Chapter 1
Betty is a Grandmother. She looks like a grandmother but doesn’t think like your grandmother or mine. When not cooking or babysitting, she does what she does best—inventing things. She calls them “Gadgets or Do-Wackys.”
Betty insists everything will be useful someday, especially the wind-powered dog walker and grass-growing timer.
She has a dream. It is her secret wish to invent a special car for Betty. This car will not collect bumps and dents whenever she drives it. It will not attach to shopping trolleys or the postman’s bike. This will be a car for Betty, a car that behaves correctly.
Until she solves this slight hiccup of a problem, Betty cycles everywhere.
She is easy to find with her hair pulled into a high bun, which perches on her head like a small bird resting. Her sparkling eyes are large and dark brown. When she laughs, stars tumble from her eyes.
(If you would like to see a picture of Betty – please ask in the comments box – or you could draw your own Betty)
Chapter 2
Baby-sitting and bird-watching
Her idea happened while Betty was minding Jim, her grandson. He was sitting in his high chair eating. Jim liked eating. Betty watched carefully as he ate because Jim loved putting his hands in his dish. His food often ends up on the floor, on Betty, and not in Jim’s tummy. Betty did not want any messy accidents. But, as you and I know, many great things happen by accident.
“W-h-a-t ?” Jim asked, waving his spoon about. Great blobs of yoghurt flew off his spoon and landed on Sourpuss, her cat, who was sleeping on the floor. Jim smiled, put a spoon of yoghurt on his head, and then rubbed it. “What?” Jim asked as he made a funny face.
“What indeed, Jim!” Betty said. She stopped. “Well done, your first word. Say it again.”
“Whaaaattt?” he shouted over and over again.
After picking Jim up, she danced around the room. It was a hop, skip, and jump dance over the toys on the floor.
I wish I could fly over this mess, she thought. But to do that, I would need a flying suit or gadget. The idea jingled about in her head. Betty smiled. “What a brilliant idea – a suit to help a person fly!”
Later, when Jim was back home, Betty began to plan. “How heavy should it be?” She said, waving her hands in the air.
She went outside. “I need to study the birds for clues,” she said to the blackbird sitting on her fence. He flew off, and Betty followed him. A feather landed on her nose. She took a deep breath and went, ‘puff’, and off it flew into the air.
“If humans had as many feathers as birds, then they would fly, wouldn’t they?” Betty needed help collecting bird feathers, so she made several phone calls.
Chapter 3
The Feather Hunt.
The children fidgeted and whispered excitedly as they stood in Betty’s garden. Her oldest grandchildren and their friends loved helping. It didn’t matter if the inventions didn’t work. The children knew something great would happen if she asked them to help.
“What do you want us to do, Gran?” Harry asked. Harry was a tall, thin boy whose hair stuck out at funny angles. He was in a hurry to get back to his game boy.
“I need your help, please. I want you to collect oodles of feathers.”
“What type of feathers?” This was from Sara, who was small and always had a piece of bubblegum in her mouth.
“Dog feathers,” said her brother, Tom, with a snigger. He thought he was Betty’s funniest grandson.
Sara glared at him. “I meant what size. Big ones or little ones, Betty?”
Betty thought, ‘All sizes, types and colours, but only ones that have fallen off birds. You are not to chase the birds.’ She added this as she noticed Jonathon eyeing up a very fat pigeon waddling across the road.
The children set off at a run.
Feather pillows lost their feathers. The empty pillows were stuffed with the most unusual items: old socks (mainly of the smelly variety) and some with sheep’s wool. Harry had a brainwave about filling the empty pillowcase with cabbage from the garden (he disliked cabbage and decided it would be a better way to use cabbages.) The children looked everywhere. Hen houses and hedgerows were searched. Trees were climbed. Birdcages were emptied of feathers while the birds watched in wonder.
Betty put the feathers in a box in her workroom. She went to sleep that night, dreaming of skies filled with flying children—much safer than aeroplanes, Betty decided.
Chapter 4
The Flying Suit.
Very early the next day, Betty went to her workroom after eating a big breakfast. She stared at the large box packed with feathers before emptying them onto her workbench. They tumbled out, some as bright as the sun, others as dark as a lump of coal and sat there waiting. Betty felt a tingle of excitement. She took out an old pair of trousers and a jacket. Soon, she was busy glueing them to the fabric. It was a tricky, sticky job.
At one o clock, everything, including Betty, had feathers stuck to it.
‘Now, for the most important bit. I must find light wings to finish my suit.’ She walked around her workroom. Looking up, she smiled. Two old kites were sitting on a shelf. She carried them outside for a shower and a wash. Next, she cut and sewed them into wings.
By nightfall, she was dancing about with excitement. The flying suit was finished. “It looks spectacular,” she smiled.
Next on her list was to test it. Betty needed to think about this carefully. “Of course, there is only one person for the job – me,” she decided as she left the shed for dinner.
“Yes, I’ll do it” She licked her lips and rubbed her hands together, happy with her decision.
Betty sensed an adventure about to happen.
