Absentmindedly, he murmured, “Uh-huh,” scribbling down numbers as fast as he could.

“Like the color of violets in spring.”

“Uh-huh.”

Rebecca glanced sharply over at her son and at his calculations. It was obvious he wasn’t listening to a word she was saying. “And Molly wants to hang her bed from the ceiling.”

“Sure. No problem.” He stared at the map. There had to be a way to get to Jai Frais on time. He just didn’t see it yet. Think, Cloudkicker! Think!

“Kit, two lab mice have just taken over the planet.”

“That’s nice.”

“Kit Cloudkicker von Bruinwald, as the pilot and your mother, I demand to know what’s going on!” she shouted, causing Kit to jump in his seat.

“Well...Miz...Rebecca, because of the detour we took, we’re...we’re going to be a little um...late.” He cringed, waiting for her temper to explode.

“How late?” she asked calmly.

Kit gulped. “About thirty minutes.”

“We’ll just go faster.” Rebecca opened the throttles to full tilt. The plane began to vibrate. Number one engine spit smoke.

“Miz Cunningham!” He yanked the throttle down. “Run the engines that fast for very long, they’ll overheat, and we’ll burn up!”

“But, Kit, we’ll be late!” she cried.

Kit shook his head resolutely, crossing his arms across his chest. “Better safe than dead.”

“Is there any way to make it on time?”

“I’m working on it,” he replied quickly, picking up his pencil. Great, Cloudkicker, your dumb idea just keeps getting better and better. I should have known Rebecca would run into trouble without Baloo or even Wildcat to help. Wonder how Papa Bear is getting along?

Higher for Hire

Baloo was on the telephone. He hated telephones. He didn’t know how much he hated them until that dreadful day. The phone had never ceased its annoying, incessant ringing. Everyone who called wanted something, and they wanted it now. In many cases, yesterday would have been preferable. Added to this was Baloo’s ignorance of Rebecca’s filing system. He had to dig through mounds of papers to find anything. Most of the time, he didn’t find it and had to make something up to appease the client.

“Yeah, I heard ya loud and clear the first three times. Ya don’t hafta shout! Darn it, Jim, I’m a pilot, not a businessman! Call back tomorrow, an’ Becky’ll straighten ya out.” He slammed down the receiver and cracked his neck. He was getting a crick in his neck from cradling the receiver between his ear and shoulder. “I’m tellin’ ya, Molly, if I gotta talk to one more nitwit...Molly? Where are ya, sweetie?”

“Making lunch, Daddy,” she called from the kitchen. “Hope you like your macaroni and cheese super-duper cheesy. I used all the cheese we had.”

Baloo stepped into the kitchen, blinked a couple of times at the appalling mess, and groaned, “Oh, man, Molly!”

Elbow macaroni was scattered across both the table and floor. There was a big puddle of milk in front of the open refrigerator. Flour poured from a sack on the counter. All of the pots and pans were pulled out of the cupboard. And if the horrible burnt stench wasn’t enough, a blue haze hung over the room.

Molly stood beside the stove on a chair, enveloped in a towel from the waist down. With a wooden spoon, she gingerly tasted a bite of what looked like a big pot of scorched yellow glop. Cheese dribbled down her chin onto the chair and the floor. “I don’t get it. The macaroni stays crunchy no matter how long I cook it.”

“That’s ‘cause ya gotta boil the macaroni in water before addin’ cheese, Button-nose.” Baloo shuffled through the macaroni to the window, which he flung open. Moving to the stove, he turned off the burner and looked in the pot. He grimaced. Even he wouldn’t eat that! Then he scooped up his small daughter and carried her to the sink where he proceeded to wipe her face with a washcloth. Patiently, he admonished, “You know your not s’posed ta touch the stove. How come ya didn’t wait for me ta help ya?”

“I did. I waited for a looooooong time, but you were busy on the phone. I got really, really hungry. Mfph...don’t rub so hard, Daddy!”

Baloo looked at the clock - 2:30. “I’m sorry, Muffin. Time slipped away from me.”

“Mommy never forgets to make me lunch,” Molly said reproachfully, scowling at him. “She always fixes me something yummy even when she’s real busy.”

“First those clients, now my daughter. I need a vacation from this guilt trip,” Baloo muttered as he got out sandwich materials.

The Sea Duck

The sun was sinking below the dark, gloomy cloud bank, allowing a brief glimpse of oranges and reds before it retired for the night when Rebecca and Kit approached Jai Frais, a sprawling Canadianian city situated on the shores of Lake Superiority. Rebecca’s nerves were raw and her temper was at the boiling point from steering the plane against a strong headwind that threatened to blow them off course. Because of the winds and the detour they were forced to make due to the thunderstorm, they were over two hours late.

