feeling.

He’d wanted to be part of a family for so long and this was what he got? A father who ignored him, a fussy, overbearing mother, and a hyperactive little sister who kept interrupting him.

How many nights had he prayed that they would become a real family? That Rebecca and Molly would stay with him and Baloo forever? That Baloo and Rebecca would get married so he could have a mother and father like a regular kid?

He’d only had a family for one day, and already they were driving him crazy. Maybe having a family wasn’t going to be all he had hoped it would be.

Kit returned his watch to his pocket and swiftly swiped the back of his hand across his eyes.

A Half Hour Later

At long last, Limbo’s Long-Lasting Liniment was loaded in the seaplane, ready to be delivered to the hospital in Lumbago. Kit sat in the navigator’s seat, waiting impatiently as Baloo and Rebecca lingered over their goodbyes. They stood on the dock, locked in each other’s embrace.

“I love you,” Rebecca murmured dreamily.

“I love you more.”

“No, I love you more.”

“Ilove you more.”

Kit gritted his teeth. Any other time, his parents’ lovey-dovey dialogue would have seemed almost cute. But not this morning.

He felt ready to jump out of his skin with impatience when Baloo finally climbed into the cockpit. After he started up the engines, the pilot blew kisses to Rebecca through the open window.

Molly, who stood on the dock beside Rebecca, grinned and waved at Kit. “Bye, big brother!”

Kit gave her a curt wave.

Let’s just go already!

Kit was relieved when the Sea Duck taxied away from the dock, away from Higher for Hire, away from Rebecca and Molly, and took off.

Three Hours Later

Kit peered out the window at the dull grey clouds crowding around the Sea Duck, engulfing it in gloom. In addition to the purr of the twin Superflight engines, his ears were filled with the roar of a strong southernly wind.

Because of the gale threatening to blow them off course and because he’d never been to Lumbago before, the young navigator had to keep on top of their position, or they’d get lost.

To his consternation, he had had to mention the course corrections several times before it penetrated Baloo’s thick skull. Because of that and the wind, they were a trifle off-course and a little behind schedule.

We could wind up in Watoosi and he wouldn’t even care, Kit thought bitterly.

Baloo, humming as he flew, was completely oblivious to Kit’s scowl as well as the grey weather around them. From where he was, the sun was shining all over.

“Five degrees south,” Kit said clearly and precisely, pitching his voice above the combined noise of engines and wind.

After a few moments, Baloo awoke from his pleasant daydream. “Huh? You say somethin’, kid?”

Kit sighed with exasperation. “It’s just our course correction, that’s all. No big deal.”

Incognizant of Kit’s sarcastic tone, Baloo said jovially, “Give it to me again, Li’l Britches. Ol’ Papa Bear’s all ears.”

Once again, Kit gave him the coordinates, and Baloo turned the plane accordingly.

“Ya know, I think I married the best gal on earth.”

Here we go again, Kit thought, fixing his eyes out the starboard window. All Baloo had done on this trip was sing Rebecca’s praises, and, frankly, he wasn’t in the mood to hear it again; but, being in a plane ten thousand feet in the air, he had no choice.

Kit propped his chin in his hand and sighed.

Baloo chuckled, “Another sigh like that an’ you’ll blow us off course.”

“What do you care?” Kit mumbled under his breath. He savagely gouged a hole in the map with his sextant.

Baloo wiggled a finger in his ear. “How’s that, kid?”

“Isaid,” Kit snapped, “what do you care if we’re off course or not?”

Baffled by Kit’s outburst, Baloo was truly taken aback. He thought that everyone was as happy as he was. He looked at Kit as if he hadn’t seen him in a long time. “I care.”

“Sure you do - about Rebecca.” Kit glared out the window, refusing to meet Baloo’s eyes.

Baloo, confused and alarmed at his son’s behavior, said, “Wait a doggone minute! I care ‘bout you an’ Molly, too. I adopted ya, didn’t I?”

Kit, his mood as dark as the clouds outside, said frostily, “It was better before you adopted us.”

“Now you’re plumb not makin’ sense!”

“Oh, like you make sense all the time?” Kit scoffed. He met Baloo’s eyes with the most defiant scowl the big bear had ever seen from his son.

Baloo recoiled. He was deeply pained to think that Kit hated him and the return of the tough-guy routine confused him. Tentatively, he ventured, “I thought you wanted me an’ Becky to get married. I thought ya liked her.”

