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farm, I wondered if Grandma knew that changes were coming, whether I wanted them or not. Had she been trying to prepare me?
    “So, you want to talk about it?” Keiler leaned his head against the headrest, his face sympathetic, soft, filled with the hopeful sense of someone who thought he could save the world and the cynical fortyish lady in seat 21A.
    I sighed. “It’s a long story.”
    “I know.” He smiled and glanced at his watch. “I’ve got . . . one hour and forty-seven minutes.” He held out the smashed candy bar. “Want a Snickers?”
    I couldn’t help smiling. Something about his laid-back, raveled-jeans, ponytail-wearing presence was comforting. “You know what? I do.”
    I took the candy bar, and he pulled another from his bag, and the two of us sat eating Snickers like old friends. I realized I hadn’t eaten all day. The knot in my stomach began to work its way out, and all of a sudden, I started talking. I sat there on an airplane headed to the last place I wanted to go, with a stranger who looked like the last person I’dever want to know, and I told him everything. I started with the doctor’s appointment, went through the management meeting, and ended with me wildly playing the piano for the first time in fifteen years.
    As the plane was touching down in Kansas City, I finished by telling him about Kate’s call. “And you know, my mind was saying no, but the next thing I knew I was telling her I was coming. I don’t even know why I said it. I don’t know why I’m going. I think I’m having a breakdown.”
    Keiler smiled. He wasn’t a good-looking kid, but there was a serenity, a kindness in him that made him beautiful. “I think we all want to head home when there’s trouble,” he said with calm assurance. “Sometimes you need that soft place to fall. That’s your family, your faith. The stuff that doesn’t change when everything else does.”
    “Yeah, I guess so.” It seemed he had a wisdom I lacked. Strange, considering how young he was. “You know, you really ought to think about seminary school. You’re good at this.”
    He squinted like he wasn’t quite sure I was serious. “I might. You know, right now I’m just waiting to see. I almost died two years ago during surgery, and I guess that changed how I feel about things. I’m not in such a big hurry to get from one place to another anymore. Once you learn that you can never really plan your destination, you stop worrying so much about being on the map. I figure I’m still here for a reason, and that reason could be anywhere, you know?”
    A sense of peace filtered through me as the plane docked at the gate. Stop worrying about the map, I thought. “You know what? You’re right.”
    We walked up the gateway together and stood for a moment at the end.
    “So what kind of surgery was it?” I asked. The question seemed out of the blue and insensitive, so I added, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that.”
    Keiler only grinned. “Brain surgery.” He parted his hair, and I saw the large crescent-shaped scar. “I probably shouldn’t be giving people advice. I’ve only got half my marbles.”
    I laughed, slipped a hand over his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “I’d say it’s the right half. Thanks for listening to me.”
    He shrugged off my gratitude, letting his hair fall back into place.“Hey, no problem. If you end up in Missouri this summer, come see our Jumpkids.”
    “I will,” I said, and strangely enough, I meant it.
    As I said good-bye to Keiler, I had a feeling that a lot of things about this summer were going to be different.

Chapter 3
    A s I left the airport and slid into the neon-lit rush of a Kansas City Friday night, I tried not to think of anything but the road, the next mile in front of me. The clock on the rental car dash flashed midnight. Normally, I would have already fallen asleep on the sofa, and around now I’d be waking up and stumbling drowsily off to bed. If James were home,