The Last Grand Adventure
Page 20
I stared at my grandmother, who was savoring a last look out Meelie’s old bedroom window. I didn’t know what to think. I believed every single word in the letters. Not just the facts about Meelie, but the feelings—both were real. What does it mean if I’ll never be able to know where they came from—or from whom? Pidge turned to me. A true smile spread across her face, and I knew. Explaining the letters wasn’t important. Whatever the truth was about them, they had led us on a journey to this moment in Meelie’s room, a moment full of more sweet than bitter. Like Meelie had written, home was more than a place. It could be memories, and it could be being with the people who loved you. Those letters had finally brought Pidge home, by bringing her here and by bringing us together. That was what mattered. Meelie could stay a mystery. I gave Pidge a Grandma Anna loving smile. She returned it, taking my hand and giving it one last squeeze, and then we were on our way.
• • •
We headed to the airport in Kansas City the following day, after dropping my mother off at her train bound for New York. My family had taken the El Capitan out, and Julie said she couldn’t handle another long train trip in coach, so my dad begrudgingly bought plane tickets for all of us. I was ready to be home in California, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to feeling nervous about going back up in a plane after our last flight. As we were boarding, Pidge leaned over and whispered in my ear: “She’ll be up there with us in the air, and she won’t let anything happen. Just like the last time—Meelie helped us get the Serendipity safely on the ground.” She smiled at me, with a touch of sadness. “And if my sister can’t do it, I’ll step in.” I believed her. Pidge was a capable Earhart girl, after all.
My father and Julie sat next to each other, holding hands while dozing. Across the aisle from them, Pidge rested in a window seat, hugging Donk on her lap. I sat in the row behind, next to Sally. It was chilly on board, so I wrapped Snooky’s scarf around my neck. As the plane started rolling down the runway, a look of terror crossed Sally’s face, and she gripped the armrests until her knuckles turned white. This was her first flight. It was my job, as her big sister, to soothe her.
I reached in my pocket and pulled out the donkey bracelet. I took Sally’s wrist and tied the bracelet around it. “It’s a lucky charm,” I said. I held up mine, so she could see that we matched. Sally smiled.
“Want to hear a story?” Sally nodded her head. I felt the shudder of the wheels lifting, as we soared up into the air. I took Sally’s hand in mine.
“It all starts with my great-aunt, Amelia Earhart.” I told my sister about the last grand adventure, and the first one, too—mine.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The Last Grand Adventure is a work of historical fiction—emphasis on fiction. Amelia “Meelie” Earhart really did have a younger sister, Muriel, whose childhood nickname was Pidge. I borrowed some details from the real Earharts’ childhood (including their treasured wooden toys, Donk and Ellie), and many more from Amelia’s career and accomplishments, to create my characters and their imagined correspondence. Within the novel, a few direct quotes from Amelia or her family members appear—they are listed later in this note. But despite the facts and true details that are sprinkled throughout this book, its Meelie and Pidge are fictional, as are the rest of the characters in this story.
Like all the middle-grade stories I write, The Last Grand Adventure started with the things that fascinated me as a young reader. I watched a lot of old movies and ’60s-set TV shows—and always kind of wished I could experience that era. Writing Bea’s story gave me a chance to transport myself to 1967 through writing and research. I also went on a lot of family road trips as a kid. There is something so unique about discovering the country with the people you know and love (and backseat-squabble with) best. One of my favorite car trips was from the Midwest to the Southwest, kind of the reverse of Bea and Pidge’s journey—although I didn’t have nearly such an adventurous experience (aside from one unexpected late snowstorm in the mountains, and a tornado warning in, yes, Kansas).
The story of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance has also intrigued me since childhood. My initial plan for this book was to write about Amelia Earhart secretly being Bea’s grandmother. I was inspired by my two amazing grandmothers: Margaret and Bette. Both are vivacious, independent-minded nonagenarians who have taught me a lot about living a bold and full life. I’ve always valued my special relationships with them and wanted to capture that in this story.
But during my initial research, I discovered the close relationship that Amelia Earhart had with her younger sister. The last lines of Courage Is the Price, Muriel Earhart Morrissey’s biography of Amelia, are:
“I say, ‘It was fun having you as a sister, Meely!’ Ave atque vale!”
A translation for the Latin is “I salute you, and good-bye.” (Note: The spelling of Amelia’s childhood nickname varied in my sources, so I used “Meelie” consistently throughout the novel.)
I found myself a little heartbroken reading that farewell, especially after spending hours exploring Amelia and Muriel’s experience as sisters, which was both extraordinary and ordinary. Being a younger sister myself, I was drawn to the idea of telling the story of a sibling left behind after Amelia’s disappearance. And so the character Pidge came to be, along with the story of her bittersweet and adventurous farewell to her beloved Meelie.
