Leaving Blythe River: A Novel Read Online Free Page A

out of breath. In his defense, they were unusually heavy bags.
    “Good thing I’m not hiking at high altitude,” he told his mom.
    “Get your passport,” she said. “And don’t you dare tell me you don’t have it, because I reminded you three times.”
    “I have it.”
    He pulled it out of his jacket pocket and handed it to her. She handed both passports to the airline employee, a tall woman who scrutinized them closely before setting them on her keyboard and beginning to type.
    “Destination?”
    “Cusco,” his mother said. “With a stopover in Lima.”
    “I just need to see your tickets.”
    Silence. Ethan watched his mother’s face, startled at the blankness he saw there. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the earth was holding still.
    “Tickets?” his mother asked. It was more than just a question. It was a criticism of the request, an accusation of its foolishness. As if the woman had asked to see their sailplanes or their giraffes.
    “Yes, ma’am,” the woman said, either ignoring the subtext or too tired and burned out to recognize it.
    “They’re e-tickets. Everything is e-tickets these days.”
    “No, ma’am. Not everything. Some smaller non-U.S. airlines still use paper tickets on certain flights.”
    “But we weren’t given paper tickets!”
    Ethan could read the panic in his mother’s tone now. This was not a simple misunderstanding. They were missing something they really would need to board this flight. It dawned on Ethan that they might not be going to Peru that night. It was a nearly impossible chasm for his brain to jump.
    “Well, you should have been issued paper tickets, ma’am. Did you book the flight through a travel agency?”
    “My husband did.”
    “You might want to call him. If you wouldn’t mind moving over enough that I can help the next person while you call . . .”
    Swallowing what felt like his heart, Ethan leaned on the counter and watched his mom call home on her cell phone. For too long. With every beat that passed, he could see the irritation and fear grow in her eyes. If his dad was ever going to pick up, Ethan was sickeningly sure he would have by then.
    “Damn!” his mother shouted suddenly. She raised the phone as if to smash it on the counter, then stopped herself. “I’ll try the landline,” she said.
    More waiting. More of that sense of growing panic.
    Ethan made up his mind to let the trip go. To simply release that beautiful dream. It was better than being tense and afraid. Anything was. And if everything somehow worked out, and the dream was handed back to him, so much the better.
    “I’m going to kill him,” she said under her breath.
    “Not picking up?”
    “No. I swear he has the worst timing.”
    His mother waved at the airline employee. Tried to talk to the woman. All she got for her trouble was a signal that Ethan and his mother would have to wait until she was finished with the traveler currently being helped.

    “Okay,” the tall woman said. “There’s another flight to Lima leaving at ten forty tomorrow morning. You can go home, see if your husband has the tickets. If not, he can contact the travel agency, and you can try to get them in time. I can switch your reservations to that flight right now if you want. We have seats available.”
    Ethan’s mom looked into his eyes. Her panic seemed to be fading. Well, not so much fading. Not going away on its own. She seemed to be forcing it into some kind of submission. Breathing it down, one lungful of air at a time.
    “That’s not so bad, right, Ethan? It’s less than twelve hours’ difference.”
    “Yeah,” Ethan said, still thinking it felt like a big deal. “We’ll manage. Besides. What choice do we have?”

    Ethan had no intention of sleeping in the cab, and no memory of drifting off. But the next thing he knew, his mom was shaking him by the shoulder. He looked out the window to see the front of their apartment building.
    He stumbled onto the cold street as she