bucked and reared as a bright flash filled Baloo and Kit’s eyes and a thunderous roar filled their ears.

A split second later, the pterodactyl and the jungle were ancient history, but that didn’t mean that they were safe.

Instead of a pterodactyl, there was a silver car-sized thing coming right towards them. The driver of the approaching vehicle, a wild-eyed man with bushy white hair, frantically honked and stuck his head out the window, waving and shouting.

Sharply yanking back on the stick to get out of the way, Baloo cried, “First dinosaurs, now spaceships?”

Pressing his nose to the window, Kit peered out. They were flying above a city, but it was unlike any city he’d ever seen. Suspended in the air above the metropolis were lights resembling that of a runway and traversing these lighted pathways were all sorts of flying objects that looked like the spaceships in his Space Riders comics.

Wide-eyed, a baffled Baloo looked over at Kit. “Okay, ya convinced me, kid. That watch is dangerous with a capital ‘danger’. I’m gonna hafta have a talk with Buzz when we get back.”

“Ifwe get back. I think I took us too far forward in time this time.” Kit carefully turned the watch’s hands backwards a few hours. “Here goes,” he said, clicking the knob into place.

The pilot and navigator, being prepared for the boom and bright flash, squeezed their eyes shut.

When they dared to open their eyes, they found themselves in the middle of a blizzard. Because of the howling winds and blinding, driving snow, they couldn’t see anything save a solid wall of white. If not for the Googleschlocker gyrocompass, they wouldn’t have known which way was up.

“Whoa! Talk about a cold snap!” Baloo exclaimed, every muscle in his body straining to hold the Sea Duck steady. “This is worse’n springtime in Thembria. Get us outta here, Kit!”

“But I don’t know how to work this thing!” Kit yelled over the roar of the wind. “We could end up someplace worse!”

Although Baloo couldn’t see out the windows, he was aware from the drag that ice was amassing on the wings and propellers. His suspicions were unfortunately confirmed when the Sea Duck went into a spin. Engine number one had frozen solid. Before he had time to correct the spin, engine number two froze, causing the seaplane to stop spinning and began dropping like a rock.

Watching the altimeter plummet faster than the temperature, Baloo nervously wiped at the sweat freezing on his brow and shouted, “It don’t get worse than this! In about two seconds, the Duck’ll turn into a gigantic frozen popsicle, not to mention us! Do somethin’! Anything!”

Kit set the watch hands forward one hour. “Here goes everything,” he muttered. Cringing, he punched in the knob.

Boom!and the bright flash.

To their relief, the snowstorm disappeared. Left in its place was the eerie silence of a double engine stall.

“Start the engines, Baloo! Start the engines!”

“No dice! They’re frozen solider than a Thembrian icebox.” Baloo pitched the nose forward to correct the stall and to keep them from going into a spin.

“Just like everything else,” Kit muttered. Because the windshield and side windows were covered with a thick, opaque ice, they couldn’t ascertain their position. He prayed that there was nothing to run into up ahead like a mountain. After failing to get the frozen window to roll down, the young navigator frantically tried to defrost a spot on the windshield by rubbing at the glass with his palm.

“Where are we, Britches? What’s our heading?” Baloo said, panicked.

“I’m working on it.” As he rubbed at the window, adrenaline coursed through his veins. But it was no use. The ice was too thick to melt with only the heat from his cold hands. In desperation, he tried the door handle, but the door was frozen shut, too.

Baloo ran his eyes over the control panel. He didn’t like what he saw. With the combined weight of the cargo and ice, they were dropping like a rock. He tried the engines one more time, but they wouldn’t start. “Kit!”

“I know. I know!” Loathe as he was to harm the Sea Duck, it appeared that he had no choice. Picking up the flashlight, he started whacking it against the side window. “Come on,” he said through clenched teeth as he aimed one powerful blow after another at the glass.

Finally, a baseball-sized portion of the window shattered. Kit poked the glass pieces outside with the end of the flashlight, allowing a gust of warm air into the cockpit. The boy peered through the hole. “We’re over a forest,” he said in relief. “No mountains or buildings or other obstacles in sight. And there’s a clearing!” He checked his compass. “Turn to one-four-oh degrees, quick!”

“C’mon, baby,” Baloo said, wrenching the steering yoke to the right.

