No Time Like the Present
part 3

TaleSpin and its characters are property of Disney. All other characters are mine and cannot be used without permission.

Thursday Morning

A state-of-the-art airplane cut through the clear, cerulean sky with Kit Cloudkicker, Ace of the Skies, piloting. In the pocket of this brave, determined young man was a letter direct from the President of Usland destined to save the world.

All of a sudden, air pirates swooped down, peppering his plane with bullets.

Sorry, guys. I'm outta here, he thought with a cocky grin.

He pushed the throttle up to increase his speed, but no matter which way he went, no matter what tricks he used, the pirates stayed right on his tail.

Just then, from out of nowhere, came the Sea Duck. Kit's spirits soared. Help had arrived. Together, he and Baloo would show those air pirates a thing or two.

To his utter astonishment, the Sea Duck began firing on him.

Since when does the Duck have guns?

Kit picked up the mike to inform Baloo of his identity, but was alarmed to find out that he couldn't utter a syllable.

The gunfire from the Sea Duck poured in heavier and heavier. Kit tried every trick he knew, but he couldn't out-fly Baloo.

Finally, Kit's wounded plane plummeted down, down, down towards a vast red ocean, thick black smoke pouring from the engines, gaining momentum with every heart-pounding second..

Kit, who had no time to jump, squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath, awaiting the plunge into the watery grave.

Any second...impact.

"Kit, wake up!" someone shouted, pouncing on him.

"Aah!" Kit yelped, heart racing.

A familiar voice said contritely, "Sorry I scared you."

Kit, badly shaken by his nightmare, cracked his eyes open to see his sister's smiling face a few inches from his own. He let out a big sigh of relief. "Molly?"

"Hi." Molly hopped off of the bed, causing it to bounce slightly. "Daddy's making pancakes. He said that he's the fastest flapjack flipper this side of Philly."

"What time is it?" Kit said groggily, glad that he was still alive.

"Time to get up, silly. Mommy says if you don't get up now, you'll be late for the cargo run, and if you don't hurry all the pancakes will be gone." She giggled as she skipped out the door.

Jeepers, what a nightmare! Kit blinked a few times to clear his head and willed his heart to stop pounding. He took comfort in all of the familiar objects in his room.

Slightly dazed, he arose. He dressed mechanically and grabbed his baseball cap from where it hung on the bedpost, flipping the bill backwards. The sight of his new pocket watch made him pause for a second.

Oddly enough, last night's excursion to Khan Towers seemed more dream-like than his nightmare.

Kit slipped the watch under his sweater beside his airfoil. After quickly making his bed, he walked out of his room, down the hallway to bathroom. The bathroom door was shut. When he turned the knob, he found that it was locked.

"Swell."

He was about to knock when Rebecca emerged. She smiled at him cheerfully. "Morning, sweetie. How'd you sleep?"

"Fine." He wasn't going to mention his late-night excursion to see Buzz. Hoping that his guilt didn't show, he hurried into the bathroom.

Kit wrinkled up his nose. The room reeked of hairspray. Choking a little, he rushed to open the window to let the noxious fumes escape.

He was painfully embarrassed when he spotted Rebecca's bra drying over the shower rod. Blushing beet red, he reached for a towel to fling over it, only to slip on Molly's rubber ducky and do a nosedive on the hard wooden floor.

He pushed himself up and went over to the sink, his head reeling. Upon opening the medicine cabinet over the sink to get his toothbrush, an avalanche of tiny bottles fell out. He caught every bottle except for one, which shattered in the sink. The strong scent of Rebecca's perfume mingled with the waning scent of hairspray.

"Uh-oh. She's not going to be happy about this..."

Kit piled the bottles on the back of the toilet. Very carefully, he picked up as many glass shards as he could, then rinsed the rest down the sink.

He was becoming annoyed. All he wanted to do was brush his teeth!

A thorough search of the medicine cabinet finally revealed that his toothbrush and the toothpaste were on the topmost shelf.

What's it doing up there? My toothbrush is always on the bottom shelf! At least it used to be.

Since he couldn't reach it, he climbed up on the sink. Just as his hand closed over both toothbrush and toothpaste, he slipped and fell, hitting his chin on the edge of the porcelain sink in the process.

