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Chapter 2

Armstrong's notebook said this:

When I had dinner with my pilot friends, it was clear. They didn't know of any unusual dangers in the upper layers of the atmosphere. They had not flown that high. I didn't say anything either, but I thought about it. Yes, there have been other people who have been higher, but they were not in airplanes. They were in large hot-air balloons or climbing mountains. And still it was on my mind. What happens when an airplane goes higher than that? Is there a danger zone?

Airplanes were invented 20 years ago. Why haven't we asked this question before? The answer is obvious. Earlier flights were restricted. The engines were not strong. They simply couldn't fly to the upper layers of the atmosphere, what I consider as potentially a danger zone. It was, in fact, a remarkable achievement to even fly over mountains. But what will we find at 30,000 ... or higher?

And if we see nothing, does that mean there is nothing? Imagine this: a visitor from outer space might come to Earth a thousand times and never see a tiger. And yet tigers exist. And if the visitor comes down into a jungle, he might be eaten by the tiger.

I believe there are jungles of the upper air, and there are worse things than tigers that live there. I believe in time people will map these jungles. Even now, I can name two of them. One is over the Pau-Biarritz district of France. Another is just over my head as I write here in my house in England.

I first started thinking about this when I heard about the disappearance of the other pilots. Everyone said they fell into the sea, but that didn't seem right to me. They found their planes, but not their bodies. That seems unusual.

And then there was the story from a man with a telescope. He was watching one of the pilots' planes very high in the air. He saw it shoot straight up. It didn't fly up. It didn't move like a plane moves at all. It looked like it was pulled straight up.

And then there was the death of a man named Connor. There were many stories in the newspapers and lots of gossip. However, no one fully solved the mystery of what happened to him. His plane fell out of the sky. He never left the plane and died in the pilot's seat. But died of what? "Heart disease" said the doctors. I don't believe it! Connor's heart was as strong as mine. A man named Venables was the only person at Connor's side when he died. Venables said Connor was shivering. He looked like a man who had been badly scared. "He died of fright," said Venables, but he could not imagine what Connor was frightened about. Connor said only one word to Venables. It sounded like "monsters." That was the last word of poor Connor. And he did die of fright, just as Venables thought.

INSTRUCTIONS: Answer the questions based on Chapter 2.

1. Setting

Where does the story take place?

When does the story take place?

2. Characters

Who is the main character?

What do we know about that person?
Who is the narrator (the person telling the story)? We don’t know.
What do we know about that person?

Who are the other characters in this chapter?

3. Plot

What happens during this chapter?
Why is that important to the story?

4. Theme

We have read only two chapters, but can you predict what the theme of the story might be? In your opinion, what do you think the author wants to tell the reader?