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Within a week, the Jenny was patched up and Liberal was all talk of the Flying Watsons as Adelaide swooped over town, dropping leaflets to promote her afternoon show and the dollar rides she would offer as a sideshow attraction to the circus that had pitched up overnight.

The weather was perfect for flying. No wind meant it was unbearably hot, but at least the dust didn’t blow.

It was dust that had caused Adelaide’s engine trouble.

It was dust that caused all their troubles lately, it seemed.

Emily was apprehensive as they drove to town. She couldn’t fully relax until she was sure Leonardo wasn’t there. After all, circus folk moved around. In many ways, there was more chance of him showing up in Kansas than there was of him staying in Chicago.

“You haven’t said a word since we left the house,” Henry said as they arrived at the fairground. “Something bothering you?”

“Nothing especially. I’m just quiet today.”

Quiet. Watchful. Her senses on high alert.

“Hurry up, Auntie Em!” Dorothy jumped out of the car. “We don’t want to miss anything!”

Dorothy’s excitement reminded Emily of herself, Nell, and Annie when the circus came to town: restless feet hurrying to get there as soon as possible, eager hands dragging their parents along, wide eyes staring in wonder at the brightly painted stalls and the majestic big top in the middle of the show grounds.

It was the same now, the sights and smells exactly as Emily remembered as she walked among the colorful stalls and past signs promoting the mysterious sideshow attractions.

Even the spectacle of the circus tent held the same tantalizing air of mystery as she stepped through the heavy velvet curtain.

It was like opening a door to another world, transporting her back through the years until it was Nell’s hand pulling her eagerly along and Annie’s voice that came in a stream of excited chatter as she pointed out jugglers on unicycles, a clown towering above her on stilts, and a strongman swallowing batons alight with flames.

“Look, Uncle Henry!” Dorothy shrieked. “Real lions!”

“And tigers!” he added. “And a dancing bear!”

Dorothy stared wide-eyed at the wagons containing the wild beasts that would perform in the ring for their tamers.

Several wagons had open sides to allow a glimpse of the snarling animals pacing back and forth behind the iron bars.

She said she wished they could be set free, and hurried off to watch acrobats in sequined costumes as they tumbled and performed to the delight of the gathered crowds.

But it was at the entrance to a fortune teller’s tent that Dorothy stopped.

“Can I have my fortune read, Auntie Em?”

Emily had been fascinated by the fortune tellers when she was a young girl, but her mother would never let her go inside, declaring it a waste of a nickel. Frances Kelly had no time for such nonsense.

“Can I, Aunt Em? Please?”

Emily relented. “Very well. But you’re not to believe anything she says. It’s just a bit of fun.”

The interior of the tent was dark, lit only by the light of a flickering candle.

It took a moment for Emily’s eyes to adjust. On a small table, a crystal ball sat on a wooden ring, elevating it slightly above a crimson velvet cloth.

A woman sat at the table. A veil concealed most of her face, leaving only heavily kohled eyes visible.

She beckoned Emily forward. “Come closer, dear. And your daughter. Let us look into the crystal.”

“Oh, this isn’t my daughter. She’s my niece.” Emily turned to Dorothy. “Go ahead, Dorothy. Sit down.”

Dorothy slid into the chair opposite the veiled lady and passed a nickel across the table.

Emily stood to one side as the fortune teller swirled her hands around the crystal orb, never quite touching it as she muttered a sort of incantation.

“Yes, here we are. I can see a pretty lady, and a man. He has his arm around her. She has a child in her arms. A baby girl.”

Dorothy leaned forward, peering into the crystal. “That will be my mother and father. They d—”

“Died. Yes, dear. A terrible tragedy. And I can see that a great sadness is upon you, and your dear aunt. Your mother’s…”

“Sister!”

“Yes. Her sister. She misses her terribly. Regrets things that were left unsaid.” She glanced at Emily briefly.

Emily let out a frustrated breath, realizing she’d given the woman too much information by saying Dorothy was her niece.

The fortune teller returned her gaze to the crystal. “I can hear laughter in a happy home. But not here. In a city, far away.”

Dorothy’s eyes widened. “That must be Chicago. I used to live there.”

“Yes. With your parents. But now you live in Kansas, with your aunt and uncle. And a little dog?”

Dorothy looked puzzled. “We don’t have a dog. We have horses and cows, though.”

“Then perhaps the dog will come later, dear.”

Dorothy turned to Emily. “A dog, Auntie Em! I promise I’ll look after him!”

Emily looked on with a cynical eye as the well-rehearsed charade continued.

“And now, what is this I see? A picket fence, a farm, and…” The woman leaned back suddenly, as if the crystal had given her a shock.

“What is it?” Dorothy asked. “What do you see?”

“I see a dark cloud approaching…such darkness…a black swirling wind…”

Emily had heard enough. She grabbed Dorothy’s hand. “Come along, Dorothy. We don’t want to miss the start of Adelaide’s show.”

The fortune teller covered the crystal with the velvet cloth. “Does the child have dreams?”

Emily hesitated. “Of course. All children have dreams. And you’re nothing but an impostor, filling her head with nonsense for a dime.”

Emily pulled Dorothy out of the tent. “Come along now. Hurry, or we’ll miss the start of the show.”

Dorothy ran to Henry. “We’re getting a dog, Uncle Henry! The fortune teller said so.”

He looked at Emily, puzzled. “Is that so?”

Emily shook her head. They were not getting a dog.

The three of them set out to the field to join the potluck picnic where they met Ingrid and her children, the Millers, and Zeb and May Lucas. Dorothy and Pieter couldn’t sit still with excitement. Adelaide’s show didn’t disappoint.

