Amelia Earhart: Lady Lindy by Ann Hood Page B

learn so much from Sunday’s supper?”
    â€œSpeaking of Sunday . . . ,” Meelie began.
    Her mother pretended to look confused. “Tomorrow? That Sunday?”
    â€œDon’t tease!” Meelie said.
    â€œWhat’s happening tomorrow?” Maisie asked.
Maybe something interesting,
she hoped.
    â€œSomething really, really great,” Pidge said, grinning.
    â€œWe’re going to the state fair!” Meelie announced happily. “Mama, can we take Felix and Maisie with us?”
    â€œI don’t see why not,” her mother said.
    The state fair?
Maisie thought. She imagined pigs and cows and pie-eating contests, none of which sounded the least bit interesting.

    Felix loved the fair. He loved all the animals with their big, blue ribbons. He loved all the farmers with their vegetables—corn and giant tomatoes and deep orange carrots with the greens still on. He loved the women standing proudly beside their homemade pies, a dizzying array of lattice and double crusts, berries and cherries and custards, streusel toppings, and shiny pecans or walnuts.
    But Maisie thought it was boring to look at smelly animals or stare at a bunch of food you couldn’t even eat. Plus, the day had gone from very warm to hot, and the fairgrounds offered little shade. And all Meelie and Pidge wanted to do was ride the merry-go-round, again and again, changing which brightly painted horse they sat on each time.
    She was relieved when the girls’ father showed up and asked them to come with him.
    â€œI have the most amazing thing to show you,” he said.
    â€œBut I still haven’t ridden on the white horse,” Pidge complained. “Or the purple one!”
    Her father laughed and tugged on one of her braids. “This is so much better than that purple horse, Pidge. I promise you.”
    Still, Meelie and Pidge kept finding things to distract them from whatever their father was trying to show them.
    â€œ
Real
ponies!” Pidge said, pointing to two tired-looking Shetland ponies. “Can we, Papa?”
    Her father glanced up at the sky where dark gray clouds had started to roll in.
    â€œThe thing is, if we don’t get there before the rain comes, you’ll miss this marvelous invention,” he said.
    â€œWhat is it?” Maisie asked, eager to see something marvelous and amazing.
    Their father turned to her, his eyes shining with excitement. “An aeroplane,” he said, awed. “It’s an amazing new invention that Orville and Wilbur Wright flew for the first time five years ago out in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.”
    Disappointed, Maisie shot a look at Felix. But he didn’t seem to notice.
    â€œHow something heavier than air can fly . . . well, that baffles me,” Meelie’s father continued.
    â€œJust one ride on a pony?” Pidge pleaded. “Then we’ll go see your flying machine.”
    Reluctantly, their father let them take a ride around the corral on the ponies. But when Pidge and Meelie begged for another ride, he refused.
    â€œLook at those storm clouds,” he said.
    He led them to the edge of the fairgrounds. A field with a high wire fence around it and a higher wooden fence inside that had a big sign in front of it: FLYING AEROPLANE .
    Again, Maisie tried to catch Felix’s eye. Were they really going to spend the rest of the day looking at an airplane? Felix either didn’t see her or chose to ignore her as Meelie found yet another distraction.
    â€œPaper hats!” she shouted.
    â€œOh!” Pidge said, jumping up and down. “I want the yellow one!”
    Maisie followed everyone to the booth selling the ridiculous paper hats, which were really just circles of cardboard covered with paper flowers. They tied under the chin with colorful ribbons. Once that rain started, those hats would dissolve into lumps of wet paper.
    Meelie and Pidge tried on one hat after another as their father