Dear Edward

Edward and Shay work as camp counselors in the summer. When Edward takes his campers swimming, he is overly cautious about their safety. He suggests that he might want to be a teacher when he’s grown.

Edward and John turn the nursery in their home into an office. As their healing continues, John closes the PO box to which the letters were going, so that “all mail now comes to the house. Cleaning out this room is the last step” (308). They are making the final conscious steps toward wellness.

One evening, Edward and Shay sit next to the camp’s lake. Edward tells Shay that he loves her, and she responds in kind. He thinks about his connection to her and his larger relationship with the crash victims: “He’s aware of Shay beside him. Her molecules are mixing with his; he’s not just himself; he’s made up of her too […] That means he has molecules inside him from his parents and Jordan and everyone else on that plane” (310).

He admits to Shay that he once believed—and possibly still does—that “as long as I stay on the ground, the plane will stay in the sky […] They’re all alive up there, as long as I’m alive down here” (311).