Chapter 3

At the airport, Kendal and her father checked their bags and waited in a security line that snaked around and around. Her father looked down at his watch every twenty seconds. He hated waiting as much as he hated being late.

“Take off your shoes,” Kendal’s father directed as they finally moved to the front of the line.

“I know,” Kendal said. “I’ve flown before.”

“Next,” the stone-faced security guard said.

Her father flashed his military ID and went through the metal detector with his shoes still on his feet, but Kendal had to put her shoes in a gray plastic bin.

“I’ll meet you on the other side,” her father said to Kendal, but when she stepped through the metal detector, she set off an alarm because she had forgotten to take her phone out of the back pocket of her jeans.

Her father looked impatient and annoyed when she finally made it through.

“Final call for August and Kendal Gibson,” they heard over the loudspeaker.

“Run,” her father said, and the two of them ran as fast as they could through the airport. Kendal was still in her stocking feet, sliding across the shiny floor, her father leading the way with her hiking boots in his hand.

“Wait!” her father yelled. The crew was about to close the gate door. “The Gibsons are here!”

Her father grabbed Kendal’s hand as if she were five years old and pulled her down the ramp and onto the plane. They were the last two people to board.

A few minutes later, the captain got on the loudspeaker and welcomed everyone aboard. Then he said, “Just a heads-up that there’s going to be some turbulence.”