After waiting for almost two hours, Carole finally saw her opportunity when the woman went to the bathroom. Seizing the chance, Carole concocted a quick excuse to approach the boy. She turned to her colleague, “Hey, can you cover for me for a sec? I saw the boy drop his coloring book. I’m just going to hand it back to him, okay?” Her colleague nodded, oblivious to Carole’s underlying motive, and Carole took that as her green light to discreetly check on the boy.
Taking a calming breath, Carole quietly picked up a coloring book from the plane’s stash, making her way to the boy with a casual demeanor. It was then she truly noticed what had caught her attention earlier: the boy was engaged in peculiar hand gestures. Exactly like she saw him do earlier, just as they boarded the plane and the woman was preoccupied with storing their luggage in the overhead bins. Now, he was repeating these gestures. It appeared as though he was attempting to communicate something through his hand movements…