"Yes."
"Does Nessa have anything safe yet?"
Roland looked toward her. "We've offered a snack box and can refund her special order."
Nessa shook her head. "The granola has a dairy warning, and the bread contains milk powder."
"We'll see what else catering can find."
"Before we leave?" she asked.
The manager did not answer quickly enough. Zire knew there were only a limited number of minutes in which an airline could wait for food without creating further delays. Nessa had an important restriction. A refund would not make unsafe food safe, and a promise to investigate after landing would not help her during the flight.
Lenora watched the new meal with impatient disbelief. "He has his replacement. Can we stop making this everybody's business?"
"It became everybody's business when you took food belonging to people you didn't know," Zire replied.
"You're enjoying the attention," she said.
The accusation stung because Zire hated the attention. He felt strangers watching each time he turned his head. He could not stop imagining Evelyn receiving an unexpected call about a disturbance involving her son. He wanted to sit by the window, listen to music, and eat the meal his grandfather had helped arrange. There was nothing enjoyable about the fact that asking for something he owned had become a public test of his credibility.
"I don't want attention," he said. "I want the records to be true."
Merrick stood beside him. "That's a fair request."
Zire opened his backpack and removed the little notebook. The first page was filled with his grandfather's block letters, copied by Zire months earlier from an older sheet: APPEARANCE. SMELL.
FIRST BITE. BEST DETAIL. WHO WOULD YOU SHARE IT WITH? He traced the last question with one finger.
He remembered an afternoon when he and Harlon had eaten sandwiches on a park bench. A storm had forced everyone beneath a pavilion, and a stranger arrived carrying two children without an umbrella. Harlon had quietly divided their sandwiches into smaller portions and offered half to the family. On the walk home, when Zire complained that he was still hungry, his grandfather bought him a pastry and explained that sharing did not require pretending sacrifice was easy.