“Bruce tightens his lips. He wants to argue, but he can’t. He homeschools the boys and has always emphasized critical thinking in their curriculum. He recalls a recent rant about the importance of not taking rules at face value. Question everything.”
Bruce and his family are at the airport. His son Jordan applies the knowledge he imparts to them. Jordan refused to be scanned like the other passengers. His father feels that Jordan's view of the scanning machine is dangerous. His wife reminds him that he has been teaching the boys about the essence of being critical. Critical thinking is about interrogating issues thoroughly. It requires one to probe the implication of information before consuming it. Being critical in situations that require compliance can be interpreted as rudeness.
“Linda hesitates. This is an unanticipated opportunity to kick-start her new self. She plans to introduce herself to strangers in California as Belinda. It’s part of her fresh beginning: an improved version of herself, with an improved name. Belinda, she has decided, is an alluring woman who radiates confidence. Linda is an insecure housewife with fat ankles. Linda curls her tongue inside her mouth in preparation. Be-li-nda. But her mouth won’t utter the syllables.”
Linda anticipates having an utterly new begging in California. She is not content with her previous life. Therefore, a new name would help her start over and leave her insecurities behind. However, her inability to introduce herself as Belinda shows that she is not ready for the name years. Therefore, instead of uttering her new name, she tells Florida that her reason for going to California is to be proposed to. Linda's past is with her in the plane; she is yet to shed it.
“Jane Adler pulls her sweater tighter to fight off the cold and nestles into her guilt for not finishing the script before this flight. She hates to fly, and now she has to fly apart from her family. It’s punishment, she thinks. For my laziness, for my avoidance, for my taking on this crazy assignment in the fast place. She had written for a television series in New York for so long, partly because it involved no travel.”
Jane Adler sits in a different row far from her husband and sons since those were the only free seats at the time of booking. She feels guilty that her new assignment is detrimental to her family. She feels she has let down her sons and husband by taking up a new assignment requiring them to relocate to California. In the plane, they sit in different rows. She interprets the sitting arrangements as punishment for failing as a mum.
