I came up with the idea for this book after a weekend with my high school friends during which the intensity of those years came rushing back and time folded in on itself. Thank you to Christine Collins, Kirsten Lundeberg, Kate Snell, Maureen Murphy, Kelly Mulderry, Krystn Forcina, and Karen Febeo for the “mystical” time.

I always love reaching out to friends for research when Wikipedia, Google, and my library skills fail me. Thanks to Kim Woodwell, Ed Mitre, Jacob Kahn, Theresa Kahn, Mark Bertin, Nick Soures, Jeff Lind, Laura Lind, and Rick Kahn for helping me figure out chickens (for another project), hockey, hospitals, and whether email existed in 1994.

Along the way, readers gave me a great deal of encouragement and invaluable advice: Sophie Bell, Rick Kahn, Claudia Gwardyak, Anita Kapadia, Gayle Kirshenbaum, Marcia Lerner, and Jen Nails. Your reactions kept me going and gave me direction.

My agent, George Nicholson, has been unstintingly supportive of this book and me, as has Caitlin McDonald. Melanie Cecka has again proven a wise diagnostician and deft surgeon. I feel extremely lucky to be reunited.

Friends and my extended Bell-Kahn-Gwardyak-Breitbart-Diggory-Entin-Ouk clan have been helping me keep the dream alive, especially all my Kahn-Diggory-Entin-Bell-Ouk nieces and nephews who read and ask for more. Seeing my own children’s interest in my books is the thrill of a lifetime. Rick: I might have been able to do this without you, but never as happily.