Zach's Lie

In his journal, 13-year-old Jack Osborne describes how, to protect his family, airport security helped him, his older sister Joanne, his mother Patricia, and “Aunt Doris” and “Uncle Don” (who are really federal agents) secretively board their flight before other passengers. Jack, his family, and his toy Commander IF sit in the back row of the plane, watching the faces of the incoming passengers for any sign of danger.

The narration switches to the third person, a pattern that continues for most of the Part 1. When he was nine, Jack liked pretending to be a superhero—until he fell out a window and broke both legs. His ex-Navy fighter pilot dad, Neil, carved him a model of the space shuttle to occupy Jack in the hospital. Inside the model, Jack found an astronaut whom he initially named Commander Jacko but changed to Commander IF for “Imaginary Friend” after his father shared that both he and his grandfather had beloved imaginary friends. Commander IF left when Jack was eleven but returned recently, on the day Jack was packing to move to their new, smaller house. In the hospital, Jack also learned to love reading and writing. His father gave him five