“Then leave.”
She sat.
“Mom said not to bother you.”
“Excellent advice.”
“Did he really call your uniform costume?”
“Yes.”
Ava frowned.
“That’s stupid.”
“Yes.”
“Were you famous?”
“No.”
“Then why did radios call you?”
“I missed official pickup.”
“So people noticed.”
“Yes.”
“What if nobody noticed?”
Marcus looked at her.
The question survived generations.
“Then I probably would have gone to booking until someone checked my ID.”
“That’s bad.”
“Yes.”
“Would you have been okay?”
“Probably.”
“That doesn't make it okay.”
Marcus smiled.
“No.”
Ava studied video.
“Why didn't you yell?”
“I didn't think yelling would help.”
“What if you wanted to?”
“I did.”
She thought.
“Mom says you tell people feelings and actions are different.”
“Your mother stole that from me.”
“She says she improved it.”
“Typical lawyer.”
Ava grinned.
Then:
“Can I use this for school?”
Marcus groaned.
“What assignment?”
“Family history.”
“No.”
“Grandpa.”
“You have twenty-eight years of naval service.”
“You can write about ships.”
“Ships are boring.”
Marcus stared.
She smiled.
“Sorry.”
He eventually allowed it with conditions.
Full video.
Not just reveal.
Include other complaints discovered.
Include Vance’s apology only if she explained it did not erase consequences.
Ava rolled her eyes.
“This is middle-school project.”
“Accuracy has no minimum age.”
She got a B-plus.
Marcus laughed for fifteen minutes.
“Teacher said too much context.”
“Excellent teacher.”
Ava threw pillow.
At seventy-two, Marcus returned to Hartsfield-Jackson for a conference.
He had avoided the exact concourse for years without consciously admitting it.
This time his gate was B21.
He could have changed.
Did not.
The terminal looked different.
Renovated seats.
New signs.
Different restaurants.
Same enormous windows.
He stood near where the confrontation occurred.
No marker.
Good.
No plaque.
Better.
Passengers moved around him.
Nobody recognized him.
Excellent.
A young airport officer stood near Gate B18 talking to a man in Air Force dress uniform.
Marcus’s attention sharpened automatically.
He hated that.
The airman looked young.
Maybe twenty-three.
Black.
The officer held an ID card.