer tomorrow. Promise.”
    Katie picked herself off the ground and wiped the back of
her yellow dress.
    Dan took her hand and they walked home together, him
carrying the toolbox in his left hand, Katie’s hand in his right. She held the
airplane.
     
    ***
    “Eat one more, Katie,” Patricia said at dinner.
    Katie nodded no and pushed the dish away from her and laid
her head on the table.
    “Somebody needs a nap?”
    “I think so,” Katie mumbled, but did not raise her head.
    “Then you’re excused.” Patricia walked her daughter
upstairs and tucked her into bed.
    “Not feeling well, sweetie?” Keith Edwards knelt by her bed
when he returned from work that evening. He put the back of his hand against
her forehead. “A little hot. I think you’re coming down with a cold.”
    “No. I can’t be sick, I have things I want to do,” Katie
whispered.
    “We can’t always choose such things, Katie. You’ll feel
better soon and whatever projects you’re working on will be waiting for you.”
He patted her shoulder and moved her blanket up.
    Downstairs, Dan watched Columbo – a show about an
unassuming detective who solved murder mysteries by intelligence and cunning – the
kind of series his little sister would like when she was old enough to watch it.
    “Is she feeling better?” Dan asked his mother when she came
downstairs.
    “She’s sleeping.”
    “I’m going to make a surprise for her. She wants to hook
the thermometer up to the plane. I think I’m going to get a dowel and hook it
up for her vertically, as she wants.”
    “That would be very nice. It will give her something to
look forward to when she gets better.” Patricia went into the kitchen and Dan
finished watching the show.
    It wasn’t a school night, and he could stay up later and
watch more television, but he went to his room anyway. He wanted to work on the
thermometer for Katie.
    An hour and a half later, tired, but filled with a sense of
accomplishment, Dan Edwards attached the contraption to the P-51. He made a
halter from an old backpack strap with a tripod at the top to fit the dowel in.
Instead of being taped to the side, it would be securely fastened in the center
of the fuselage, towards the front of the plane so balance would not suffer. He
couldn’t wait to show Katie. This would perk her up.
    He put his tools away, turned the lights off, and got into
bed. Tomorrow, early in the morning, he would test the device