Kit cast a discreet glance over at his tight-lipped mother, who had the control yoke in a stranglehold. She hadn’t uttered three words since the run-in with the thunderstorm in Wheatina. It had been two of the longest hours of his life. Out the window, he could see the lights of the airport runways as well as the rotating beacon. Instead of bothering her, he himself gave the clearance code to air traffic control/border patrol.

“You were due two hours ago, eh?” the controller said in a Canadianian accent.

“We ran into a storm,” Kit explained.

“You can’t land now, Sea Duck. Circle until we tell you, eh?”

Rebecca snatched the mike from Kit. All of her pent-up rage came tumbling out as she snarled, “Let me tell you something, mister! We are tired and hungry and we’ve come a very long way. We’re going to land. NOW! Do you get that?”

“It’s one of those crazy female pilots, Bill. Oops, was the mike on?”

“Oooooo!” Rebecca, seething with rage, scanned the ground for a place to land. She spotted an empty field ringed with stadium lights. “Let’s land there. It’s right next to the airport.”

“Um...that may not be the best idea,” Kit hedged.

Ignoring Kit’s objections, Rebecca deployed the landing gear. With a determined, angry glint in her eyes, she sharply pushed the control yoke forward, nearly sideswiping a silver commuter plane.

“Why don’t you watch where I’m going!” Rebecca angrily shook her fist at the pilot of the other aircraft. “Honestly, Kit, some people just don’t know how to fly,” she said as the seaplane’s landing gear plowed a path through the field before screeching to an abrupt stop; Kit was thrown forward in his seat.

Both planes landed: the silver plane on the runway, the Sea Duck in the field next to the airstrip. A small truck waiting beside the small airport’s hanger bounced across the runway to the Sea Duck.

Kit and Rebecca assisted the truck driver - a lanky brown bear in a blue jacket and matching blue cap - in loading the crates into his truck. When the last one was loaded and counted, the truck driver compared the shipping orders with the number of crates. “Hey! What happened? There’s only twenty-nine here.”

A tired Rebecca sighed in frustration. “It’s a long, long story.”

“About two hours long, I bet.” Suspiciously, the truck driver queried, “You’re not trying to stiff us, eh?”

“Of course not!” the enraged bearess shot back. “Higher for Hire will gladly pay for any damages. Send us the bill.”

“Rebecca, we’ve got company!” Kit pointed to a soccer team - the Mighty Maple Leafs - armed with sacks of soccer balls. They were approaching them. The soccer players plunked down their sacks, rolled out their soccer balls, and...

A volley of balls came at them. “Told ya not to land here! This must be their playing field!” Kit sprinted to the plane with Rebecca right behind him.

Soccer balls thudded against the Sea Duck’s exterior. The two bears scrambled into the Sea Duck, and Rebecca flipped switches as fast as she could to start the plane..

When they were in the air, Rebecca began to giggle uncontrollably from sheer nervous exhaustion. “When we get home, we’ll have to burst in, shouting, ‘Soccer balls! Millions of them!’. I can’t wait to see the look on Baloo’s face. Give him a taste of his own medicine.”

Kit chuckled, relieved that she was speaking again. The stony silence of the very long trip from Wheatina to Jai Frais had been extremely uncomfortable. “It’s so outrageous, not even Baloo would have thought of that one.”

Higher for Hire

The stars shone down on the city of Cape Suzette as well as the big grey bear pacing the dock in front of Higher for Hire. Baloo, nervously wringing his hands, kept his eyes focused on the gap between the cliffs for any sign of a yellow and orange Conwing L-16. “Where are they? Shoulda been home hours ago. Where are they?” he muttered repeatedly. “Should I go lookin’ for ‘em? Where would I start lookin’? What if they got captured by pirates? Or had engine trouble? Engine number two was actin’ kinda funny yesterday, goin’ kerchunk, kerchunk. Hope Wildcat looked at it. Or what if they...? Wish Becky’d taken Wildcat. Why’s that gal hafta be so doggoned stubborn all the time? Heck, if anythin’ happened to ‘em I’ll...”

At the familiar drone of the Sea Duck’sengines and the sight of the seaplane soaring through the cliffs, Baloo expelled an immense sigh of relief. “Man, she’s gonna get it now! How dare she keep me waitin’ an’ stewin’!”

Rebecca stumbled from the cockpit and pushed right past her indignant husband.

Baloo followed her up the dock and into Higher for Hire, pestering her with questions. “Where have you been, Becky? You were s’posed ta be home almost four hours ago! Why didn’t ya radio or call or somethin’? Do you know how worried I’ve been?”

Kit trailed behind his parents, amused wonderment dancing