Free Fly Boy by Eric Walters

say any more, because we’d argued about it often enough. She also knew that by summer, she wouldn’t be able to stop me from enlisting. Besides, I really couldn’t let her sidetrack me. My only hope of all of this never being discovered was to continue to write to her from overseas next year, after telling her I’d enlisted on my eighteenth birthday. She wouldn’t have to know that I’d really enlisted a whole eleven months earlier. And even though by then I’d be flying in combat, I’d just pretend that I was still in basic training. And on the bright side, she’d be less worried thinking I was still in training and not yet flying missions. So, in a strange way, I was lying to make it easier for her. That was how I had to think about it.
    Back to the correspondence. A letter from Chip had arrived and it contained the sort of tidbits that would keep the boarding school illusion alive. Even better, his letter contained correspondence that my mother had sent to me at school, so I was able to work some realistic details into my letter to her.
    I don’t know if you had a bad storm last week, but we certainly had one in Toronto. A couple of trees on the school grounds were hit. One was split right down the middle as if it had been struck by a giant with an axe. The lightning and thunder were so bad that it practically shook me out of bed .
    I was so sad to hear about Mrs. Henderson. She led a long life and I know she’ll be remembered fondly by all who knew her. Please send on my condolences and my regrets at not being able to attend the funeral .
    I said a silent thanks to Chip.
    He’d also written to tell me that he was slogging away in school and getting the best marks of his life. Maybe what our teachers had always said was right: we were a bad influence on each other. He also promised, though, that come early December, he’d stir up enough to keep himself stuck in the mailroom.
    Please send my love to the girls, and even to Scotty (just kidding, little brother). I miss you all and love you all very much .
    Your loving son ,
    I stopped myself, in shock. I’d almost written David , the first stroke already made. I could easily fix that. It would have been so much easier just to write McWilliams .
    Robbie .
    There, that did it. Now I’d put the letter in an envelope, address it to my mother at my home address, and put it in a bigger envelope that I’d mail to Chip. Of course, I’d writehim a letter as well. It was good to have one person in the world with whom I could be honest.
    “McWilliams.”
    That startled me! It was a corporal standing beside my bunk.
    “CO wants to see you in his office.”
    “He does? Do you know what it’s about?”
    He pointed at the two stripes on his shoulder. “I know you might find this hard to believe, but the commanding officer generally doesn’t share his thoughts with me. I’m more his clerk than his best buddy.”
    “Oh, yeah, of course, sorry,” I mumbled.
    “But if you want, I’ll just go back and ask him, you know, to make sure it’s something important enough to make you want to come and see him … I’m sure he’ll understand.”
    “That’s okay,” I said as I jumped down from my bunk.
    I started off and suddenly remembered that my letter was sitting up there on the bed. What if it blew down or somebody picked it up and looked at it? I ran back and grabbed it, stuffing it in my pocket.
    “He did say on the double, so I wouldn’t keep him waiting if I were you!”
    “No, Corporal!” I replied. I started off, running at what could only be called triple time.

As I ran to the CO’s office, I started to get worried. Why would he want to see me? Had I done something wrong? Or worse, was he sending me home? I’d heard that every candidate who washed out had been personally informed by him, and—No, that was just crazy. I was doing better than anybody on the tests, and maybe I’d crashed the Link, but so had everybody else. There was no reason he’d be