Now, Kit was sore in more ways than one. He slammed the medicine cabinet door shut and went about brushing his teeth. The Kit in the mirror glowered darkly back at him. This was not the way his first full day of being a part of a family was supposed to start.

After brushing his teeth, he returned his toothbrush to its rightful place on the bottom shelf of the medicine cabinet.

Seeing the myriad of tiny bottles on the back of the toilet, he sighed in exasperation.

Why do women need all this junk for anyway? he thought as he crammed the bottles in the cabinet and shut the door as fast as he could. He could hear them clinking and crashing inside.

I hope they all broke!

His chin throbbing, Kit went downstairs, thinking about how he should break the news to Rebecca about her perfume. He hoped it wasn't too expensive.

Then, he thought of something that was critically important, something so important that superceded even the pain of his bumped chin. During the previous day's excitement of the adoption and the adoption party, he'd forgotten to ascertain where he and Baloo were going on their cargo run today. He needed to know so that he could map a flight plan before takeoff.

Upon entering the kitchen, he saw Rebecca and Molly sitting at the table. Rebecca was perusing the newspaper and daintily sipped coffee while Molly hungrily ate pancakes and bacon. Baloo stood in front of the stove, spatula in hand. Four golden pancakes were sizzling in the skillet, their hot, appetizing aroma mingling with the scent of bacon and the sweet scent of maple syrup.

"Get your plate ready, Muffin," Baloo said, sliding his spatula under one of the pancakes.

"Ready, Daddy." A ring of maple syrup around her mouth attested to the fact that she'd already eaten several flapjacks.

"Hold it up real high."

Standing on tiptoe, Molly held her plate over her head.

"One for the money. Two for the show. Three to get ready an' four to GO!" Baloo deftly flipped a pancakes on it. "Bull's-eye!" he said victoriously. "Right on the button. Want another one, Becky?"

"No, thanks, darling. Give them to Kit. He hasn't had any yet."

"Hiya, kiddo. Didn't see ya there. Pull up a plate, an' I'll whip up some more flapjacks," Baloo said as he handed Kit a plate with three pancakes. Humming, the big bear poured four more globs of batter into the skillet.

Kit sat down at the table and reached for the bottle of maple syrup that was sitting in the middle of the circular table. He poured a generous amount of syrup on his pancake stack and asked, "Baloo, where are we...?"

Before he could ask about the destination of their cargo run, Rebecca interrupted anxiously: "Kit, honey, where'd you get that nasty bump on your chin? I hope you aren't coming down with the mumps."

Swallowing a bite of pancake, Kit shook his head. "I already had the mumps years ago at the orphanage."

Looking him over critically, she felt his forehead, then put her fingers on his wrist.. "No fever. Pulse steady."

"I just bumped my chin on the sink upstairs. It's fine, really," he futilely protested as she got up, grabbed a dishtowel from a drawer, and bustled over to the icebox. "You don't have to go to any trouble, Miz...Rebecca."

"It's no trouble. How in the world did you bump your chin on the sink anyway?"

Thinking about all of those broken little bottles that belonged to her, Kit shrugged and said truthfully enough, "I slipped."

"You should be more careful, sweetie." Rebecca placed the cold compress on his chin. "There. Hold it like that and sit still."

Kit nodded. The cold, wet compress was making his fingers ache and chin numb. "Can you tell me where...?"

"Hush!" Rebecca admonished. "If you don't stop moving, the swelling will never go down."

Icy droplets were dripping on his legs and making him uncomfortable. He shifted slightly in his chair, saying earnestly, "But, Miz Cunningham, I really need to know...!"

Molly interjected with, "Can we have pancakes every morning?"

Baloo, who was flipping the flapjacks in the skillet, replied languidly, "Depends."

"On what?" The little girl ran her finger around her plate and licked it.

Rebecca gave her a reproving look and handed her a napkin. "It all depends if Baloo can get up this early every morning."

"No, huh?" Molly said innocently.

Kit, who was simultaneously holding the compress to his face with one hand and eating pancakes with his other hand, smirked.

"She knows you well, Baloo," Rebecca laughed.

Pretending to be annoyed, Baloo gently tweaked Molly's nose. "Sometimes you're too smart for your own good, Button-nose."

Sensing a lull in the conversation, Kit said quickly, "Miz C...Rebecca, where are we...?"

