Chapter 12
Danny allows Cal to drop him at the airport.
“Can we please talk about this?” Danny asks in the car.
“Let’s let you worry about you and me worry about me.”
“Sometimes it feels like you insist on knowing everything about me but refuse to let me know you at all,” Danny says.
“Well,” Cal says. “What a thing to tell a person.”
Danny tries to convince Cal to drop him at the door, but he insists on parking and walking him to security. It is impossibly lonely— to be shadowed by someone who does not really want to be seen, like a ghost. What Danny feels is haunted.
“Okay,” Danny says at security.
“Fly safe! Text me when you’re back in the big city.”
“Will do.”
They hug. Danny gets in line and listens for the sound of his father walking away, which, of course, he does not hear.
“Hey, kid!” Cal calls.
Danny adjusts the strap of his duffel and turns.
“To the mooooon,” Cal says.
Danny’s throat feels raw. He says, “And back.”