THE SUMMER OF ’67
The sixties were a tumultuous period in American history, which the summer of 1967’s two contradictory nicknames show: It’s known as both the “Summer of Love”—referring to the thousands of hippies who gathered in San Francisco to celebrate music and art, and to promote anti-war views—and the “Long, Hot Summer”—a reference to the 159 civil disturbances that occurred throughout the United States, part of the ongoing struggle for civil rights and fight against racial injustice. The news at that time was full of reports about the Vietnam War (and the growing protests against it) and other international conflicts, such as the Six-Day War in the Middle East. Change was happening throughout the country: in large social and political movements related to civil rights, women’s liberation, and the environment; in popular music and culture; and on a personal level for many people.
Living in a changing country can be scary—and energizing. Bea’s story, I hope, provides a snapshot of what it would have been like to be a young person during that impactful summer.
AMELIA EARHART’S LIFE
Amelia Mary Earhart was born July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas. As a child, she loved to read, study insects, roam the river bluffs near her grandparents’ home, and build contraptions in her yard. She volunteered as a nurse during World War I and enrolled at Columbia University, but soon found her passion: aviation. She took her first flight (as a passenger) in December 1920 and knew afterward that she herself had to learn to fly. Anita “Neta” Snook taught her, and in May 1923 Amelia became the sixteenth woman to be issued a pilot’s license by the international aviation organization FAI.
Amelia’s career took off after she became the first woman to be flown across the Atlantic Ocean in June 1928. She left on the Friendship a relative unknown—and had a ticker-tape parade and White House reception upon her return. But Amelia wanted to make news for her own flying. She accomplished a slew of firsts, including altitude records and being the first woman to fly across North America. She raced around and across the country with other pilots in “air derbies.” She joined the Ninety-Nines, a group of women pilots, and became their president in 1930. She married the publisher George Putnam, who enthusiastically supported and promoted her career. A poet and writer, Amelia published several books and edited for Cosmopolitan magazine. Amelia also served as a faculty member at Purdue University, where she worked to encourage women to pursue careers in aviation.
She impressed the world by being the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic. The 1932 flight took fourteen hours and fifty-six minutes, which Amelia spent alone in a plane without modern conveniences lik
e climate control and bathrooms—all the while battling mechanical problems and icy storms. Imagine the stamina and bravery that would take! It’s no wonder she became a true celebrity afterward. In 1935 Amelia crossed the Pacific solo, from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California. That flight was so relaxed that she listened to a broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera while in the air. She described it as “a journey of stars, not storms; of tropic loveliness instead of ice.”
By 1937, Amelia was looking forward to her next accomplishment—a round-the-world flight. She wouldn’t be the first person to do it, but her flight path along the equator, at 29,000 miles, would be the longest. After a disastrous takeoff ended her first attempt, Amelia was ready to try again on May 21, 1937, when she flew the first leg from Oakland to Miami. For a week in Florida, she and her team readied the plane. Then on June 1, Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan, departed Miami to begin their adventure. They flew southeast to South America, to Africa, and on to Asia, finally stopping in Lae, New Guinea. Three long flights across the Pacific Ocean were left. On July 2, 1937, they disappeared only 7,000 miles from home, while flying from Lae to Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO AMELIA?
The short answer is that no one knows. But there are many theories about what happened to Amelia, Fred, and her Lockheed Electra plane.
The US Navy searched for them until July 18, 1937. Before the search ended, both the military and everyday people reported catching faint radio transmissions and distress calls from Amelia—suggesting that she had been able to land her plane safely somewhere on the way to Howland Island and was awaiting help. During an aerial search on July 9, spotters noticed signs of people living on Gardner Island (now called Nikumaroro). Not knowing that the island had been uninhabited for years, the searchers didn’t realize that any evidence of human life could mean Amelia and Fred were there—and unfortunately, they took no photos to document what they saw.
Rumors spread about what might have happened to Amelia and Fred. People speculated that after crash-landing or ditching their plane in the ocean, they had been picked up by a fishing boat. An old photograph of people on a dock in the Marshall Islands made news in 2017 when facial-recognition experts claimed Amelia and Fred might be pictured in it (although others insisted the photo predated their disappearance by several years). According to that theory, Amelia and Fred were later imprisoned, due to the tensions between the United States and Japan at the time. During World War II, some US soldiers wondered if her voice belonged one of the women whose English-language Japanese radio broadcasts they listened to while stationed in the Pacific. Others were convinced that Amelia was secretly a US government spy, and her disappearance was part of a top secret mission. Some even believed that Amelia had survived the flight and spent the rest of her life undercover, or with a new identity.
If Amelia and Fred were able to land on another island in the Pacific, they may have lived for a time as castaways. Researchers visiting Nikumaroro have found intriguing items and artifacts that might be related to Amelia’s disappearance—such as a 1930s woman’s shoe and a jar of freckle cream, which she was known to use. But definitive evidence for any of the theories has yet to be found.
With a story as incredible as Amelia’s, perhaps anything is possible. People are still searching for evidence about her fate, and hopefully a groundbreaking clue will be discovered soon. Until then, Amelia’s legacy remains one of great bravery, accomplishment, and mystery.
THE EARHARTS’ OWN WORDS
The following quotations adapted in The Last Grand Adventure are things Amelia Earhart or her family members really did say:
“Our whole family loved the smell of a book.” Amelia’s mother, Amy Otis Earhart, described her family this way.
