The Amazing Flight of Darius Frobisher by Bill Harley Read Free Book Online

left before her tirade began.
    Darius waited at the corner of the house until he could hear Anthony at the other end of the street. When the coast was clear, he hurried in the opposite direction, past the neighboring houses and a gas station on the corner. Crossing a busy street, he wandered around for half an hour, but didn’t find a single park or even a shady spot where he could get out of the hot sun.
    Finally, Darius turned and headed to Aunt Inga’s. “I might as well give up,” he said to himself. “I could search forever in this neighborhood and nothing good would come of it.
    However, on the way back, something good did happen.
    Darius found the library

6
More Books and Bikes
    D arius hadn’t noticed the library before—maybe he just took a wrong turn, which became a right turn. The building stood back from the street, and a sidewalk, shaded by trees, led to its front doors.
    As soon as Darius walked into the library, he felt himself relax—it was quiet and cool, and people spoke softly in tones very different from the ones he heard from Aunt Inga.
    “May I help you?” a woman behind the desk asked.
    “No thank you,” Darius said. “I’m just looking.”
    He found the children’s section and started to look through the shelves of books. But after several minutes, an idea formed in his mind. He went up to the desk, where he saw a nameplate with “Ms. Gloria Bickerstaff” printed on it.
    “Excuse me, Ms. Bickerstaff,” he said.
    “Yes?” she answered brightly.
    “Do you have any maps?”
    “Of course we have maps. We have books and books of maps—they’re called atlases.”
    “Yes ma’am, I know that,” he said. “My name is Darius, and before my father disappeared, we had a map room in the house where I used to live.”
    “My goodness,” Ms. Bickerstaff said, catching her breath. “I’m sorry to hear about your father. But how wonderful to have a map room in your home. We have a map room here, too!”
    “You do? Honest?” Darius couldn’t believe his ears.
    “Honest,” she said, pointing past Darius’s shoulder. “Back to the left, through those doors.”
    Darius walked across the main room and peered through the doors. A globe stood in the corner of the small room. Copies of ancient maps covered one wall. He was delighted to see that the shelves held large books the size of card tables, and several atlases were spread across the reading tables, opened to maps much more detailed and colorful than the ones in his own book. And the smell! How he loved the glorious smell of books! He had known that smell his whole life. This was the closest he had felt to home since leaving Miss Hastings.
    Darius lost track of time in the map room. Finally, he found a map that showed both Aunt Inga’s and his old town. He used the map scale to measure the miles between the two.
    “Two hundred forty-six miles. Let’s see, if I rode a bike twenty-five miles a day …,” Darius muttered. He picked up a short yellow pencil and scribbled the numbers on a scrap piece of paper. “… it would take me ten days to get to Miss Hastings.”
    If
he could find Miss Hastings!
    He wondered where she lived now.
    Darius left the map room and approached Ms. Bickerstaff’s desk again. She was reading a book. “Excuse me, ma’am,” he said softly.
    The librarian looked up and smiled. “Yes, Darius,” she answered. Darius’s heart warmed at the sound of her kind voice saying his name.
    “Do you think you could help me find somebody? I’m looking for her address.”
    “Well, we could search for it on the computer. What’s her name?”
    “Miss Hastings. I know her first name is Grace.”
    “What town?”
    Darius told her the name of the town where he used to live.
    “Let’s see what we can find,” the librarian said. Darius followed Ms. Bickerstaff to the computer and stood by her side as her fingers flew over the keys. For all the music and stories and maps and adventures in Darius’s life, he