Chapter 2

“Where are you? Dad will pick you up and bring you your suitcase. I threw some clothes in there and Dad printed out your boarding pass. We think you should just cut this short and get out of town. Maybe you two sweethearts can work this out while you’re gone. And don’t bother seeing this Sally person anymore.” He could hear his mother take a deep breath. She sighed. She whimpered just a little tiny bit. “I know how boys are. It was just a moment of temptation, a weakness, a flaw. Why, once your father even…but I forgave him, and I hope Flossie will forgive you too.”

He told her where he was, and waited, out of sight, until his father pulled up. He climbed into the car, and his father reached over and shook his hand. “You sly dog!” he fawned. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!”

Now Jack wanted to whimper. His father, however, went on proudly. “I must say, that Sally must be a looker, with that deep voice, and cuss? Her father must have been a Navy man like me for her to learn that kind of language!”

All Jack could think was, can I just die now, please? And beneath that was, they think Sal’s a girl! I’m not going to die after all!

He was afraid to check his cell phone, but in the end, it fell down the back of the front seat of his dad’s car anyway. When he realized the next day that he had lost it, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Neither did his parents, when they listened to all the messages on it the next day.

The hotel was boring. The bus to the airport was boring. Checking in was horrible, and he actually got lost before reaching the security lines. A very nice young man with a gun escorted him back out of the secure area to where he needed to be. He even offered to give him a cavity search, which made Jack blush like a girl. When he did go through security, he was scared to death and looked eight kinds of guilty, but the security guy had spoken to the examiner and they were chuckling when he went through the X-ray machine. He almost died when the guard spoke to him, “Is that a gun in your pants or are you happy to see us?”

As he put his shoes back on, he noticed the hole in his socks. His mother had packed that pair. His suitcase was long gone ahead, hopefully on its way to Maui, also. He wondered what the heck she’d put in there besides holey socks.

Well he’d find out soon enough. But not when he got to Seattle, because that didn’t happen. And actually, not ever, but by that time he didn’t really care anymore; he didn’t care about Maui or interning on a boat or even going back for a Master’s Degree.

So, Jack was sitting in his window seat, bored, because he didn’t have his phone and had no idea where it was. He had a burger before he boarded, and was regretting it. Maybe because he’d emptied out the tiny bottles of booze he’d found in the hotel fridge. He didn’t care, he figured his mother owed him that, and his father wouldn’t mind. He had a bit, just a bit, mind you, of a hangover to begin with. He wanted to order a drink right now but after all, it was only eight in the morning. He’d been up since five, and hadn’t gone to sleep until after two A.M.

So when he looked out the window and saw the flames and smoke coming out of the engine, he wasn’t quite sure if he was awake or asleep and dreaming. Then his seatmate, who was a hefty older woman with gray hair and a hot pink polyester pantsuit out of history somewhere, started screaming. She stuck her arm out right in front of him, pointing a shaking finger out the window. Her shrieks set off the two-year-old and his mother seated behind him.

“Okay folks, we have a minor technical problem,” came the pilot’s voice over the din as more shrieking ensued. The loudspeaker continued blurting out phrases that he could only barely make out. He was only sure he heard, “Bend over and kiss your ass goodbye,” and “Shit shit shit shit fuck.” The woman stopped screaming and turned to him. “Kiss me, I’m eighty-three years old and I’ve never been kissed. I don’t want to die a virgin either but a kiss will do!” She grabbed him by the ears and planted her quivering lips on his mouth before he could resist.