Albany County Airport

Albany County Airport is both a waypoint in Andy McGee and Charlie McGee’s escape and a place preserved in Andy’s troubled recollection of their flight. Its significance reaches beyond the journey itself: Andy later wonders whether the strain of getting from New York City through the airport to Hastings Glen exhausted his ability to use the push, while a remembered incident involving Charlie’s power fixes the airport in the family’s flight history.

Place in the Escape

Andy considers the airport part of the route that carried him and Charlie from New York City to Hastings Glen. Looking back, he wonders whether he had permanently used up his ability during that run, or whether his mind had blocked it because using it might prove fatal. The airport therefore marks a point along a journey that Andy connects to the disappearance of a power he had once relied upon.

Charlie’s Incident in Andy’s Memory

The airport returns in Andy’s recollection as a brief scene amid the flight. He remembers Charlie, pale and strained, crying after collecting change from the airport pay phones; she then set a serviceman’s shoes on fire. The detail places Charlie’s dangerous ability within the ordinary activity of gathering coins, while Andy’s memory holds together her distress and the sudden eruption of her power.

Retrospective Significance

These accounts reach the reader through Andy’s backward-looking thoughts rather than through an extended airport scene. The journey is recalled at a time when his attempts to use the push have produced no results, so the airport becomes part of his search for an explanation: perhaps the ability is gone, or perhaps his mind is refusing to use it. In the same recollection, Charlie’s act offers a stark contrast—her power appears in a moment of distress even as Andy fears that his own has failed.