Chapter 5
The test flight.
Betty was awake early. She sang loudly and woke the sun up. It got grumpy and hid behind a dark cloud. Betty looked for warm clothes because she feared the sun would forget to shine. On went her warmest jeans, thick socks, boots, two tee shirts, a huge woolly jumper and a matching hat. Putting on her sunglasses, she said, ‘I’m ready.”
With the feathery suit sitting in her wheelbarrow, she pushed it to the old barn behind her house and carefully pulled on the suit. She flapped the wings about and giggled. “They whistle,” she told a bored-looking field mouse.
“How and where will I land?” She looked about her. The ground looked hard. The cows in a field beside her looked lumpy.
“What I need is a nice soft landing pad.” Betty opened the door of the barn and smiled. She was staring at great big mounds of hay. “I’d prefer to land with a bounce instead of a thump.” She said.
Looking at the ladder to the top of the hay barn almost made her go home. It was a long way up to the top of the barn.
Feeling excited, Betty climbed the ladder. It took a long time, as her flapping wings kept getting in the way. Finally, she was ready. Betty pushed open the large window and looked out. The sun, awake and interested, was beaming down on her.
“I’m not too sure about this,” she whispered.
Then, a gust of wind came hurtling in through the doorway. The wind sang, “This will be fun,” as it neatly collected Betty on its way out. She was tumbling along. This was too fast for her.
“Oh dear, I’m not too sure about this at all,” she muttered to a passing bird. Betty began to flap her arms up and down at a terrible pace. She realized something important. It didn’t matter how fast she flapped her arms because the current of air was carrying her. The wind was far too strong. A few minutes later, she was being pulled high into the sky.
Betty was tired.’ Oh my, I need a rest, she thought.
A small aeroplane arrived with a roar of its engines. Ah, a taxi, she thought and flew towards the plane. She tried to sit on the roof. But landing was tricky. Betty kept shouting things like, “Mind my new wings, you silly birds!” to the birds who came to watch. They were getting in her way.
Chapter 6
Finding home.
It took a long time, but Betty was finally sitting on the plane’s wing, looking around her. The view was amazing. “Awesome sauce, ” she said. Everything below her looked tiny. ‘I wonder where my house is?’ Another question popped into her head: How do I get back?
Meanwhile, the pilot couldn’t understand why one side of the plane was dipping slightly. The co-pilot looked out the window and saw Betty. He rubbed his eyes to make her disappear. It didn’t work. Betty was waving at him. “There’s a granny sitting on the wing!”
The pilot chuckled, “What? A Granny, you are dreaming.” Then he glanced outside. “Oh my.”
“What shall I do?” the co-pilot asked.
“Ask her to buzz off politely. If she is like my granny, and you sound rude, we will be in trouble.”
Opening the window, the co-pilot said, “Excuse me. Would you mind skipping off our wing and flying away?”
Betty stared at him. Was he stupid? she wondered.’ If she knew where to fly to, then she would not be sitting on his plane.’ She said, “Please tell me how to get to Ballytrickle?”
“Two miles that way.” He pointed his finger behind Betty.
“Thanks ever so much,” said Betty. Turning towards the sun which was hiding behind a cloud again, she flew home. Swooping low, she saw a toddler playing in his garden. His toy car was round. He jumped when he saw Betty. His car wobbled for a bit. He started to cry!
“Sorry baby,” Betty whispered and flew away. Seeing the giant hay beds, she aimed at them and closed her eyes. She bounced along the hay until she ran out of hay and rolled onto the ground.
‘Owch!’ Betty sat up slowly. With a star-twinkling smile, she said, “I am in one piece.” Then she stood slowly to make sure. Putting her wings and suit back into the barrow, she walked home.
“I fly like a bird but don’t eat like one. Rashers, sausages, egg and tea all for little old me,” she sang as she walked. An extra-long nap followed this. When she opened her eyes, Betty found some of her grandchildren watching her.
“Gran, did the flying suit work?” Sara asked. She loved hearing about Betty’s inventions.
“It did. It was brilliant at first, but then I found it very tiring. I don’t think people are supposed to fly by themselves. It is hard to think about landing while remembering to flap our wings.”
Jonathon arrived at that moment waving a paper.
“Did you get off the ground, then?” Harry nudged Jonathon aside, saying, “I bet she didn’t,” in his superior way, his nose stuck somewhere up in the clouds.
“She did; look, Gran, you are in the paper,” Jonathon said, showing them a newspaper copy.
There was a photo of Betty sitting on the wing of the plane wearing a very bright smile, sunglasses, and a feathered suit.
Jonathon stared at the photo, having noticed something. Turning about, he asked Betty, “Who were you talking to?”
“The pilot. I was lost.” She smiled. “But he was like you, very kind and polite. He told me which way to go, and here I am.”
“Yes, you are. But I think I would rather be sitting in the plane, not on it when I fly. I am not as brave as you, Gran. What are you going to invent next?”
Bending down, she hugged Jonathon to her. “While we think about that, how about we have a hot chocolate and cake.”