The plane looped in ever higher circles, twisting and turning as it fell in a steep dive back toward the field, pulling up just in time as everyone gasped and shrieked with delight. Dorothy was especially enthralled.

“Says she’s planning to take a rainmaker up with her,” Henry said to the other men. “If he lets off his dynamite sticks that high up, the rain might come after all.”

Hank thought that was a great idea. “Does she know someone?”

“She’d headed to Dalhart to find that man everyone’s been talking about. Promised she’d bring him back if she finds him. It’ll cost some, though.”

“Do you think we could raise the money?” Hank asked.

Henry shrugged. “Folk are struggling bad. I don’t know that we could. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, though.”

Toward the end of the show, Adelaide did a loop-the-loop high over the fields, a plume of smoke billowing from the tail as letters appeared magically in the sky.

Dorothy shrieked with excitement. “Look, Pieter! It’s spelling out a word!”

Emily tipped her head back, shielding her eyes from the dazzling sun as the trail of smoke formed the words “T H E E N D!”

Everyone on the ground burst into applause as a banner trailed behind the plane declaring THE FLYING WATSONS WILL BE BACK SOON! and Adelaide guided the Jenny back to the makeshift landing strip in the parched field.

Wilhelmina West tutted. “Maybe everyone will get back to work now, instead of standing around staring at the sky like prairie dogs on watch.”

Laurie turned to her. “You came to see what all the fuss was about, though, didn’t you.”

“I came to spread the word about a more sensible life.” Wilhelmina pressed a Kansas Woman’s Christian Temperance Union pamphlet into Laurie’s hands. “Always room for more to help our cause.”

The West sisters were proud supporters of the temperance union and had recently started lobbying for movie censorship.

They wore their white ribbons with pride as they marched around with their banners and high morals.

The gathering for Adelaide’s show had offered an opportunity to press their message into lots of people’s hands.

Emily had no time for them and their strict moral code.

She’d seen enough prohibition marches in Chicago to last a lifetime.

Laurie returned the pamphlet. “Oh, you don’t want the likes of me showing up, Mina. I’m as morally bankrupt as I am financially bankrupt.”

Emily, Ingrid, and May stifled a laugh and turned to look the other way.

Pieter stood up suddenly, bumping Dorothy’s elbow just as she was taking a drink from a bottle of soda. Dorothy dropped the bottle, sending the brown sticky liquid all over Wilhelmina’s shoes.

“Look what you’ve done!” she shrieked. “Brand-new shoes, ruined!”

Dorothy apologized. “I’m sorry, Miss West. It was an accident. I didn’t mean to do it.”

Wilhelmina dabbed dramatically at her shoes with a handkerchief, making a great fuss about it before she stood up and jabbed a finger at Dorothy. “You should pay more attention, foolish, silly girl!”

Emily had heard enough. “It was an accident. The child has apologized.”

“The child’s a nuisance.”

“And you’re a mean bully, Wilhelmina West!

” Emily countered. “Why don’t you take your pamphlets and your precious shoes and go home.

Nobody wants you here.” Emily was surprised by the anger in her voice but was glad of it all the same.

“Come along, Dorothy. Pieter. Let’s see about getting you a ride in Miss Adelaide’s plane. ”

As they walked away, Henry laughed. “Well said, Em. She needs bringing down a peg or two.”

Emily’s heart raced. “I didn’t mean to lose my temper, but the woman is insufferable. I’d happily see an entire house dropped on her new shoes, never mind a bottle of soda.”

They watched from a safe distance as Adelaide brought the plane safely down, the wheels bouncing over the hard-baked fields until she came to a stop and jumped down from the cockpit.

She signed autographs and posed for photographs for the local newspapers, gave a peck on the cheek to the men who dared to ask and shook the hands of women who expressed their admiration for her in a more respectful way than their silly schoolboy husbands.

An eager line of those who could afford a dollar ride waited patiently for their turn to be taken up in the Jenny over the fields.

Pieter grabbed Ingrid’s hand. “Can I have a ride, Mama? Please!”

Ingrid shook her head. “I don’t have a dollar to spare. Maybe next time.”

The boy’s face fell. He couldn’t hide his disappointment.

Henry leaned toward Pieter. “Wait a minute. What’s this you’re hiding?” He pretended to pull something from behind Pieter’s ear and produced the two tickets Adelaide had offered in return for board and lodging. “Go along, you two. See what all the fuss is about.”

Emily bit her tongue as Dorothy and Pieter ran off.

She’d always been considered the brave one among her sisters when they were little.

Even during the war, when she’d volunteered with the Red Cross, she’d put her own fears aside and done what was best, what was right.

But caution and experience had crept up on her with age, and her mind seemed to always turn to the worst possible outcome, especially when it came to Dorothy.

Where she’d once seen adventure, she now saw danger.

Slow down. Be careful. Don’t go any farther. Don’t go any higher.

“I hope it’s safe,” she said, her hand at her chest as the plane took off and climbed higher and higher. “Adelaide said the Jenny was a bit beaten up.”

Henry put his arm around Emily’s shoulder. “Not everything is dangerous, Em. Sometimes it’s fun. You should ask Adelaide to take you up.”

“Up there? I’d rather join Wilhelmina West’s temperance league.”

But as Emily watched the Jenny looping effortlessly through the sky, part of her longed to leave this decaying land, to soar above the dusty fields where the air was clean. Up there, maybe all her troubles would melt away, if only for a little while.

For now, she tried to relax and enjoy the spectacle. After all, she’d seen no posters for a balloon aerialist, no sign of Leonardo anywhere. She’d been silly to even entertain the idea. There was nothing for her to worry about. No need to give Leonardo Stregone another thought.