David gave Melissa a high five. After that there were about a million hugs from Courtney, who didn’t want him to leave. David knelt before her. “Look, I’ll see you again, okay?”

“You promise?” Courtney said.

“You got it, little sister.”

In the van, David turned to Nate as he buckled. “Did you get some good stuff?”

“Incredible. This is the best day I’ve ever photographed.”

David clicked his seat belt and thought a moment. “You know, I guess since you’re the official videographer that means you have to, like, film everything, right?”

“Yeah,” Nate said, changing a setting on his phone.

“Good. Then you’re coming skydiving with us.”

Nate laughed hard. “No, no, no. Nate is not jumping. That won’t happen. Never. Ever!”

David shook his head as Nate struggled with the instructor he was harnessed to and became more agitated in the plane. When they got to altitude and the door opened, Nate began clawing like a scared cat being tossed into a lake. Though he protested and his eyes grew wide, David knew when they got to the ground, he would have great video he could include in the documentary.

After Nate jumped, Melissa and her instructor took their place at the door. She gave David a thumbs-up and yelled, “Let’s do it! See you there!”

David watched as Melissa jumped through the door. Then it was his turn. He had jumped from the rocks by the river, but this was in another league. But in a sense, his whole life had become one jump after another, falling into some scary new experience.

“You ready?” his instructor said.

“Yeah, let’s do it!”

On the ground, Susan sat in a lawn chair, her sunglasses pushed up, unable to look at the plane overhead. Jimmy and Shawn sat next to her with their eyes glued to the sky.

“Melissa’s got a little adventure in her,” Jimmy said.

As relaxed as anyone could be, Shawn said, “She sure does.”

Susan put her hands together in front of her, her knuckles white.

“David seems to be pretty even-keeled,” Shawn said.

Susan put her head in her hands now, praying, begging God to just let them make it to the ground safely.

“This Nate fellow,” Shawn said. “Is he . . . okay?”

“Depends on what you mean by okay,” Jimmy said.

“He seems to be pretty dramatic,” Shawn said.

“Are they out of the plane?” Susan said, still unable to look.

“They’re out,” Jimmy said. “And the chutes are up.”

“Looks like they’re almost ready to land,” Shawn said.

Finally Susan got up the nerve to look. One glimpse of David’s face, even from this distance, eased her fears. He was smiling from ear to ear.

As Melissa came in for a landing, she couldn’t stop yelling. The feeling of jumping and falling and then being caught by the wind and settling to the ground so gently made her heart race.