It was an unaccompanied-minor form, which adults had to sign to allow their children to get on planes by themselves. The parent picking up the child also had to sign it. After his parents were divorced Pete flew back and forth between Wisconsin and White Plains so often he knew all about the airlines’ procedures for kids who flew alone.
“I have to say,” she said to Mo, smiling down at Pete, “he’s the best-behaved youngster I’ve ever had on one of my flights. How old are you, Pete?”
“I’m ten,” he answered. “But I’m going to be eleven next week.”
She squeezed his shoulder, then looked at Mo. “I’m so sorry about what happened,” she said in a soft voice. “The trooper who put Pete on the plane told me. Your boyfriend was killed in a hunting accident?”
“No,” Mo said, struggling to say the words, “he wasn’t my boyfriend.”
Though Pete was thinking: Of course he was your boyfriend. Except you didn’t want the court to find that out because then Dad wouldn’t have to pay you alimony anymore. Which is why she and Doug had been working so hard to convince Pete that Doug was “just a friend. ”
“Can't I have friends? Aren 't I allowed? ”
No, you’re not, Pete thought. You’re not going to get away with dumping me the way you dumped Dad.
“Can we go home, Mo?” he asked, looking as sad as he could. “I feel real funny about what happened.”
“Sure, honey.”
“Mo?” the flight attendant asked.
Mo, staring out the window, said, “When he was five Pete tried to write ‘Mother’ on my birthday card. He just wrote ‘M-O’ and didn’t know how to spell the rest. It became my nickname.”
“What a sweet story,” the woman said and looked like she was going to cry. “ Pete, you come back and fly with us real soon. ”
“Okay.”
“Hey, what’re you going to do for your birthday?”
“I don’t know,” he said. Then he looked up at his mother. “I was thinking about maybe going hiking. In Colorado. Just the two of us.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeffery Deaver is the bestselling author of The Blue Nowhere, The Bone Collector, The Empty Chair, The Devil's Teardrop, and fourteen other suspense novels. His books have been translated into a dozen languages. He’s been nominated for four Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America and is a two-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Readers Award for Best Short Story of the Year. His book A Maiden 's Grave was made into an HBO movie starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin, and his novel The Bone Collector was made into a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington. Deaver was born in Chicago, attended the University of Missouri, and received his law degree from Fordham University in New York. In 1990, he quit practicing law to write full-time. He lives in California and Virginia.