Kit instructed, “Bank her in at 15 degrees. Now back 2 degrees. Uh-oh! Here comes the trees!” He flew back in his seat and buckled his seatbelt.

“Hang onto your kneecaps,” Baloo murmured, gritting his teeth.

Pilot and navigator braced themselves as the underside of the Sea Duck’sfuselage grazed the tops of the trees, causing the plane to rock violently. They heard the horrible splintering of branches and the high-pitched squeal of wood scraping against metal.

“Whoa!” both yelled as the ice sheath covering the windshield blew off in one large chunk and shattered as it bounced over the top of the plane, allowing them to see the whirlwind of leaves and branches whizzing past them.

For a wonder, the landing gear deployed, and when the wheels touched turf, Baloo stomped on the brakes, causing the plane to fishtail. The trees at the edge of the clearing were coming up fast.

"We're runnin' outta runway!"

“Papa Bear!” Kit shouted, squeezing his eyes shut. He felt the plane swing wildly to the right, then back to the left, then the searing pain of his seatbelt squeezing against his midriff when it shuddered to a stop.

“You okay, Li’l Britches?” Baloo gasped, prying his aching fingers from the control yoke.

Kit slowly opened his eyes. Exhaling with relief, he said wearily, “Yeah. You?”

“Been better.”

For a few moments, they sat in stunned silence, staring at the green leaves pressed against the windshield and listening to the ice chunks sliding off the Sea Duck. The glimpses out the side windows told them that they were ringed in by forest on all sides. It seemed to be a warm, peaceful place.

“I wonder where we are,” Kit mused, glancing at watch in his hand. “I wonder when we are.”

Frustrated, Baloo pounded his fist against the control yoke. “Doggone it! If we don’t make it home by supper, Becky’ll worry.”

The scowl returned to Kit’s face. “Becky, Becky, Becky. Is that allyou ever think about?” He unbuckled his seatbelt and turned the door handle, but the door wouldn’t budge. With a swift, angry kick, the half-frozen door flew open, allowing him to jump out.

“Hey, where do you think you’re goin’?” Baloo shouted, fumbling with his seatbelt. “Kit! Hey, Kit! Li’l Britches!”

Ignoring Baloo, Kit kept walking into the woods. He had to get away from Baloo and his everlasting prating about Becky. When he had gone a few hundred yards, he sat down on a mossy log, his back to the Sea Duck.

“Miles,years, away from home, we don’t know where we are, and the only thing he thinks about is Rebecca.”

Kit recalled the first day that he had known Baloo. He had stormed off then too, mad that Baloo cared more for the Sea Duck than him. That time, Baloo proved that Kit meant more by sacrificing the gorilla birds to save him from the air pirates. But the Sea Duckwas just a thing, a machine. Rebecca was a warm, loving, intelligent person - and Baloo’s wife.

He stared at his innocuous-looking pocket watch, still clutched tightly in his hand. It was ticking away steadily.

I wish I knew how this thing works...

Kit jumped when he heard a twig snap behind him. Seeing Baloo, he resolutely turned his back to the approaching pilot, snapped the watch’s cover shut, and slipped it beneath his sweater.

“There ya are, kid,” Baloo said, relief evident in his voice.

Without turning, Kit said sarcastically, “Oh, so you wanna talk to me now?”

Baloo sat down gingerly on the log, causing it to sag and creak ominously. Kit scooted towards the end.

“You know better than to go runnin’ off in a strange place.”

“Is this the fatherly lecture?” Refusing to meet Baloo’s eyes, Kit disdainfully flicked a mushroom off the log.

Baloo, at his wit’s end, wrung his hat in his hands. “You know I ain’t got much practice at this parenting stuff. Tell me what I’m doin’ wrong.”

“Where do you want me to start?” Kit retorted with a scornful smile.

“Does it got somethin’ ta do with Becky?”

Kit opened his mouth to spout something sarcastic, but changed his mind. Instead, the tough-guy expression dropped from his face, leaving a very miserable boy. After a long pause, he whispered sadly, “Yeah.”

Fiddling with his cap, Baloo said quietly, “I thought ya liked Becky.”

“I do,” Kit mumbled, absently running his finger along a groove in the log’s bark. “She’s a...a great person and I really like...loveher, but...but

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