April and May passed quickly, and in early June, Clay was promoted to the twelfth grade and Jamie to the ninth. Both of them came home full of smiles on the last day of school.

"I'm a middle schooler no more, woo hoo!" Jamie shouted.

"Yeah, now you're a lowly freshman," Clay replied. Jamie stuck her tongue out at him, and Jo laughed. She knew that in spite of the ribbing, the two of them did genuinely care for one another.

"I got all A's and only one B on my report card," Jamie told her mother. "I can't wait to show Dad!" More than anything else, she longed for Doug's approval. Jo didn't mind. She knew how badly her daughter had wanted a father for her whole childhood.

"And how well did you do, Clay?" she asked her stepson.

Clay shrugged. "I did all right." He showed Jo his report card.

"Wow, these are some good grades!" Jo exclaimed. "Your father's gonna be so proud of both of you!"

"Yeah." Clay grinned and blushed a little.

When Doug got home several hours later, he was very happy about both report cards and took the family out to the pizza buffet to celebrate. Doug gave Clay and Jamie big handfuls of change to buy tokens to play arcade games with. "They deserve it," he said to Jo. "They're good kids."

"The question is, how are we gonna keep them occupied all summer?" asked Jo. As it turned out, she didn't have to wonder for very long, as Blair called her just a few days later.

"I just heard from Natalie," Blair told her friend. "She and Tootie are flying to Peekskill. Mrs. Garrett had a stroke several days ago."

"Oh, no!" Jo exclaimed. "Is she all right?"

"She's conscious, but she's paralyzed on one side of her body," Blair replied. "I'm flying out to see her too, as soon as I can. I thought that perhaps you and I could go together with our families."

"Oh, of course!" Jo exclaimed. "I'll have to talk to Doug first, of course."

"What's goin' on?" Doug asked after Jo had hung up.

"It's Mrs. Garrett, my former headmaster at Eastland. She just had a stroke," Jo told him. "Blair's flying to Peekskill and wanted to know if I wanted to go with her."

"Oh, no! I'm so sorry!" Doug said. "I know you were real close to her."

"She was like a second mother to me, really to all of us," Jo told him. "I really want to go visit her, and it would mean a lot to me if you'd come, too."

She saw a look of sheer panic cross her husband's face. "Aw, hon, I'd love to," Doug said. "But ya see, I ain't never been on a plane before. I'm scared ta death of flyin'."

"Oh, Doug, it's twenty times safer than riding in a car!" Jo pointed out.

"Yeah, I've heard that too," Doug replied. "I just don't know whether to believe it or not."

"It's true," Jo assured him. "And way up there in the air, you don't even feel like you're moving at all. You can get up and walk around just like you can here in the living room. And even if you have a window seat, all you can see when you look down is the tops of the clouds below. Most people even sleep on long flights. It's very safe and even kind of boring. The only thing is that sometimes you might get a little of an upset stomach when you're ascending or descending, but it's really no worse than riding an elevator, and also sometimes your ears pop, but you can chew gum to help with that."

"I know all that's true, darlin'," said Doug. "The thought of it still just gives me the willies."

"Well, I won't pressure you to go with me if you really don't want to," Jo replied. "But I would feel a lot better with you along."

Jamie was thrilled when she found out that she'd be returning to New York. "I can't wait to see Sarah again!" she exclaimed. Sarah Bernstein had been her best friend when she'd lived in New York.

Clay was excited about the trip as well. "I've never even been on a plane before!" he declared. "It'll be a real adventure!"

As luck would have it, Doug and Jo watched a movie on television about an airplane crash the night before they were due to depart. "Wow, that made me feel loads better," Doug remarked before going to bed that night.

"Well, you didn't have to watch it with me," Jo pointed out.

"But it was a good movie," Doug replied.

The following day, Jo saw that Blair and her children had already arrived. Adam and Alyssa were running around in circles with their arms out at their sides, pretending to be airplanes. "Good thing they're working off their sugar buzz now," Blair laughed.

"Where's Joe?" asked Jo.

"He couldn't make it," said Blair. "Things aren't that great between us right now anyway," she added in a low voice to Jo.

"I'm sorry," Jo said. She glanced at Doug, who looked pale as he clung to her hand. "I hope this proves to you how much I love you," he murmured.

"Of course it does." Jo smiled. "Everything's gonna be fine, sweetheart."