I Let My Nephew Shout "Bomb"

The flight attendant stopped beside my row.

I pointed across the aisle.

"Those are their parents."

My brother Daniel and his wife Laura were beaming at their children like the two of them had just won something.

Ryan and Sophie kept playing off each other.

"Once we're at cruising altitude, it goes off first and burns after.

"That light coming up through the clouds is going to be brighter than any fireworks show you've ever seen."

Ryan mimed the shape of it with both hands.

Sophie picked it straight up.

"Exactly. School grinds us down for years, and for what? You get into a good university and then the pressure just gets worse.

"Living isn't that interesting. Better to burn bright once, up in the air."

The man beside me came out of his seat so fast his belt snapped taut.

He'd introduced himself as Gary Whitlock when he sat down, somewhere in his fifties, flying out to see his daughter.

"What kind of sick thing is that to say?

"Are their parents going to do something about this, or not?"

The flight attendant's expression changed. Her name tag read Reyes. Her voice stayed perfectly level.

"I'm going to ask you both to watch what you're saying."

Ryan and Sophie glanced at each other and grinned.

Laura tipped her chin at me.

"Claire, look at these two.

"They just got their acceptance letters from Hartwell. They're so wound up they're talking nonsense."

Daniel cuffed the back of Ryan's head.

"Rein it in, son.

"You're scaring your aunt."

The word Hartwell went through the cabin like a valve opening.

People settled back into their seats.

"Hartwell kids."

"Got to let them have their fun."

Reyes let her shoulders come down and turned to go.

Then Ryan spoke again, unhurried.

"The captain on this flight is Aaron Wells.

"He's out of Colorado. Right?"

Reyes stopped. The color went out of her face.

"Where did you get that?"

Ryan settled back against his seat, pleased with himself.

"If we're going to do something, obviously we'd look into it first."

Sophie's smile didn't reach her eyes.

"Not everyone deserves to go down with us."

She wasn't finished.

"And that's not all. This aircraft entered service three years ago, on the seventh of September.

"That's the exact day we started high school.

"That's why we picked you."

The cabin went silent.

People looked at each other.

Gary swore and shoved my shoulder, hard.

"What the hell is wrong with your kids?"

I looked at him.

"They aren't mine. Their guardians are sitting right there. Go ask them."

Laura's smile caught for half a second.

"Claire, nobody is accusing you of anything.

"Why are you in such a hurry to push it onto somebody else?"

Daniel's face darkened.

"You're their aunt. Blood.

"If this turns into something real, do you think you get to walk away from it?"