But his question was cut off by the ringing of the telephone in the office/living room.

Rebecca rose from her chair, murmuring, "That better not be Henry calling to say that he messed up our mango order again. I spend more time on the phone with that man than I do all of our clients combined..."

Kit was almost to the boiling point. No one would allow him get a word in edgewise, and he had to know where they were going on their cargo run - and soon. "Papa Bear, where are...?"

"Hot an' fluffy," Baloo said jovially, piling four more pancakes on Kit's plate. "Just like ya like 'em. Eat up, Li'l Britches."

Kit cringed inwardly when Baloo patted him on the head. As if I was a little kid. He recalled the 'little tyke' remark that he had overheard the pilot say the night before. The anger from that remembered remark along with the frustration, the dejection, the abject disappointment that he had felt at the adoption party rolled over him like a great, dark wave.

In addition, an irritating, icy cold rivulet was running down his neck. Something snapped inside of him.

"Jeez, what am I - chopped liver?" he shouted. "Can't I ask one, simple question around here?"

Frightened by his outburst, Molly stopped eating; a half-eaten piece bacon protruded from her mouth. Baloo, who had stopped humming, flipped a flapjack onto his head and stared at Kit in utter astonishment.

Rebecca poked her head from office, her hand over the telephone receiver. "What's wrong?"

Struggling to keep his emotions under control, Kit said shakily, "I just want to know where we're going on today's delivery."

"Lumbago," Baloo and Rebecca said simultaneously, flashing each other a questioning look.

"I knew that," Molly whispered tremulously, peeking over the tabletop.

"Well, I didn't and I'm the navigator!" Kit threw down the towel with a clunk of ice. He then stormed outside, banging the door.

Baloo plucked the pancake from his head and ate it. "What's up with him?"

Thoughtfully, Rebecca murmured, "I wonder..."

Outside, Kit hurried past Wildcat's houseboat to the Sea Duck, wishing that Wildcat was there instead of in Boomstone. In his simple, bumbling way, the mechanic knew how to fix hurt feelings. Instead, he climbed into the cockpit and closed the door behind him in an attempt to shut out his troubles.

He rummaged around in the glove box until he found the maps that he was looking for. His anger subsided as he deftly charted a course for Lumbago. That done, he carefully folded the maps and returned his pencil and sextant to his pocket. His fingers closed around his new watch. He pulled it out of his pocket and opened it.

Kit's eyes lingered on the inscription.

Could it have been only yesterday morning that he was so happy, so excited to finally be a part of a family?

And now...

His feelings were so badly mixed that he didn't know what he was feeling.

He'd wanted to be part of a family for so long and this was what he got? A father who ignored him, a fussy, overbearing mother, and a hyperactive little sister who kept interrupting him.

How many nights had he prayed that they would become a real family? That Rebecca and Molly would stay with him and Baloo forever? That Baloo and Rebecca would get married so he could have a mother and father like a regular kid?

He'd only had a family for one day, and already they were driving him crazy. Maybe having a family wasn't going to be all he had hoped it would be.

Kit returned his watch to his pocket and swiftly swiped the back of his hand across his eyes.

A Half Hour Later

At long last, Limbo's Long-Lasting Liniment was loaded in the seaplane, ready to be delivered to the hospital in Lumbago. Kit sat in the navigator's seat, waiting impatiently as Baloo and Rebecca lingered over their goodbyes. They stood on the dock, locked in each other's embrace.

"I love you," Rebecca murmured dreamily.

"I love you more."

"No, I love you more."

"I love you more."

Kit gritted his teeth. Any other time, his parents' lovey-dovey dialogue would have seemed almost cute. But not this morning.

He felt ready to jump out of his skin with impatience when Baloo finally climbed into the cockpit. After he started up the engines, the pilot blew kisses to Rebecca through the open window.

Molly, who stood on the dock beside Rebecca, grinned and waved at Kit. "Bye, big brother!"

Kit gave her a curt wave.

Let's just go already!

Kit was relieved when the Sea Duck taxied away from the dock, away from Higher for Hire, away from Rebecca and Molly, and took off.

Three Hours Later

Kit peered out the window at the dull grey clouds crowding around the Sea Duck, engulfing it in gloom. In addition to the purr of the twin Superflight engines, his ears were filled with the roar of a strong southernly wind.