“I did...I do.” Kit waved dismissively and returned to staring out the window. “Aw, you’ll never understand.”

“C’mon, Kit, don’t be like that.” Baloo put a gentle paw on the boy’s shoulder.

Kit shrugged him off and scooted to far side of the seat.

Rubbing the back of his neck, a very hurt, concerned, bewildered Baloo gazed at his son. He was failing his first day of fatherhood and he didn’t know why. For lack of anything better to say, he asked, “What time ya got? Don’t wanna be late.”

“That’s a first,” Kit said sardonically. He pulled out his new pocket watch and checked the time. “It’s 9:45.”

“You sure about that?” Baloo squinted at the sun that had just broke through a gap the clouds, bathing the seaplane in its warm glow. “Mr. Sun’s tellin’ me it’s closer to noon.”

Before he could retort, “I know how to tell time!” Kit held the watch to his ear. It wasn’t ticking. He murmured under his breath, “I guess Buzz didn’t fix it after all.”

“Buzz? What about Buzz?”

“Broke,” Kit said quickly. He wasn’t in the mood to explain why he went to see Buzz the night before. “My watch is broken.”

“Already?It’s brand-spankin’ new.” Baloo snatched the timepiece and shook it. When the watch didn’t even try to tick, he said, “So much for authentic Swizz craftsmanship. Maybe we shoulda got ya that knife after all.”

Frowning, Kit retrieved his watch and carefully looked it over. Seeing that the knob on the side wasn’t pushed in, he murmured to himself, “So that’s the problem.” He set the hands to twelve o’clock, then, he pushed in the knob.

With a jarring jerk, a blinding flash of light, and a thundering boom, the Sea Duck disappeared.

End of part 3

No Time Like the Present
part 4

The Sea Duck
Time and Place Unknown

When Kit and Baloo, their heads reeling, had blinked the spots from their eyes, they could see that instead of ocean, strange vegetation flashed beneath them. The Sea Duck was soaring over what seemed to be a primordial forest. Off in the distance were several volcanoes, belching spurts of lava.

“When did we hit the jungle?” Baloo said, bewildered.

“Look out!” Kit yelled as a pterodactyl with a wingspan as wide as theSea Duck swooped towards them.

Baloo dove sharply to avoid it, putting them on a collision course with a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

“Aah!” Kit yelped, digging his fingers into the armrests. “Port! Port!”

“Don’t hafta tell me twice.” Baloo jerked the seaplane to the left, barely missing the dinosaur’s snapping mouth full of razor-sharp teeth by inches.

TheSea Duck swooped up again until it was skimming high over the tree canopy, out of the reach of any hungry dinosaurs who might want to sink their teeth into it.

Baloo swiped his arm across his brow. “I think we took a wrong turn somewheres.”

“Yeah,” Kit panted, keeping his eyes peeled for more large, man-eating reptiles.

“Well, you’re my navigator, Kit. Where are we?”

“I’m not sure,” Kit murmured, instinctively knowing that this jungle wasn’t on any known map. He pondered as to how they could have gotten to the prehistoric age. As far as he knew, neither he nor Baloo did anything unusual before the bright flash and loud noise. One thing was for certain: it couldn’t have been done by pirates with mirrors, because the jungle and dinosaurs were far too elaborate for even Don Karnage and his thieving gang. He recalled the events leading up to their being in the jungle. He and Baloo were arguing, he adjusted his watch, and... “My watch!”

“Your watch?” Baloo glanced at the pocket watch in his son’s hands. It looked like an ordinary watch to him. “What about your watch?”

Kit briefly filled him in about the watch breaking and his late-night excursion to Khan Towers. “I think Buzz fixed my watch toowell. Maybe even turned it into a time travel device.”

“Time travel?” Baloo chuckled. “You’ve been readin’ too many comic books. Everyone knows time travel ain’t possible.”

“Isthat possible?” Kit said, his voice cracking as he pointed to the pterodactyl that was playing a game of air chicken with theSea Duck.

Flustered, Baloo stammered, “Well...I...you...” As the screeching pterodactyl, flying at ramming speed, drew closer and closer, he said through gritted teeth, “You’ve got some major explainin’ to do, kid.”

“Can we get out of here first?” Kit randomly turned the watch’s hands forward and punched in the knob.

Once again, the Sea Duck bucked and

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