‘Outward Bound’ July 2002
“I’m thrilled! Yes! I’ll look for you there. Terminal four. Okay. You have my flight numbers, etcetera?” “Aye, mate! I have all the info.” “Good. Right… thanks, see you there, Kris.” Nineteen-year-old Alan Schwartz hung up the phone and turned to his mother to say, “It’s unreal to think I’m standing in my kitchen in Long Island today and tomorrow I’ll be in London!” “The miracle of plane travel.” Sylvia wiped the kitchen table with a cloth. “Are you sure you know this young fella well enough?” “Yeah, Ma, we’ve been corresponding over email and by telephone for almost a year.” “Why do you have to go for such a long time? Three weeks? A whole three weeks?” “Sylvia!” Alan’s dad, Isaac, shouted from the living room, “Leave the boy alone! If he wants to go for a few weeks don’t make a fuss!” Alan laughed as she rolled her eyes predictably. “Ma, don’t worry. You have his address and phone number and I’ll call every weekend.” Picking up the note paper with the details printed on it, she replied, “All those funny numbers. Are you sure that’s a telephone number? I can’t tell what it is.” He looked at the note from over her shoulder, his height towering above her tiny frame. Alan pointed out the digits. “First three gets you long distance, then the two after are the country code, then that’s his actual phone number in Cambridge.” “Just dial it like this?” “Just dial it like that.” He hugged her from behind and then rushed off to his room. “Gotta finish packing, Mom!”
With the paper in her hand, Sylvia found Isaac slouched in front of the television set. “You’re not worried about him?” “No. He’s a good boy. Why should I worry?” “He’s only nineteen, Isaac. Why shouldn’t a mother worry?” “It’ll be a good experience for him. He needs to go. Where’s he been? New York? New Jersey? What? Long distance to Connecticut? Or Florida? Let the boy go, Sylvia.” She sat on a recliner chair next to him. “What if he gets sick? Do they have doctors there?” “Now you’re being ridiculous,” Isaac responded, then softened it with a smile.
