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The Runaways: Chapter 2
The flight to Anchorage was lengthy only because her mother kept yapping over the phone with the guy she was supposed to meet. Helen had a blustering voice, especially when you sat next to her for hours on a plane.
Dany scowled, trying in vain to concentrate on A Wrinkle in Time, one of two books she actually owned. She didn’t want to bring the library copies. Fleetingly, she fretted over if they’d be back in time so she could return them. Mrs. Harlesden always treated her so nicely; she didn’t want to disappoint her by returning overdue books. Too late to worry about that now, Dany thought blearily. Maybe she should’ve gone to bed earlier after all. But how was she supposed to know their flight would be so early? Or that they were flying at all before her mother finally spilled it?
"Oh, what a lovely man with that sexy, drawling Texas accent. Says he’s got a big, fancy house on the lake. He’s got four kids, but you won’t mind brothers and sisters, right? Oh, what am I saying. ‘Course you won’t." Her mother sang after finally finishing the call.
She dug her compact out of a hot pink clutch and started powdering her cheeks. The powder drifted into Dany’s nose and made her sneeze. Her mother jumped next to her with a look of horror. Dany frowned at her and wiped her nose, checked her sleeve. Nope. Nothing green there. She sniffled and resumed reading.
Her mother babbled on about men, money, and other adulty things. Dany missed old Greta with a sudden fierceness, her nanny that went to heaven years ago.
"What’s my uncle’s name?" Dany asked, interrupting Helen’s monologue.
"What uncle? Whose uncle?" Helen sounded confused, like she only caught that single word in the sentence.
"Your brother," Dany sighed.
"Oh! Oh. Him. Matthias. Matt." Then she proceeded to talk about what a loser he was, of how he’d betrayed her by refusing to lend her a few to make her life liveable again.
Dany automatically tuned out what she was saying and replied uh-huh now and then, just in case her mother was listening to her. It didn’t even have to be appropriate. Sometimes Helen talked at her instead of to her. Mostly, she talked to herself.
When the air hostess came...
Dany scowled, trying in vain to concentrate on A Wrinkle in Time, one of two books she actually owned. She didn’t want to bring the library copies. Fleetingly, she fretted over if they’d be back in time so she could return them. Mrs. Harlesden always treated her so nicely; she didn’t want to disappoint her by returning overdue books. Too late to worry about that now, Dany thought blearily. Maybe she should’ve gone to bed earlier after all. But how was she supposed to know their flight would be so early? Or that they were flying at all before her mother finally spilled it?
"Oh, what a lovely man with that sexy, drawling Texas accent. Says he’s got a big, fancy house on the lake. He’s got four kids, but you won’t mind brothers and sisters, right? Oh, what am I saying. ‘Course you won’t." Her mother sang after finally finishing the call.
She dug her compact out of a hot pink clutch and started powdering her cheeks. The powder drifted into Dany’s nose and made her sneeze. Her mother jumped next to her with a look of horror. Dany frowned at her and wiped her nose, checked her sleeve. Nope. Nothing green there. She sniffled and resumed reading.
Her mother babbled on about men, money, and other adulty things. Dany missed old Greta with a sudden fierceness, her nanny that went to heaven years ago.
"What’s my uncle’s name?" Dany asked, interrupting Helen’s monologue.
"What uncle? Whose uncle?" Helen sounded confused, like she only caught that single word in the sentence.
"Your brother," Dany sighed.
"Oh! Oh. Him. Matthias. Matt." Then she proceeded to talk about what a loser he was, of how he’d betrayed her by refusing to lend her a few to make her life liveable again.
Dany automatically tuned out what she was saying and replied uh-huh now and then, just in case her mother was listening to her. It didn’t even have to be appropriate. Sometimes Helen talked at her instead of to her. Mostly, she talked to herself.
When the air hostess came...
