Tyler had been a commercial pilot for almost nine years.
He flies Airbus A320s for a major airline out of Charlotte. He’s a first officer. He’s been waiting four years to make captain.
Mason worships him.
Not likes him. Worships him.
Every single morning Tyler had a trip, Mason would come running down the stairs in his pajamas to watch him put on his uniform. The white shirt. The black tie. The jacket with the gold stripes on the sleeves. The hat.
“Are you flying a big one today, Dad?”
“Medium one, buddy.”
“Where to?”
“Denver. Then Phoenix. Then home.”
“Do the passengers know you’re my dad?”
Tyler would laugh and ruffle his hair.
“Not yet, buddy. Someday.”
Mason had flown on airplanes before. Twice to see my mom in Florida. Once to Disney World.
But he’d never once been on a plane his dad was flying.
He talked about it constantly. At dinner. In the bath. At bedtime. He’d ask what it would sound like when Dad talked on the speaker. Whether he’d be able to feel it when Dad steered.
Three weeks before that night, Tyler mentioned at dinner that he had a short Saturday trip coming up. Charlotte to Chicago O’Hare. Then turn around and fly back.
“I’ll be home by nine,” he said.
And that gave me an idea.
The next morning, after Tyler left for a two-day trip, I sat at the kitchen table with my laptop and bought two tickets on his outbound flight to Chicago. And two tickets on his return flight home.
Mason and I would sneak on. We’d hide in the back. We’d ride the whole way to Chicago without him knowing.
Then, when we landed, we’d walk up to the cockpit door and surprise him.
And we’d all fly home together that night.
I told Mason that afternoon when he got home from school.
He screamed so loud the neighbor’s dog started barking.
Adrian Hawthorne is a celebrated author and dedicated archivist who finds inspiration in the hidden stories of the past. Educated at Oxford, he now works at the National Archives, where preserving history fuels his evocative writing. Balancing archival precision with creative storytelling, Adrian founded the Hawthorne Institute of Literary Arts to mentor emerging writers and honor the timeless art of narrative.