Roy liked to fly with his mother. Most of the time they drove between Key West or Miami, Florida, and Chicago, the places in which they lived; but if they needed to be somewhere in a hurry, they took an airplane. Roy’s mother always dressed well when they flew, and she made sure Roy did, too.
“You never know who you might meet in an airport or on a plane,” she told him, “so it’s important to look your best.”
“Even a little boy?”
“Of course, Roy. You’re with me. I’m so proud of you. You’re a great traveler.”
“Thanks, Mom. I’m proud of you, too.”
One afternoon when they were flying from Miami to New Orleans to see Roy’s mother’s boyfriend Johnny Salvavidas, their plane ran into a big storm and lightning hit both wings. The plane tilted to the right, then to the left, like Walcott taking a combination from Marciano, only the airplane didn’t go down.
“We’re really getting knocked around, Roy. Better keep your head down in case things start flying out of the overhead compartments.”
“I want to look out the window, Mom. I have a book about lightning, remember? The worst thing that can happen is if the fuel tank gets hit, then the plane could explode. Also, lightning can make holes in the wings and pieces of them can fall off. If it strikes the nose, the pilot could lose control and even be blinded. And during thunderstorms ball lightning can enter an airplane and roll down the aisle. That’s pretty rare, though, and the fireball burns out fast and leaves a kind of smoky mist in the air. Some scientists even believe ball lightning might come from flying saucers.”
“Don’t be silly, Roy. There’s no such things as flying saucers. That’s just in movies and comic books.”
When the plane landed at the airport in New Orleans, Johnny Salvavidas was there to meet it. He asked Roy’s mother if it had been a good flight.
“It was horrendous,” she told him. “We ran into a terrible thunderstorm and there was a lot of turbulence. My stomach is still upset.”
“What about it, Roy? Was the storm as bad as your mother says?”
“Lightning hit the wings,” Roy said. “We could have gotten knocked out of the sky, but we weren’t.”
Johnny smiled and said, “That can’t happen.”
He smoothed back both sides of his hair with his hands. His hair was black and shiny and fit tightly to his scalp like a bathing cap. He took Roy’s mother’s right arm and they walked together toward the terminal to pick up her suitcases.
The sun was going down and the sky was turning redder. What did Johnny Salvavidas know? There was a kind of lightning that moved across rather than up and down called spider or creepy-crawly lightning that can reverse itself and probably bring down a spaceship. Roy watched his mother and Johnny enter the terminal. He wanted to get back on an airplane.