“Of course,” Tom said, “anytime.” His voice was
a little more serious than usual. Maddy looked over and saw that his eyes were getting more serious, too. “Your uncle told me about your parents, Maddy. I’m sorry.”
Maddy nodded her head silently in the passenger seat. Where was he going with this?
“My parents were alive,” Tom continued. “But they weren’t exactly there. My dad left before I was even born. My mom raised me by herself. She was always in and out of the hospital. She never talked about my dad. Every year I received a cheque for four hundred dollars in an envelope with no return address.” Tom looked up at Maddy. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”
“It’s OK,” Maddy said. This was a side of Tom she hadn’t seen. That he hadn’t wanted her to see, with his uniform and rules and giving her a hard time.
“And I always had to work, too. Like you. Mom couldn’t earn. She was usually too sick. Luckily, as I got older my uncle let me have some of the crop-dusting jobs myself, just as long as I didn’t tell anybody. I worked day and night, and studied too. I got into the Naval Academy at seventeen. Nobody had as many flight hours when they arrived as I did. Others had the pedigree of military families. But I had the experience.
“The Angels wouldn’t understand. They may work hard, but it’s different for them. They have a big something to catch them if they fall. Money. Prestige. Power. We haven’t had that, Maddy. You may be half-Angel. But to me you’re all human. For the right reasons.” He looked at her. “I’m not anti-Angel. I’m just pro-honesty. Pro-human.”
Maddy nodded, thinking about how much time she’d spent studying in high school while everyone else seemed to just goof off and have fun. And now, being the first half-human, half-Angel to be nominated for Guardianship. How many seemed to be against her.
“So I just wanted to say that I can relate,” Tom said. “To being the underdog.”
“Thank you . . . for saying that,” Maddy replied. “Sometimes I think I forget where I am. Where I’ve come from.”
“I admire you, Maddy.”
No one had ever told Maddy they admired her. Now that her fame was growing, everyone seemed to want to get closer to her, to be near her, to learn about her, to somehow be her.
But no one had said they admired her.
“Thank . . . you,” she said.
“Friends?” he said, putting his hand out.
“Friends.”
The two shook hands, smiling.
Maddy was halfway out the truck door when Tom’s voice stopped her.
“And Maddy?” he said.
She turned and looked at him.
“Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t know how to fly. You’re a natural.”
Maddy flushed, her red cheeks half-illuminated by the truck’s dome light.
“Thanks,” she said.
Maddy watched the truck’s tail-lights disappear into the quiet Angel City evening. She figured she would just head home – it was near the dinner rush at the diner, and after all that had been happening, she was too tired to deal with being recognized tonight.
It was then that she felt her phone buzzing in her bag. She pulled it out and saw she had numerous missed calls. All from Kevin.
“Hello?” she said, worried.
His voice was pretty serious: “Are you back from flying?”
“Yes. What’s— ”
“You’d better get to the diner.”
And he hung up. Maddy’s imagination blazed. She began quickly walking the block to the diner, wondering what in the world could strike Kevin so serious as to make a phone call during the dinner rush.