Part 2 – Inside the Terminal at LAX

As all of that was going on, Paige Dineen and her son Ralph were waiting in the LAX airport for their plane to depart to begin their trip to Portland, Maine. She worked the morning shift at the diner she waited tables at, and at 11:00AM when it was finished, she grabbed Ralph and headed towards the airport.

The drive to the airport went fast, they were off the 405 before the big pile up. Paige parked her car in the garage, and they took the shuttle to the airport. Getting through security was tough, Ralph didn't like all the commotion around him, and he found all the stimulation to be almost too much. Paige tried her best to calm him and let him know everything would be ok. She had struggled for years with Ralph. Took him to doctor after doctor and specialist after specialist trying to figure out what was wrong with him. They could never figure out what was wrong with him. They kept him on medication and told her he would struggle to make it through life because of the way he was. But she never gave up on him, and she never would. He was her everything. She did everything she could to provide for him, working two or three different jobs and picking up extra shifts whenever she could as well.

They finally arrived at their gate of departure. She had Ralph sit down in a seat over where he could have some space. She made her way up to the counter to see if their plane was on time only to find out that all of the planes were currently on a holding pattern. And they weren't sure when flights would resume if at all today. The thought of making her son go through this ordeal again was not something she wanted him to have to do. She asked about their connecting flights, and she was told that airports around the country were all moving flight times back to accommodate for the issue at LAX and she would be able to make both of her connecting flights if they left Los Angeles by no later than 2:30.

"Hey Ralph, how are you doing?" Paige asked her son.

"Why are we here?" He asked her back.

"Remember, I told you we were going to take a flight to Portland, Maine to see what it looks like."

"Portland is cold and wet." He told her back matter of factly.

"Are you feeling ok, sweetie?" Paige asked her son. She could tell he didn't want to be stuck in the airport and she hoped this wasn't all a big mistake.

As she reached to touch his face, he pulled back a little. It wasn't that he didn't love his mother, he just had always had a hard time with any kind of physical contact.

"I'll be fine." He told her.

It was getting close to 2:00 and nothing had changed. Suddenly there was distant clapping and the airport seemed to come back to life. The problem, whatever it was, had been fixed and planes were going to start boarding for flights momentarily. The buzz made its way through the airport and people started to hurriedly move around again.

Paige was getting nervous about their flight. Was it a good idea for her to take her son on a plane? Was the reason she was going even worth it? Would they really make their connecting flights? She had drained her bank account to make the tickets, and it was only a two-day trip. Just to give the area a look in case they decided to move there.

"Hi, I just wanted to check again to see if my connecting flights were ok." Paige asked the lady at the counter. It had been a while since she checked the last time and she was overly anxious about everything going on.

"Let me see your ticket please, and are you traveling alone?"

"Here's my ticket and I do have my son. We may need some extra assistance for him, he is nine, but he requires special handling." Paige told her politely.

"Understood, we do offer a preboard and I will make sure you are able to board then. And yes, you look good for both of your connecting flights. Looks like you are scheduled to arrive in Maine around 1:30AM. You flying to see family or just for a little vacation?"

"Neither really, just something we need to do." Paige said dejectedly.

Ralph had gotten nervous sitting by himself while Paige was waiting to talk to the worker, so he had gotten up and was walking towards her.

As Paige was leaving the counter walking towards Ralph, she got knocked over by someone who wasn't paying attention to anything around him. He was blabbering on about being heroes and something about a statue being built.

"Hey, watch it toots, whoa you are hot!" He said without any indiscretion at all.

As Ralph saw his mom being knocked over to the ground, he moved closer to her without touching her. He looked up with sad eyes at the man wearing the hat.

"Never mind, didn't realize the baggage came with it. Easy pass on that one." He concluded as he turned to walk away.

"Jerk." Paige shot back at him.

He was back to blabbing not even hearing her say anything.

"You ok, mom?" Ralph asked her.

"Wow, that guy didn't even say sorry. And he was so rude too. I'll be ok. Let's go get something to eat really quick before we start boarding, ok?" Paige told him while wiping off her arm after getting up from the ground.

Ralph just shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't hungry, but he probably needed something to eat. He knew his mom would always make sure to keep him fed.

Ten minutes later as they were returning to their gate, they saw people starting to line up for the plane. The announcement said it would be about 15 minutes before anyone boarded, but some people wanted to start lining up right away to get to their seats. Paige lost sight of Ralph for a second and he couldn't find where she went. He started looking up towards the ceiling and turning around and before he knew it, he had knocked into a man who fell to the ground after Ralph had walked out right in front of him.

"Oops, I'm sorry, I didn't um see you there." The man responded to him.

Before Ralph could even turn to see the man, Paige caught a glimpse of her son again and headed towards him, not knowing what happened.

"Hey, I know you, Ralph, right? I met you this morning." Walter said to him wondering why he was at the airport.

"Hi." Ralph said back to him.

"You got time for a rematch?" Walter said with a smile.

"OK, but I don't have my piec…" Ralph was saying.

"Excuse me," Paige paused trying to figure out what was going on, "Wi-Fi guy?"

"Yes, it's um Walter. I'm sorry, we got um tangled up a little and I was just apologizing to um Ralph." Walter said as he was lifting himself off the ground

"He was speaking with you?" She asked incredulously .

"Um yeah."

"How?" Paige asked almost in shock.

"He um, opened his mouth and the sounds came out," Walter started to say with a half-smile and half smirk, "Sorry, that was the ah condescending part of me."

"He doesn't talk to anyone but me, and he barely talks to me." Paige informed him.

"Well, we had an important rematch to set up, right Ralph?" Waler said with a wink.

"Rematch, huh? Why did you tell my boss to be nice to him this morning?" Paige asked amused at how easy he seemed to relate to her son.

"Because Ralph is special." Walter proudly told her.

Paige started to cry, hoping for a different response from him.

"D-did I-I say something wrong?" Walter asked starting to stutter a little not knowing why she started to cry all of a sudden.

Through some tears Paige said, "I just thought you weren't going to judge him like everyone else has, you seemed to, I don't know. Sorry, Ralph honey we need to get ready to go."

"I wasn't judging him, Paige." Walter tried to tell her.

"How do you know my name, or his for that matter?" Paige asked as she wiped her eyes.

"I saw your name tag earlier this morning and I heard you call him Ralph. And I wasn't judging him. Your son is a genius, he's special."