Chasing the Falconers

Aiden’s recollection of the photograph of Frank Lindenauer stashed in the walls of a summer house in Vermont sets the siblings on an eastward trajectory. These chapters, where Aiden and Meg try to get themselves out of Nebraska, eventually teaming up with Miguel, showcase the Resilience and Ingenuity of Youth, along with The Power of Family Bonds. Aiden and Meg have to work together to stay ahead of the authorities, overcoming their annoyance with each other’s differences. Running into Miguel at the train station in Gibbon—and eventually teaming up with him—forces the Falconers to confront anew the question of Innocence and Criminality. Although Aiden’s and Meg’s perspectives continue to dominate the narrative, this section also introduces a third character’s point of view: that of FBI Agent Emmanuel Harris, who, despite his connection to the US government, wants to find the Falconers in order to protect them.

Aiden is rightly concerned about the reliability of his memory, which he is incapable of targeting on Uncle Frank. He desperately searches his mind for details about Frank or Jane and finds nothing. Instead, his mind sharply remembers something else: “The memories of the house were the clearest” (43). When Aiden reveals his memory about the photo of Frank, Meg retorts, “Why didn’t you remember that when it was important?” (44). Memories are unreliable in their timing and clarity, but both children demonstrate their resilience in resolving to travel to Vermont to track down the only clue they have—an especially ambitious goal, given that they are still deep in Nebraska. At a time before the widespread use of smart phones—in this 2005 novel, no one seems to have GPS, and news still circulates primarily on radio and television—Aiden and Meg have to absorb information from printed maps and make snap decisions about what paths to take in unfamiliar, potentially hostile territory.

Meg’s quick thinking and willingness to lie to adults buys them enough time to get clear of the mini-mart where the mechanic nearly recognizes them; despite her private belief that her skills are more valuable, however, Aiden’s steadiness and more methodical approach helps keep them on track as well. Both siblings demonstrate a commitment to family bonds, setting aside their annoyances about each other’s habits, and their survival up to this point is very much a function of their ability to maintain that equilibrium. The siblings’ commitment to each other—and to their family as a whole—gains strength from the absent presence of their parents. As he sleeps in the boxcar, Aiden dreams of the family vacation with Frank, but his most lingering memory from that dream involves his mother: “As she held him, he had a strange feeling that he should be hugging her harder, never letting go” (75). Here Aiden’s grief and loss change how he experienced the moment at age six while also reminding him that finding Frank is only a means to their real goal: exonerating their parents.

This section features another scene where Aiden draws timely inspiration from his father’s books’ protagonist, Mac Mulvey, allowing him to command respect from Meg and Miguel just in time to escape the police outside Chicago. Aiden remembers that “Mac Mulvey, Dad’s recurring detective hero, had once broken out of a locked freezer car” (78). Aiden has access to his father through his dad’s novels. Although their parents cannot be there to help their children, their words resonate with each of them, again reinforcing a familial bond.

However, the encounter with Miguel in the train station in Chapter 8 challenges the family bond by forcing Aiden and Meg to confront the loss of their own status as innocent victims caught up in a hostile system. Aiden in particular is keenly aware of his growing rap sheet, but, more importantly, his views on crime and criminality are changing rapidly. He is shocked when Miguel breaks into a vending machine at the train station. He and his sister look at each other, as if to say, “They weren’t thieves. Their honesty was what separated them from people like Miguel” (69). In response, Miguel points out the hypocrisy of Aiden’s feelings of moral superiority: “You’ve got a lot of integrity for arsonists” (69). As much as Aiden protests that the fire was an accident, he has to concede the point. He and Meg have already stolen clothing and mountain bikes and are in the process of evading a massive search. The government seems to be bent on making them criminals in spite of themselves. As he is confronted with the harsh reality of life as an outcast, without money, help, or family support, Aiden asks himself, “Was he crazy to think of himself and Meg as being better than Miguel?” (69). He eats the candy with the other two. By the time Miguel breaks a window in an empty house in suburban Chicago, Aiden has largely accepted the fact that his survival requires acting outside of the law: “The only way to survive as a fugitive was by breaking even more laws. If the police really want to reduce crime, they should leave us alone” (83). However, he still holds himself to be a better person than Miguel and continues to fret about how good Meg is at lying.