Free The Mystery of Flight 54 by David A. Adler

Chapter One
    “ I should have stayed home,” Mrs. Jansen said. She was sitting next to Mr. Jansen on the front seat of their car. Their daughter Cam and her friend Eric Shelton were sitting on the back seat. They were all on their way to the airport to pick up Cam’s aunt Molly.
    Mrs. Jansen was tapping her fingers on the armrest. “We’re having a birthday party in two hours. I should be home to get everything ready.”
    “Everything is ready,” Mr. Jansen told her.
    “And my parents are there,” Eric said. “They know what to do.”
    Mrs. Jansen was still tapping on the armrest. She turned and told Cam and Eric, “Don’t let Aunt Molly know about the party. We want her to be surprised.”
    Mrs. Jansen looked at her watch. “What time is her flight coming in?”
    “At 2:00,” Mr. Jansen said.
    Eric said, “I thought it was due in at 1:54.”
    Cam closed her eyes and said “Click.” She always says “Click” when she wants to remember something. Cam says it’s the sound her “mental camera” makes when it takes a picture.
    “I’m looking at the airline schedule,” Cam said with her eyes still closed. “Molly’s flight is number 54. It’s due in at 1:20.”
    “I’m sorry,” her father said, “but this time your memory is wrong. I’m sure the flight is due in at 2:00.”

    Cam shook her head. “No, 2 is the gate number.”
    Cam’s mental camera is her memory. She can take one look at something and remember it perfectly. “It’s easy for me,” Cam often explains. “I have a photograph of everything I see stored in my brain. When I want to remember something, I just look at the photograph.”
    When Cam was younger, her mother read books about how people remember. She learned that scientists call someone like Cam “eidetic.” But most people just say that Cam has a photographic memory.
    Cam’s real name is Jennifer. But when people found out about her photographic memory and heard her say “Click,” they started calling, her “The Camera.” Soon “The Camera” was shortened to “Cam.”
    Mrs. Jansen looked at her watch again. “We’re late,” she said as she tapped her fingers on her handbag. “We’ll miss Molly. She’ll take a bus to our house and see the cake and the surprise will be ruined.”
    “Don’t worry,” Mr. Jansen said as he drove into the airport parking lot. “After Molly gets off the plane, she has to get her luggage. We won’t miss her.”
    Mr. Jansen parked the car. Cam, her parents, and Eric walked into the airport arrivals building. Right inside was a television screen. On it were numbers that kept changing. Cam looked at the screen.

    “Flight 54 is already in.”
    “We missed her,” Mrs. Jansen said. “We missed Molly. She’s probably on her way to our house right now.”

Chapter Two
    “M aybe not,” Cam said to her mother. “Maybe Aunt Molly is still waiting for her luggage.”
    Cam, her parents, and Eric looked quickly at the signs nearby. “It’s this way,” Cam said. She pointed to her left.
    May I have your attention, please, was announced. The city bus will be leaving in three minutes. Thank you.
    As Cam, her parents, and Eric began to walk to their left, people rushed toward them.
    “Hurry, Martha, hurry or we’ll miss the bus,” a man told the woman next to him. She was carrying a large suitcase which she could hardly lift.
    “Look, look, a bear,” a small girl said. She pointed to a young man carrying a suitcase and a large toy bear with a pink ribbon wrapped around it.
    “We’ll look when we get on the bus,” the girl’s mother said.
    Cam, her parents, and Eric moved to the side to let the people rush past. As they moved, a fat older man with a beard bumped into Eric. The man’s hat fell off.
    “I’m terribly sorry,” the man said as he picked up his hat. Then he rushed to the door.
    “We have to hurry, too,” Mrs. Jansen said, “or we’ll miss Molly.”
    Cam and Eric followed Cam’s parents. They turned to the