"Welcome home, sugar baby," Dad said, hugging her close.

"You look splendiferous, as always. Is that a new suit? And don't say, 'What, this old thing?'"

"What, this old thing? Nope." Grinning wryly, Jenna shook her head. "Actually it's something I've had in my closet for ages. But I brought something better for tomorrow. I want to look nice out of respect for Maribeth."

"You always look nice," Dad said. Then leaning down he picked up the carry-on, lying at her feet, and taking her arm led her through the busy Denver airport and out to the parking lot. It was a beautiful day, clear and golden, the sky almost porcelain, as they got in the car and started driving. The traffic was heavy, but in a reasonable amount of time they had left the city behind them and were on their way to the mountains. The road wound in and out through great stretches of pine and blue-green fir trees, with occasional glimpses of quaking aspen in the distance.

"How's Mom?" Jenna asked. "Still telling those big-shot doctors at the hospital how to run the place?"

Dad grinned. 'You'd better believe it. She took off from work early and can't wait to see you."

"Hm-mm. I'm looking forward to seeing her, too. What's the agenda for this thing?"

"Well, Maribeth is going to be cremated, and there're no calling hours. A memorial service is slated for eleven Monday morning at the funeral home, with a reception afterwards. Your friends Annie and Molly are already here checked in at the Lodge, and that's where the reception will be held after the service. Sister Corky has planned everything pretty well I think. She wants to do Maribeth proud."

"God!" Jenna shivered as a spasm of pain shot through her. "I still can't believe she's gone. It seems impossible."

"I know. It was a shock for everyone, especially since she never complained of heart trouble. Dr. Scobey thinks she'd been dead for several hours by the time Corky found her. But he feels she didn't suffer."

"Well, that's a blessing."

"Yes, it is," Dad sighed. "But this certainly isn't the ending that anyone predicted for Maribeth."

"Hardly," Jenna agreed, and unconsciously shivered again, recalling the beautiful young woman who'd made heads turn everywhere she went. Suddenly they turned a bend in the road and she spotted Evergreen Lake, sparkling like a bright, silver dollar down below, and knew they were almost home. "I remember the first time I saw Maribeth like it was yesterday. It was right after we moved to the mountains."

"You must have been all of five or six."

"Seven," she said, "and looking forward to starting second grade in the fall." She'd grown so much, she recalled, that her school uniforms no longer fit, and one day as she remembered that she looked up from the crossword puzzle she was working on and reminded Grammy Barry that they'd better order new ones for the new year. But Gammy said that wouldn't be necessary; she said the new school Jenna would be going to probably wouldn't be a Catholic school and wouldn't require uniforms. That was the first Jenna had heard of a new school.

There'd been some talk between Grammy and Aunt Dot about Aunt Rita and the new fella she'd met at the Veterans hospital near Boston where she worked, and had recently married. They said when the man was released from the hospital he and Aunt Rita had decided to move out west and start a whole new life. They kept saying how relieved they were that this guy, whoever he was, didn't mind taking on a package deal. But Jenna had no idea at the time that she was part of the package.

As she resumed working on her puzzle she heard Grammy tell Aunt Dot that it would be better for 'you know who' if she became just part of the family. "There'll be no talk of out-of-wedlock births," Grammy said, (whatever that meant), "since they'll just be strangers out there. She can just blend in like their natural child; know what I mean?"

"Exactly," Aunt Dot said. "Although there're so many people living together today and giving birth without marriage, I don't think anyone thinks much about it anymore. Which is all to the good, in my opinion."

"Right," Grammy said, and leaning down she gave Jenna a hug. Then she went on talking about the new school and how she was sure Jenna would love it

"But where's this new school at and why am I changing schools anyway?" Jenna asked, since she was happy at Saint Aloysius. They weren't Catholics, but the school was right up the street, and Grammy liked the nuns. But Grammy didn't answer Jenna. Instead she got out the suitcases and got very busy packing Jenna's clothes and talking about what a nice vacation Jenna was going to have.

"Why are you packing all my clothes if we're just going to Myrtle Beach?" Jenna asked puzzled. They had gone to Myrtle Beach, near Charleston where they lived, and rented a cottage for two weeks every August for as long as she could remember. And all she wore at the beach were shorts and a bathing suit. But Grammy said this year was different. She said Jenna would not be going to Myrtle Beach, but to some strange place called Denver, Colorado, which was very nice by all accounts, and which she was sure Jenna would love.

"But who decided this?" Jenna demanded, and she crossed her arms across her chest and stared hard at Grammy. But again Grammy seemed to have trouble answering. She simply sighed as tears filled her eyes, and she said something about how she was too old to have her heart broken. And the very next day Aunt Dot called a taxi and Grammy hugged her close as she whispered, "Be a good girl now," and a cold feeling took over Jenna's body. It was like a chill that started in her chest and spread to her arms and fingers and right down her legs, all the way to her toes. And although she didn't understand it somehow she knew that change, inexorable and unalterable, had begun in the charmed circle of her life, and there was nothing she could do about it.

The taxi took her and Aunt Dot to the railroad station – Aunt Dot didn't like planes – and they got on a train for the long ride to Colorado. It took two-and-a-half days to get there and since she'd never been on a train before she found the experience different and kind of exciting. She enjoyed eating in the dining car, where the colored waiters always gave her a big smile, and there were flowers on the tables. And it was fun climbing the ladder to the upper berth at night and falling asleep to the clickatee-clack of the train wheels.

Then the train arrived in Denver and they got off, and she saw Aunt Rita, Aunt Dot's sister, who used to visit them in Charleston from time to time. Aunt Rita was small and trim, with a sweet, pretty face, and Jenna liked her well enough, although she hugged you so hard it almost hurt, and for some reason she always cried when she told Jenna good-bye.

"See you soon, honey bunch," she'd say, and her mouth would turn up bravely at the corners, but her eyes were always sad and forlorn.

Today though she was all smiles as she crushed Jenna close in her arms. "Oh, it's so good to see you!" she exclaimed. "And here's your new daddy, who's just been dying to meet you."

She gently pushed Jenna forward, and Jenna glanced up at the man standing beside her. He was a tall man with sparkling blue eyes and pale, silvery blond hair, and he carried his head slightly forward as though he didn't want to miss anything. He looked pleasant enough as he smiled and said jovially, "Why, hello there, Miss Jenna. Your mom told me...