The man and woman were rapidly fading. The man spoke again, and this time Oliver heard a small whisper.

You have a destiny…

What? Oliver stammered. What do you mean? I dont understand.

But before either of them had a chance to speak again, they faded out entirely. Theyd gone.

Come back! Oliver yelled into the emptiness.

Then, as if speaking into his ear, he heard the wispy voice of the woman say, You will save mankind.

Olivers eyes fluttered open. He was back in his alcove bed, bathed in the pale, blue light coming in through the window. It was morning. He could feel his heart thrumming.

The dream had shaken him to the core. What had they meant about him having a destiny? About saving mankind? And who were the man and woman anyway? Figments of his imagination, or something else? It was all too much to fathom.

As the initial shock of the dream began to wear off, Oliver felt a new sensation take over. Hope. Somewhere, deep inside of him, he felt that he was about to experience a momentous day, that everything was about to change.

CHAPTER FOUR

Olivers good mood was elevated further when he realized his first class of the day was science, and that meant hed get to see Ms. Belfry again. Even as he crossed the playground, ducking beneath basketballs that he suspected were deliberately being aimed at his head, Olivers sense of excitement only grew.

He reached the staircase and succumbed to the force of the children, who pushed him like a surfer all the way up to the fourth floor. Then he pushed his way out onto the landing and headed for the classroom.

He was first. Ms. Belfry was inside already, in a gray linen dress, setting up a row of small models across the front of her desk. Oliver saw there was a little biplane, a hot air balloon, a space rocket, and a modern airplane.

Is todays lesson about flight? he asked.

Ms. Belfry startled, clearly not having realized one of her students had entered.

Oh, Oliver, she said, beaming. Good morning. Yes, it is. Now, I suspect you know a thing or two about these kinds of inventions.

Oliver nodded. His inventors book had a whole section on flight, from the first balloons invented by the French Montgolfier brothers, through to the Wright Brothers early airplane design, and all the way up to rocket science. Like the rest of the pages of the book, hed read this section so many times he had most of it committed to memory.

Ms. Belfry smiled like shed already guessed Oliver would be a fountain of knowledge on this particular subject.

You might have to help me explain some of the physics to the others, she told him.