The phone in my hand was black. Silent. Heavier than my backpack.<\/span><\/p>\n Find your own way home.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The words echoed in the sudden, roaring silence of my head. The laughter from the call\u2014Kylie\u2019s, Noah\u2019s, Calvin\u2019s\u2014felt like it was still happening, a tinny, cruel sound buzzing in my ears. The gate agent was still smiling, her voice a distant, muffled sound over the intercom, announcing the final boarding call for Honolulu. My flight. The flight that was leaving without me.<\/span><\/p>\n I sat motionless, my fingers locked around the plastic armrest. I tried to make the tears stop, but they wouldn\u2019t. They weren\u2019t loud, sobbing tears. They were the hot, silent kind that just spilled over, blurring the world into streaks of fluorescent light and moving shapes.<\/span><\/p>\n Pathological and needy.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n I shrank into the chair, trying to make myself invisible. People were walking past, rolling their bags, their faces excited. They were going somewhere. I was\u2026 nowhere. I was an eight-year-old piece of \u201cbaggage\u201d left behind at Gate 14.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHoney? Are you okay? Is your momma in the restroom?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n I looked up. A man in a blue airport uniform was frowning down at me. He had a kind face, but his eyes were full of procedures.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2026 she left,\u201d I whispered, the words choking me.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLost, then. Okay, that\u2019s fine. We\u2019ll find her.\u201d He reached for his radio.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not lost,\u201d I said, my voice a little stronger.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI was left.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n His hand paused on the radio. He didn\u2019t believe me. I could see it in his eyes. Who leaves an eight-year-old at an airport?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHoney, let\u2019s just go to the office. We\u2019ll make an announcement.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s on the plane,\u201d I said, pointing at the gate, where the last passengers were disappearing down the jet bridge.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cShe\u2019s going to Hawaii. She told me to find my own way home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The man\u2019s face changed. The procedural kindness disappeared, replaced by something sharp and serious. He spoke into his radio.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got a possible\u2026 situation. Gate 14. A minor. Unaccompanied.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It took twenty minutes. Twenty minutes of me sitting in a sterile, beige room painted with cheerful, mocking primary colors. Plastic chairs. A teddy bear with one eye missing sitting on a shelf. The room smelled like hand sanitizer and stale coffee.<\/span><\/p>\n A woman named Mrs. VGA\u2014I saw the name on her badge\u2014knelt in front of me. She smelled like spearmint gum and the lotion my teacher used.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSweetheart, is there anyone else we can call? Any other family members?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I hesitated. My world had just been reduced to my mother, and my mother had just\u2026 evaporated. Mom always said Dad didn\u2019t care. That he was a ghost. A man made of money and empty promises.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s gone, Leah. It\u2019s just us now. He chose his business over you.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n But I had a secret. Deep in the back of my mind, I had a password. A string of numbers I\u2019d seen once in her old, worn-out address book, written in tiny, faded script next to a name I wasn\u2019t supposed to say.\u00a0<\/span>Gordon Calvinson.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0I\u2019d memorized it, repeating it in my head at night like a prayer I didn\u2019t understand.<\/span><\/p>\n My fingers were shaking so hard I could barely point at the phone on her desk.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2026 I have another number,\u201d I stuttered.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy\u2026 my daddy\u2019s.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Mrs. VGA\u2019s expression was pitying. She was probably expecting a dead line. A voicemail. Another parent who wouldn\u2019t pick up. I recited the number. She dialed. She put it on speakerphone, her pen hovering over a yellow legal pad.<\/span><\/p>\n One ring. Two rings. Three rings. A sharp\u00a0<\/span>click<\/span><\/i>\u00a0.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGordon Calvinson speaking.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n His voice was deep. Clear. It sounded\u2026 real. It wasn\u2019t the voice of a ghost. Mrs. VGA looked at me, her eyebrows raised, prompting me. I couldn\u2019t breathe.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSir, this is\u2014\u201d she began.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDaddy?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The word was so small, I wasn\u2019t sure I\u2019d said it. But the silence on the other end of the line was absolute. Then, a sharp, choked intake of breath.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLeah? \u2026Leah, is that you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The dam broke. The tears I\u2019d been holding back exploded.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d I sobbed.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMom left me. At the airport. She went to Hawaii and told me to find my own way home. I don\u2019t know what to do\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n What happened next felt like the world tilting on its axis. The voice on the phone didn\u2019t panic. It didn\u2019t yell. It became a focused, sharp, powerful blade.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhere are you? What\u2019s your exact location? Which airport?\u201d I told him.<\/p>\n \u201cDenver. Gate 14. Now I\u2019m in an office.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLeah, listen to me. You are safe. Nothing bad is going to happen to you. I\u2019m coming. Put the woman you\u2019re with back on the phone.\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs. VGA took the receiver, her face pale. She was no longer talking to a deadbeat dad. She was talking to\u2026 someone else.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYes, sir. This is Agent VGA with Family Services\u2026 Yes, she\u2019s safe. She\u2019s right here\u2026 A private jet? You\u2019re\u2026 in Wyoming? Understood, sir. One hour. Yes. We will have her ready. We\u2019ll wait with her right here.\u201d<\/p>\n She hung up the phone and stared at me. The pity was gone. It was replaced by something that looked like\u2026 awe.<\/p>\n \u201cLeah,\u201d she said, her voice unsteady.<\/p>\n \u201cYour father\u2026 he\u2019s on his way. He\u2019s diverting his jet. He\u2019ll be here in an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n He was here in fifty-three minutes. I\u2019d never seen him in person. Not really. Just in a single, faded photograph my mom kept in a \u201cbad memories\u201d box.<\/p>\n He was taller than the man in the photo. He was wearing a dark suit that looked like it cost more than our car, but his tie was loose, and his dark hair was a mess, like he\u2019d been dragging his hands through it. He didn\u2019t look at Mrs. VGA. He didn\u2019t look at the other officers. His eyes\u2014rimmed with red, intense, and terrified\u2014found mine. He knelt, right there on the ugly tile floor, and held out his arms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Part 1 \u00a0 The phone in my hand was black. Silent. Heavier than my backpack. Find your own way home.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mealmagic.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mealmagic.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mealmagic.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mealmagic.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mealmagic.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2253"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mealmagic.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2264,"href":"https:\/\/mealmagic.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2253\/revisions\/2264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mealmagic.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mealmagic.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mealmagic.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mealmagic.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Part 2<\/a><\/h3>\n
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