Gwendy's Magic Feather

21

“ARE YOU SURE YOU don’t want me to stow your bag, Congresswoman Peterson?”

Gwendy looks at the co-pilot who had introduced himself just minutes earlier when she first boarded the eight-seat private plane, but she’s already forgotten his name. “No, it’s fine. I packed my laptop and I’ll probably fiddle around with some work once we’re in the air.”

“Very well,” he says. “We should be taking off in about twenty minutes.” He gives her a reassuring smile—the kind that says, Your life is in my hands, lady, but I slept great last night and only did a little bump of cocaine this morning, so hey it’s all good—and ducks back into the cockpit.

Gwendy yawns and looks out the window at the busy runway. The last thing she wants to do during the short flight is fiddle with her laptop. She’s exhausted from not sleeping the night before and in a foul mood. Not even forty-eight hours have passed since the button box’s return to her life, and she’s already moved on from shock and curiosity to anger and resentment. She glances at her carry-on suitcase, tucked underneath the seat in front of her, and fights the urge to check on the box again.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she tries to silence the obsessive voice chattering away in the back of her head, and abruptly snaps them open again when she realizes she’s dozing off. Sleeping with the box unsecured might not be such a smart idea, she decides.

“Is it safe?” she suddenly asks out loud, without intending to. She looks down at the suitcase again. The flight is less than ninety minutes long. What’s the worst that can happen if she takes a little catnap? She doesn’t know and she’s not willing to find out. She can sleep when she gets home.

Is it safe? She’s thinking of the old Dustin Hoffman movie now with the evil Nazi dentist. Is it safe?

When it comes to the button box, Gwendy knows the answer to that question. The box is never safe. Not really.

“We’re number two for take-off, Congresswoman,” the co-pilot says, peeking out from the cockpit. “We should have you on the ground in Castle Rock a few minutes before noon.”