“Oh, Pidge, it’s just like flying!”: Amelia on riding the homemade roller coaster.
“Your eyes were given to you to see things and I want you to see and remember” was advice given by Amelia’s grandfather, Alfred Otis.
“Lots of times when you know what’s the matter, you don’t need to be afraid at all, do you?” Amelia made this remark as a child while on a train trip.
“The girl in brown who walks alone” was the caption for Amelia’s high school graduation photo.
“As soon as we left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly” and “I’d die if I didn’t” were what Amelia remembered thinking after her first airplane flight.
“How could I refuse such a shining adventure?”: Amelia on accepting the offer to be the first woman flown across the Atlantic.
“Hooray for the last grand adventure! I wish I had won, but it was worthwhile anyway.” Amelia wrote this in a good-bye letter to her father, in the event she did not return from her first Atlantic crossing.
“All I wished to do in the world . . . was to be a vagabond—in the air.” Amelia said this after her flight in the Friendship.
“I’m going because I love life and all it has to offer. I want every opportunity and adventure it can give, and I could never welch on one of them.” Amelia gave this explanation for going on her first Atlantic flight to a reporter afterward.
“Merely for the fun of it” was Amelia’s justification for her solo Atlantic flight.
“After midnight, the moon set, and I was alone with the stars. I have often said that the lure of flying is the lure of beauty . . .”: Amelia describes her solo Atlantic flight.
“WE KNEW YOU COULD DO IT AND NOW YOU HAVE STOP CHEERS CONGRATULATIONS MUCH LOVE MOTHER AND MURIEL”: This is the text of a congratulatory telegram from Amy Otis Earhart and Muriel Earhart Morrissey.
“The best mascot is a good mechanic!”: Amelia on lucky charms.
“You have scored again . . . [and] shown even the ‘doubting Thomases’ that aviation is a science which cannot be limited to men only”: from a congratulatory letter from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt after Amelia’s Pacific flight.
“Dare to live” was Amelia’s advice to young women.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adler, Jerry. “The Lady Vanishes.” Smithsonian, January 2015.
“Amelia Earhart.” American Experience. PBS, 1993. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/earhart/.
Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum (official website). http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org.
“Amelia Earhart Plane.” History Detectives, PBS, 2009. http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigation/amelia-earhart-plane/.
Earhart, Amelia. The Fun of It. Chicago: Academy Press, 1977.
*Fleming, Candice. Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart. New York: Schwartz & Wade, 2011.
*Grant, R. G. A Look at Life in the Sixties. Austin, TX: Raintree Steck-Vaughn Publishers, 2000.
*Hill, Laban Carrick. America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the ’60s. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007.
*Jerome, Kate Boehm. Who Was Amelia Earhart? New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 2002.
Lovell, Mary S. The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989.
Marshall, Patti. “Anita Neta Snook.” HistoryNet, March 12, 2012. http://www.historynet.com/anita-neta-snook.htm.
Morrissey, Muriel Earhart. Courage Is the Price: The Biography of Amelia Earhart. Wichita, KS: McCormick-Armstrong, 1963.
Rockwell, John, ed. The New York Times: The Times of the Sixties. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2014.
The Ninety-Nines, Inc (official website). http://www.ninety-nines.org.
“The Sixties.” PBS. http://www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/.
Unger, Debi and Irwin, eds. The Times Were A Changin’: The Sixties Reader. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.
Wels, Susan. Amelia Earhart: The Thrill of It. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2009.
*Books for young readers
FOR EDUCATORS
To find out more about this book and the history it includes, visit the Resources page at rebeccabehrens.com. Available for downlo
ad are:
The Last Grand Adventure Educator’s Guide
An educator’s guide for grades 4–7; it also provides tips for struggling readers and enrichment activities for advanced readers. Includes:
Prereading questions
Comprehension questions
Classroom activities
Bibliography for further research
US History/Social Studies Lesson Plan
References in The Last Grand Adventure to the real history of the 1960s are excellent points of entry into deeper study. This lesson plan will guide students to research some of the events and movements of the summer of 1967.
Book Club Discussion Guide
A reference with thought-provoking questions about The Last Grand Adventure for readers of all ages.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing a book is always an adventure, and on this one I was lucky to have fantastic travel companions. Many thanks to:
Alyson Heller and Tricia Lin, for helping me navigate my way through this story. Thanks to everyone at Simon & Schuster’s Aladdin imprint, especially Laura Lyn DiSiena, who created the beautiful design, and Katherine Devendorf and Carla Benton, who polished these words and kept the train on time, so to speak. A special thanks to Robyn Ng, who captured this story so perfectly in the cover art and map.
Suzie Townsend, for always keeping me on the right path. Special thanks to Sara Stricker and the whole team at New Leaf Literary, for all their enthusiasm, support, and hard work.
Tara Dairman and Michelle Schusterman, for reading the earliest drafts and providing fuel in the form of encouragement and ideas.
Kim Liggett, for making this writing life a joyride.