Flight: A Novel

Still in the body of the drunk, Zits “[shambles] through an alley” with “blood filling [his] mouth and nose” (126). He suspects that Paul broke his jaw. No one looks at him as he staggers along. Zits knows that “[t]here are other beaten and bloody Indians in this alley” (126). He doesn’t remember how he got into this alley, with dumpsters and garbage cans “filled with expired food and half-eaten meals” (126). He figures that this alley is between restaurants. Zits decides to wash his face and find some clean clothes.

When he emerges, people avoid him and one woman shrieks at the sight of him. He says that he wants some respect, but no one hears him, so he repeats himself louder this time. An older man in “a cheap three-button suit with better shoes” passes him, “[talking] loudly into a Bluetooth earpiece” (128). The drunk tells the man he wants respect. The man ends his phone call and hands Zits some cash, which he refuses, asking again for respect. The man laughs, turns, and walks away. Zits grabs the man’s shoulder, but the guy twists his wrist and pins him to a brick wall, warning the drunk not to touch him. Zits laughs, wondering aloud how many white men are going to beat him up today. The stranger asks if the drunk is going “to act like a gentleman,” but he continues to demand respect (129).

Zits is not clear about what he personally wants. He’s also unclear about what respect would look like. So, when the stranger asks how he can show the homeless drunk respect, Zits asks him to tell him a story' moreover, he wants to hear a personal story. The stranger relents, announcing that he has a story about a bird. He tells Zits that his seven-year old daughter, Jill, wanted a pet. He went to the pet store and bought her a parakeet, after having asked the clerk which animal would defecate the least. After he took home the bird—which defecated plenty—he realized the error in his choice.

Still, his daughter and wife loved the bird, who Jill named Harry Potter. She and her mother even taught Harry Potter how to say things to make fun of him, including insults to his cooking. One day, while he was boiling a pot of water for pasta, his daughter’s favorite meal, the parakeet—whose wings were clipped—jumped off of his shoulder and into the boiling water. The man scooped the bird out with a spoon. His daughter began screaming and his wife called an “all-night emergency vet,” which he never knew existed (133).

The drunk interrupts the story to ask if an ambulance was sent. The stranger irritably dismisses the question, telling him that he knows very well that no ambulance was sent for a bird. Instead, the office told them to get the parakeet to the ER as soon as possible. They piled into the family car and drove over. The wife had wrapped the bird in a towel. When they arrived at the hospital, the doctors took the bird into “the back room” while they remained in the waiting room (133). Now, both his daughter and his wife were crying. He, too, was crying—“bawling like a baby” (133). Then, as though they were in a movie, the ER doctor emerged and told them that “the bird was in critical condition and might not make it through the night” (133). They asked if they can seek him. The doctor led them into the ICU, where they saw the bird “hooked up to this tiny little oxygen machine” (133).

The thought of a tiny bird with a “little oxygen tube” in its throat makes the drunk laugh (133). He apologizes, but the stranger acknowledges that it’s both “funny” and “horrible” (133). In fact, when he saw the bird hooked up to the machines, he, too, laughed—to the consternation of his wife and daughter. They looked at him with shame and disappointment, particularly little Jill who seemed to feel that her father had “turned her love and pain into a big fucking laugh” (134). The man begins to cry as he describes how his wife and daughter soon left him and went to his mother-in-law’s house. They have cut off contact with him.

The homeless drunk asks what happened to the bird. Annoyed by the question, the stranger tells him that it died. He asks if the drunk feels respected now; he says that he does. The man asks if he can go. The drunk relents, but asks to see a picture of Jill. The stranger opens his wallet and shows him “a school photo of a pretty little blonde with missing teeth” (134). The drunk compliments the girl and says that, eventually, she’ll forgive the man. He asks the drunk if he has any kids. Zits feels surprised by the question. He doesn’t know if this body has children. Still, he’s compelled to dig into his pockets for a wallet. He finds “a mess of cards, photos, and receipts fastened with a rubber band” (135). He pulls off the rubber band and “[sorts] through the mess” until he finds “a familiar photo” (135). He examines the face of the boy in the photo. The stranger asks if that’s his son, but Zits says that it’s him. The man is confused, but has to leave for work. After the man departs, Zits stares at the photo. It’s him, as a five-year old. He realizes, finally, that the drunk is his father.

Zits feels ashamed to know that he’s entered his father’s body and thinks that, if he had a weapon, he would kill himself. He goes somewhere to look at his image in a mirror. It is, indeed, his father’s face. He asks the reflection why he left and why he has a photo of him from when he was five. He can feel his father’s body fighting him, not wanting to remember the day that he left his son. Zits is determined to force him to remember. He “[pushes] against his father’s mind and soul” and “[rampages] into his memory” (136).

He finds the memory of his birth. His father is not in the hospital room with his mother, but outside. A nurse passes by and asks if she can help him. He tells her that his wife is giving birth in Room 812. The nurse wonders why he’s outside, but only assures him that everything will be fine. In the midst of her speech about the competence of the medical professionals at the hospital, Zits’ father covers her mouth with his hand. She’s surprised by this gesture. He apologizes for “[violating] her boundaries,” but tells her that he can’t handle anyone saying anything to him now (138). He asks her to leave him and she does.

Zits sees the nurse praying for his father to overcome his weakness. His father, however, doesn’t feel her prayers, only “a sharp pain in his chest” (138). He thinks back to his own childhood, when he was eight, and his father came into his room drunk, for no other purpose than to rebuke him while he lay awake in bed. Zits’ grandfather berates his father for not being a good enough hunter, for being “a pussy boy,” and for being worthless (139). Zits’ grandfather demands that the little boy repeat that he “ain’t worth shit” and the boy obeys, screaming that he “ain’t worth shit” (139).

Zits sees his father “pacing in the hospital hallway” (140). He stops, resolved about what he must do: He’ll leave because he cannot become a father. He runs away. Strangely, he closes his eyes while he runs, and Zits closes his eyes, too.