She confirmed Fortin’s blood type, tissue type, age, and consent. She acknowledged some concern with a note in Fortin’s medical history on his alcohol consumption, which had ceased several years ago. He was a non-smoker, didn’t use drugs, and all other health factors were good. The network, in turn, searched its databases and alerted a local transplant organization in Seattle, which assessed their waiting lists for a match.

Then Dr. Burton, a thirty-five-year-old mother of three children and local soccer mom, steeled herself to make another call.

-Chapter 59-

Above the Cascade Mountains, Washington

As the helicopter ascended, Fortin saw buildings shrink into oceans of green forest, then the majestic slopes of the Cascade Range.

The sky cleared and he saw snatches of stunning blue sky, then felt the warmest sensation of flying and falling through his life …

… there he was back in Quebec, in the Montcalm neighborhood of his youth, smelling the fresh-baked bread of the bakery where he’d go with his mother, tasting the jelly donuts she’d buy for him. Here he was feeding carrots to the horses at the gate of the old city, and there he was on the street playing hockey with his pals, and here he was at school, then at the RCMP Depot in Regina, then in New Brunswick walking with Cathy in the school yard, helping mend her broken heart. And there’s Cathy radiant in her wedding dress. He saw their little home in the foothills before the Rockies in Lone Tree, Alberta … there he was alone that night, the rain beating on the windshield of his car, the red eyes of the deer in his headlights. The Road Runner cartoons … Then the sky turned azure like Ocho Rios in Jamaica, where he and Cathy spent their honeymoon.

-Chapter 60-

Calgary, Alberta

At that time, the principal of Confederation Elementary School, in a southern suburb of Calgary, took an urgent call.

She left her phone off the hook and rushed out of her office to collect the vice principal. Together they hurried down the main corridor. It was empty and artwork posted on the walls by the students lifted and crackled in their wake before they’d stopped at Mrs. Endicott’s class, signaling her to step into the hall where the principal spoke softly.

“Cathy, there’s a call for you. Come with me to my office,” the principal said. “Rhonda will watch your class.”

As the principal led her to her office, Cathy read the concern in the principal’s face.

“Is it my kids?” she asked, fear filling her eyes.

The principal shook her head.

“Is it Chadwick?”

“No,” the principal said, leaving Cathy alone so she could take the emergency call in private.

Nearly numb with apprehension, Cathy picked up the handset.

“Yes, this is Cathy Endicott … Yes, Corporal Will Fortin is my husband – former husband ...”