Because of the gale threatening to blow them off course and because he'd never been to Lumbago before, the young navigator had to keep on top of their position, or they'd get lost.

To his consternation, he had had to mention the course corrections several times before it penetrated Baloo's thick skull. Because of that and the wind, they were a trifle off-course and a little behind schedule.

We could wind up in Watoosi and he wouldn't even care, Kit thought bitterly.

Baloo, humming as he flew, was completely oblivious to Kit's scowl as well as the grey weather around them. From where he was, the sun was shining all over.

"Five degrees south," Kit said clearly and precisely, pitching his voice above the combined noise of engines and wind.

After a few moments, Baloo awoke from his pleasant daydream. "Huh? You say somethin', kid?"

Kit sighed with exasperation. "It's just our course correction, that's all. No big deal."

Incognizant of Kit's sarcastic tone, Baloo said jovially, "Give it to me again, Li'l Britches. Ol' Papa Bear's all ears."

Once again, Kit gave him the coordinates, and Baloo turned the plane accordingly.

"Ya know, I think I married the best gal on earth."

Here we go again, Kit thought, fixing his eyes out the starboard window. All Baloo had done on this trip was sing Rebecca's praises, and, frankly, he wasn't in the mood to hear it again; but, being in a plane ten thousand feet in the air, he had no choice.

Kit propped his chin in his hand and sighed.

Baloo chuckled, "Another sigh like that an' you'll blow us off course."

"What do you care?" Kit mumbled under his breath. He savagely gouged a hole in the map with his sextant.

Baloo wiggled a finger in his ear. "How's that, kid?"

"I said," Kit snapped, "what do you care if we're off course or not?"

Baffled by Kit's outburst, Baloo was truly taken aback. He thought that everyone was as happy as he was. He looked at Kit as if he hadn't seen him in a long time. "I care."

"Sure you do - about Rebecca." Kit glared out the window, refusing to meet Baloo's eyes.

Baloo, confused and alarmed at his son's behavior, said, "Wait a doggone minute! I care 'bout you an' Molly, too. I adopted ya, didn't I?"

Kit, his mood as dark as the clouds outside, said frostily, "It was better before you adopted us."

"Now you're plumb not makin' sense!"

"Oh, like you make sense all the time?" Kit scoffed. He met Baloo's eyes with the most defiant scowl the big bear had ever seen from his son.

Baloo recoiled. He was deeply pained to think that Kit hated him and the return of the tough-guy routine confused him. Tentatively, he ventured, "I thought you wanted me an' Becky to get married. I thought ya liked her."

"I did...I do." Kit waved dismissively and returned to staring out the window. "Aw, you'll never understand."

"C'mon, Kit, don't be like that." Baloo put a gentle paw on the boy's shoulder.

Kit shrugged him off and scooted to far side of the seat.

Rubbing the back of his neck, a very hurt, concerned, bewildered Baloo gazed at his son. He was failing his first day of fatherhood and he didn't know why. For lack of anything better to say, he asked, "What time ya got? Don't wanna be late."

"That's a first," Kit said sardonically. He pulled out his new pocket watch and checked the time. "It's 9:45."

"You sure about that?" Baloo squinted at the sun that had just broke through a gap the clouds, bathing the seaplane in its warm glow. "Mr. Sun's tellin' me it's closer to noon."

Before he could retort, "I know how to tell time!" Kit held the watch to his ear. It wasn't ticking. He murmured under his breath, "I guess Buzz didn't fix it after all."

"Buzz? What about Buzz?"

"Broke," Kit said quickly. He wasn't in the mood to explain why he went to see Buzz the night before. "My watch is broken."

"Already? It's brand-spankin' new." Baloo snatched the timepiece and shook it. When the watch didn't even try to tick, he said, "So much for authentic Swizz craftsmanship. Maybe we shoulda got ya that knife after all."

Frowning, Kit retrieved his watch and carefully looked it over. Seeing that the knob on the side wasn't pushed in, he murmured to himself, "So that's the problem." He set the hands to twelve o'clock, then, he pushed in the knob.

With a jarring jerk, a blinding flash of light, and a thundering boom, the Sea Duck disappeared.

End of part 3