“That means no.”
“I don’t know what I want.”
“Job back?”
Caleb looked through the windshield.
“I want this morning not to have happened.”
“Unavailable.”
“I know.”
Ronan sipped coffee.
“The board called Lena.”
“For what?”
“Records.”
“The component?”
“Everything.”
“Daniel Hsu is flying in.”
Caleb looked at him.
“That serious?”
“Yes.”
Caleb rubbed both hands across his face.
“What if I was wrong?”
Ronan frowned.
“About what?”
“What if they inspect that gear assembly again and decide the crack was minor?”
“You already know it wasn’t cosmetic.”
“What if it wasn’t as serious as we thought?”
Ronan stared.
“Caleb.”
“What?”
“You are doing the thing.”
“What thing?”
“Trying to prove you deserved not to be fired by proving the airplane was about to kill people.”
Caleb looked away.
Ronan continued.
“You did not need a catastrophic defect to justify stopping.”
“You found a condition you could not identify within acceptable limits.”
“You escalated.”
“Inspection confirmed it required repair.”
“End.”
“But everyone keeps saying I protected lives.”
“You protected the process that protects lives.”
Ronan said.
“That is enough.”
At three, Caleb picked Nora up from school.
She ran toward him wearing a red winter hat.
“Dad!”
He forced a smile.
“Hey, bug.”
She climbed into the truck.
Then immediately looked toward the passenger seat.
“What’s that?”
The cardboard box.
Caleb had forgotten it was there.
“My work stuff.”
“Why?”
His grip tightened around the steering wheel.
“I’m not working at Northstar right now.”
Nora stared.
“Did you quit?”
“No.”
“Did they fire you?”
Children know more words than adults want them to.
Caleb nodded.
Nora became quiet.
“Because you did something bad?”
His throat closed.
“No.”
“Did you break an airplane?”
Despite everything, Caleb laughed.
“No.”
“Then why?”
He could have lied.
Restructuring.
Business reasons.
Adult stuff.
Instead, he gave her a version she could understand.
“I found something on an airplane that I thought needed to be checked.”
“My boss wanted things to move faster.”
“I wouldn’t say it was okay until people checked it.”
“So they fired you?”
“Yes.”
Nora looked angry.
“That’s stupid.”
Caleb almost smiled.
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“It sounds stupid.”
“Fair.”
They drove.
After several minutes, Nora asked:
“Can we still have Christmas?”
That nearly destroyed him.
Caleb pulled into an empty church parking lot.
He put the truck in park.
Turned toward her.
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Christmas is not canceled because I lost a job.”
“What about the tree?”
Caleb swallowed.
“We are getting a tree.”
“You don’t have to.”