To Gerry for his inspiration

To Linne for her guidance

To Tony for his encouragement

To Carol for a dream come true

“It’s a long journey through a country that is sometimes pleasant and sometimes dark and terrible.”

—From The Wizard Of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

Acknowledgements

To all the people across America who befriended us, thank you for your open hearts and many kindnesses. You rekindled my faith in the goodness of people.

And also my thanks to Shoshanna Alexander, my editor and project coordinator, for making possible the adventure of creating this book.