I didn't sleep that night. The hardest part was trying to do what Great-
Gramps said in The Letter - who should I choose to come with me? I knew one
of them would have to be Lauren. We've been best friends since we were tiny
and she's got exactly the sort of personality I know Great-Gramps would
have looked for in his fellow adventurers - she never gives up and is the
sports queen of the group. I was worried about my second choice of
companion - it was between Thomas and Michael. They've both got the same
qualities - trustworthiness, honesty, adventurousness, and indomitable
spirits - but Thomas is more practical and has had more experience of
surviving in the wild.
The next morning I called Lauren and told her about The Box and The Letter, and how I had to take two friends on the trip with me. "Will you come?" I asked, and then I had to hold the phone about six feet away from my ear because she was screaming so loud.
"Are cabs yellow?" she quipped back. "Of course I'm coming! But did you decide on the other person yet?"
I thought about it for a second. "Yeah, I have," I said. "See you later." I put the phone down and dialled the number. "Dammit!" I'd got through to the answering machine. "Thomas, it's Indy. I was just calling to see if you wanted to come search for these amulets with me. If you don't get this before school, I'll tell you then."
I went downstairs to get some breakfast and found three airline tickets lying on my chair. "So are you going then or what?" asked Mom. I looked at the tickets - three minors to Kathmandu, Nepal. I looked at her face - anticipation, joy and sorrow mixed together. I could tell she knew what I had to do, but she didn't want to lose her thirteen-year-old daughter so soon. "Yes," I replied. "Yes, I'm going."
I almost didn't want to catch the bus that morning - what was the point in going to school when I could be searching the world for amulets that would save mankind? But I knew I had to, so I could talk to Thomas and Lauren. They'd saved a seat for me on the bus, and before we knew it we were already planning to meet up after class.
Ninth grade was a lot tougher than I thought it'd be. English, math, earth sciences and biology seemed to drag on for eternity, but I didn't care. Tonight was when Indi-Ana Jones followed her great-grandfather's footsteps and saved the world, all by boarding a plane bound for England. At lunch I went to the library and looked up the Rainbow Amulets on the Internet. Apparently each of the seven amulets stands for something different, and when one person holds the septet they can either control everyone and everything in the world if they are evil, or if they are for good they will ensure that the world's people are liberated. I read on: each amulet is hidden in a different corner of the world - one in Nepal, one in India, one in Australia, one in Africa, one in China, one in South America and one in Cambodia…
"The deal is that no-one else knows about what we're going to do," Lauren said. We were sitting in Thomas' treehouse, with nothing except the Arizona desert for miles around us. "If we're going to do this, we've got to keep as much of it under wraps as possible. Our parents already know, but they are as far as it goes - deal?" We all piled our hands up on top of each other and shouted as we threw them back.
The next morning, I was woken up by Mom gently shaking my shoulder. "Hey, kid," she said. "It's your big day. We've got to pick the others up, so you'd better get going." I threw on my green sleeveless top with the sequinned tiger motif, my combat trousers and my training shoes, and stuffed the printout of the information I'd found out about the amulets into my pocket. Glancing back, I remembered Great-Gramps' hat. Once I had it on, I was ready for anything.
The flight to England and then the connection to Kathmandu were pretty uneventful, but I didn't think the plane we took into the Nepalese mountains would go as wrong as it did. The guy flying it seemed pretty cool to start with, but he couldn't say anything except "Yes…no…thank you" in a variety of patterns, and we couldn't speak a word of his native language, but I wasn't worried about that. As this was only a short flight, we decided to snatch another hour's sleep before we touched down…
I was woken up by the plane's engine starting to give out. I muttered a string of gibberish, trying to shake off my fatigue. Staying low to the floor and trying not to wake the others, I made my way towards the cockpit. The pilot was nowhere to be seen, but the door was open. Looking back on it, I realised he must have jumped out, but there wasn't time to worry about that at the time. The question was, how was I going to land this plane safely without waking the others? I slipped into the seat and cast a wild glance over the jungle of dials and buttons in front of me. Slowly but surely, we started to go down. I could hear Lauren's screams ringing faintly in my ears, but I didn't care. All I was concentrating on was as few of us dying as possible. All I could see in front of me was peaks of snow, like meringues against the azure sky, and I knew we were going to crash straight into the side of the mountain that was right in front of my face. Suddenly, I managed to get a grip on the wheel and the joystick (hey, it's not my fault Nepalese technology isn't brilliant) and we swerved around the side of the mount and through a crevasse carved between two of them. Then the engine really did give out, and we were falling straight down, down, down…
The next morning I called Lauren and told her about The Box and The Letter, and how I had to take two friends on the trip with me. "Will you come?" I asked, and then I had to hold the phone about six feet away from my ear because she was screaming so loud.
