"It was a good game," Abigail remarked as Jack drove the family home.

"It was," he agreed. "Even by a slender margin, a win is still a win."

"I want to be a football player when I grow up," said Jackson.

"You'd make a good one," Jack replied.

"I always thought your Uncle David would go into professional football," said Abigail.

"Why didn't he?"

"Life," his father replied.

"Can I be a cheerleader when I grow up, Mommy?" asked Julie.

"Sure, if you want to be," said Abigail.

"Were you ever a cheerleader?"

"I sure was!"

"Was it fun?"

"It was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of hard work."

"How many in favor of stopping for ice cream before we head home?" asked Jack.

"Yay!" shouted Sharon and the kids.

Jack grinned. "That's what I thought." He drove past the ice-cream-parlor-turned-video-arcade.

"I remember the first time I went in there after I woke up from my coma," Abigail reminisced. "I was so shocked to see what had happened to it while I was asleep."

Jack chuckled. "Things do change." He parked in the lot of the building in which the ice cream parlor was now housed, and the family went inside. It was full of teenagers in football jerseys and cheer leading uniforms, so they had to wait a really long time to be served.

"I hafta go to the bathroom," Julie whined, tugging on her mother's arm.

"Go ahead and take her," said Jack. "I'll order for both of you. Strawberry sundae, right?"

Abigail nodded. "And a plain vanilla cone for Julie."

He hadn't yet reached the front of the line by the time they'd returned, so they rejoined him in waiting. After buying their ice cream, they took it to one of the outside tables to eat it. A cool autumn breeze was blowing, causing Abigail to be glad she'd made the kids wear jackets.

"This is so romantic, isn't it?" Jack remarked.

Abigail sighed with contentment. "It really takes me back."

"Where is it taking you, Mommy?" Julie looked a little bit frightened.

Her parents laughed. "That just means it reminds me of doing this a long time ago," Abigail explained.

"Oh," said Julie. "You mean before Jackson and me were born?"

"A long time before you and Jackson were born. Your Daddy and me weren't even together yet. I used to come here with your Uncle David."

"What about Aunt Ellen?"

"She had her own friends that she hung out with back then."

"How old were you?"

"Seventeen."

"So you were almost all grown up then!"

"Almost, but not quite."

The family finished their ice cream and returned home. As Abigail cuddled in her husband's arms that night, visions of long-ago high school football games danced in her head.

The following day was Halloween, and Jack and Abigail took Sharon and the kids trick-or-treating in their own neighborhood and in Beryl's. Sharon wore an adult-sized Raggedy Ann costume, Jackson dressed as Batman, and Julie was a duck. Everybody commented on how cute the kids were and either completely ignored Sharon or gave her strange looks. Abigail felt bad for her but didn't know what to do.

That night, she was awakened by soft sobbing coming from Julie's room. Rushing to see what was wrong, she switched the light on and saw her daughter sitting up in bed, sobbing. "My tummy hurts, Mommy!"

Abigail rushed to the bed and picked the little girl up. Right afterwards, she felt a warm liquid on her shoulder and realized that Julie had just thrown up all over her. "Oh, no!" Abigail rushed both of them into the bathroom, where she began to undress them both while running the bath water to fill up the tub.

"My tummy doesn't hurt anymore!" Julie exclaimed. "How come it quit hurting?"

"It probably hurt because you ate too much candy. Then when you threw all the candy up, it stopped hurting." The tub finished filling up, and Abigail put Julie into it before stepping in herself. Then she lathered up a washcloth and began to wash her daughter.

"You and me are taking a bath together!" Julie giggled, her tummy ache having been quickly forgotten.

"That's right!" Abigail quickly washed herself, then dried them both off and dressed them both in fresh pajamas. After that, she rinsed out the soiled clothing, hung it up to dry, tucked Julie back into bed, and returned to bed herself.

"Everything OK?" Jack mumbled.

"Yeah." Abigail yawned. "She just ate too much candy and got sick, but she's fine now."

"Oh, OK." Jack chuckled. "Well, that's certainly understandable."

"Mm hm."

"Come here, you." He pulled her close, and she rested her head on his shoulder. She closed her eyes and was asleep within seconds.