BY FRANCES ROBLES

 WASHINGTON -- Sitting in a plane on his way to see his father, Elian Gonzalez had a few
 questions for the INS agents who snatched him Saturday at  the brink of dawn: ``Where's my
 uncle? Am I ever going to see my cousin Mari again?''

 He heard answers that didn't soothe him and wept. A nap and a few Gameboy sessions later,
 Elian was ready to see his papa.

 ``Elian looked dazed, looked scared, looked confused,'' Dr. Gustavo Cadavid, an Immigration
 and Naturalization psychiatrist who escorted the boy on the flight that brought him to his father's
 arms, said Monday.

 ``He was just scared.''

 Interviews with the two doctors on the flight from South Florida to Maryland show Elian
 was at first befuddled, suffering from old psychological wounds and new ones, but still
 willing to make friends with strangers. He displayed deep anguish for the loss of his mother,
 affection for his new family and delight at the first sight of his father, Juan Miguel.

 Cadavid, a Krome Detention Center psychiatrist, first encountered Elian at Homestead
 Air Force Base. The child, discovered Thanksgiving Day clinging to an inner tube, was
 now clinging to Betty Mills, the bilingual INS agent who participated in the Saturday
 morning raid on the Gonzalez family's Little Havana home.

 First he got a checkup from Dr. Carlos Quiñones, the new director of medical health
 service at Krome and a Puerto Rican doctor with 20 years of Air Force and Coast
 Guard experience.

 HE WAS FRIENDLY

 ``He didn't have a scrape,'' said Quiñones, who said the boy was not administered
 any medication or any tranquilizers. ``He was so friendly.''

 Once deemed fit, Elian boarded a prisoner transport plane with two U.S. marshals,
 two INS agents and the two doctors.

 ``He wasn't saying anything,'' Cadavid said. ``But as we took off, he did ask,
 `Where am I going.' ''

 They told him he was headed to Washington to see his father. When he wanted
 to know whether he would see his great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, and his cousin
 Marisleysis Gonzalez, he got a hazy response.

 ``It depends on you and your dad,'' Cadavid told him.

 Elian didn't scream, didn't flail his arms around but gazed out the window while
 tears rolled down his face.

 He dropped his head to Mills' lap and fell asleep.

 At a refueling stop in Atlanta, he decided against speaking to his father by
 telephone.

 He woke up looking refreshed and decided to talk to his father after all.

 ``There were two faces: The first was confused,'' Quiñones said. ``When he woke
 up, he was a different boy. He was very friendly, happy. Everything was fine.''

 The doctor said Elian played and colored and told the federal agents how he
 wanted to be a pilot when he grows up.

 As they were landing, Cadavid made a slip of the tongue that revealed the sorrow
 that Elian hid inside.

 SLIP OF THE TONGUE

 ``Now, we're going to see your father, little brother and mother,'' a tongue-twisted
 Cadavid said -- his mind having blocked out the Spanish word for stepmother.

 Elian's mom died five months ago in the very wreck that resulted in the
 international custody battle.

 ``The smile was gone,'' said Cadavid, who is Colombian American. ``When I said
 `mama' it was just sadness -- sadness you can't erase.''

 After correcting himself, Cadavid tried cheering him by telling him how close they
 were to seeing Juan Miguel. Elian pressed his face to the window but Daddy
 didn't appear.

 ``Boy, oh boy, all of a sudden there was a smile, joy,'' Cadavid said. He starts
 waving and waving, but the father didn't see him.''

 Suddenly, a familiar voice echoed in the cabin: ``Elian!''

 ``Elian jumps. The boy runs to his father. The father runs to his son,'' Cadavid
 said. ``You could hear a pin drop. Everybody was choking up. The father said `I
 thought I was never going to see you again.' ''

 Juan Miguel thanked the federal employees over and over as he hugged his silent
 boy. ``A very sweet moment,'' Quiñones said.

 An hour later, the doctors visited again, this time at the Andrews Air Force Base
 apartment, where Elian was running around showing off his new Batman T-shirt
 and baby brother.

 ``It was smiles all over the place,'' Cadavid said.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald