"TWA announces its final call for flight 8JO, non-stop 747 service to Paris, Immediate boarding Gate
Yir
They stood up without a word and started slowly toward the gangway door. But there was .still something important Bob had to say.
"Uh—if you like, you could visit us again next summer. Or even Christmas. I mean anytime."
"Thank you," he said.
"So maybe you'll come next summer, huh?"
"Maybe."
Or maybe not, thought Bob. Very likely not.
The lady taking tickets seemed to be signaling.
"I should go, Bob," said the little boy.
No, please, thought Bob. Not yet. Not yet.
Now Jean-Claude held out his hand and, as if preparing for the life awaiting him across the ocean, spoke his final words in French.
"Au revoir. Papa.*'
Bob could hold out no longer. He swept the little boy into his arms and hugged him. He could feel
the boy's chest breathing rapidly against his own. They spoke no words. He longed to say I love you, but was scared of breaking down. So he simply held his son. And hugged him, wanting never to let go.
On the periphery of his awareness, someone said the doors were going to close.
He put the httle boy dovm. And took a final look at him.
''Go on," he whispered hoarsely, unable to say more. His throat was tight.
The boy looked up at him for a split second, and without another word, turned toward the gate.
Bob watched him hand his ticket to the hostess, watched her tear a page off. Watched him walk straight-backed, carrying his flight bag, down the gangway onto the plane. And disappear.
The gate closed.
A few minutes later, the white jumbo slowly backed away, then headed toward the runway into the growing darkness.
Bob stood there for a long while.
At last he turned and started walking slowly down the now deserted corridor.
I love you, Jean-Claude. Please don't forget me.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bom in New York City in 1937, Erich Segal earned his A.B. and Ph.D. at Harvard and then moved to Yale to begin a career as a teacher of Latin and Greek.
During one Christmas vacation, he learned that the young wife of a former student had just died. He was moved to write about it, and the result was the worldwide phenomenon Love Story. The sequel, Oliver's Story, was also a bestseller, but it was only with this third novel, Man, Woman and Child, that critical acclaim was added to popular success.
A veteran of more than forty marathon races, Erich Segal has been a television commentator for three Olympic ganies.
He lives and teaches in New England, the setting of his first three novels and of the fourth, on which he is currently at work.
He is married and has one child.
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