"Are cabs yellow?" she quipped back. "Of course I'm coming! But did you decide on the other person yet?"
I thought about it for a second. "Yeah, I have," I said. "See you later." I put the phone down and dialled the number. "Dammit!" I'd got through to the answering machine. "Thomas, it's Indy. I was just calling to see if you wanted to come search for these amulets with me. If you don't get this before school, I'll tell you then."
I went downstairs to get some breakfast and found three airline tickets lying on my chair. "So are you going then or what?" asked Mom. I looked at the tickets - three minors to Kathmandu, Nepal. I looked at her face - anticipation, joy and sorrow mixed together. I could tell she knew what I had to do, but she didn't want to lose her thirteen-year-old daughter so soon. "Yes," I replied. "Yes, I'm going."
I almost didn't want to catch the bus that morning - what was the point in going to school when I could be searching the world for amulets that would save mankind? But I knew I had to, so I could talk to Thomas and Lauren. They'd saved a seat for me on the bus, and before we knew it we were already planning to meet up after class.
Ninth grade was a lot tougher than I thought it'd be. English, math, earth sciences and biology seemed to drag on for eternity, but I didn't care. Tonight was when Indi-Ana Jones followed her great-grandfather's footsteps and saved the world, all by boarding a plane bound for England. At lunch I went to the library and looked up the Rainbow Amulets on the Internet. Apparently each of the seven amulets stands for something different, and when one person holds the septet they can either control everyone and everything in the world if they are evil, or if they are for good they will ensure that the world's people are liberated. I read on: each amulet is hidden in a different corner of the world - one in Nepal, one in India, one in Australia, one in Africa, one in China, one in South America and one in Cambodia…
"The deal is that no-one else knows about what we're going to do," Lauren said. We were sitting in Thomas' treehouse, with nothing except the Arizona desert for miles around us. "If we're going to do this, we've got to keep as much of it under wraps as possible. Our parents already know, but they are as far as it goes - deal?" We all piled our hands up on top of each other and shouted as we threw them back.
The next morning, I was woken up by Mom gently shaking my shoulder. "Hey, kid," she said. "It's your big day. We've got to pick the others up, so you'd better get going." I threw on my green sleeveless top with the sequinned tiger motif, my combat trousers and my training shoes, and stuffed the printout of the information I'd found out about the amulets into my pocket. Glancing back, I remembered Great-Gramps' hat. Once I had it on, I was ready for anything.
The flight to England and then the connection to Kathmandu were pretty uneventful, but I didn't think the plane we took into the Nepalese mountains would go as wrong as it did. The guy flying it seemed pretty cool to start with, but he couldn't say anything except "Yes…no…thank you" in a variety of patterns, and we couldn't speak a word of his native language, but I wasn't worried about that. As this was only a short flight, we decided to snatch another hour's sleep before we touched down…
I was woken up by the plane's engine starting to give out. I muttered a string of gibberish, trying to shake off my fatigue. Staying low to the floor and trying not to wake the others, I made my way towards the cockpit. The pilot was nowhere to be seen, but the door was open. Looking back on it, I realised he must have jumped out, but there wasn't time to worry about that at the time. The question was, how was I going to land this plane safely without waking the others? I slipped into the seat and cast a wild glance over the jungle of dials and buttons in front of me. Slowly but surely, we started to go down. I could hear Lauren's screams ringing faintly in my ears, but I didn't care. All I was concentrating on was as few of us dying as possible. All I could see in front of me was peaks of snow, like meringues against the azure sky, and I knew we were going to crash straight into the side of the mountain that was right in front of my face. Suddenly, I managed to get a grip on the wheel and the joystick (hey, it's not my fault Nepalese technology isn't brilliant) and we swerved around the side of the mount and through a crevasse carved between two of them. Then the engine really did give out, and we were falling straight down, down, down…
