June 1-2 Airports of the World
We travel as a team and, for this leg of the journey, are 19 in number. Jim has divided us into smaller groups, and the three leaders are responsible for keeping tabs on our whereabouts. Added to this security, everyone on the team is looking out for the children, so that at any given time one of them might be walking and talking wtih someone other than Bill or me.
Emma Grace especially has taken a liking to a few of the young women on the team. She is just as happy to be with any one of them as with me. Nonetheless, I of course find myself taking head counts. I came with three children, and I intend to bring all three home.
The one with the most unnerving confidence is William. He will wander off to explore, or pass through security check-points and then keep going rather than wait for us, or will be delayed with retying his shoes after going through security and simply not be bothered or ruffled by the fact that the group is moving off.
In Dubai, we moved through check-in slowly. William went through and continued on to where Jim stood, while the rest of the Stevensons were delayed for reasons that never became clear to us. After a while, Jim came back to check on our progress, but William did not reappear.
When I learned that he was with Steve and Melanie, I knew he was fine. But it wasn’t until after a bus ride across the boiling tarmac and then boarding the plane that I saw him again– on the airplane, Red Sox cap visible below the top of the seat, playing checkers on the t.v. monitor in front of him. Steve and Melanie were with him.
