Mother turned Leah to face her.
'You start school in three days,' she said. 'They know you are coming, just as they know of the others who will be with you. What you learn will depend on your teachers and on you.'
Suddenly Leah's face drooped.
'What about Sarah?' Her face clouded, and her voice changed to a whisper.
Mother and Daddy glanced at each other. Daddy picked Leah up, placed her on his lap so that they faced each other. Their eyes met.
'Tell me, Leah,' Daddy said as he drew her close and gave her a full all- round hug, 'When we have a change in our lives in which you will be at school every day, where do you think Sarah will be while you are gone?'
'Sarah will always be my friend,' Leah's voice was a whisper as she leaned her head on her Daddy's chest. 'She'll be with me always, wherever I go. Maybe we won't go flying as often as we did before, but I'll always feel her close to me.' Leah raised her head, grinned, and added with a laugh, 'and that will always make me feel good.'
Leah and her Mother and Daddy sat on the couch, talking about the changes that would come with school. There would be a new time to get up in the morning, dressing to go out, packing a school lunch and having a comb and brush kit, and things like that.
Leah listened, and voiced opinions which Mommy and Daddy considered very carefully. The meeting was a sharing.
After a while, Daddy and Leah went to the dining room table and Mother brought cookies and milk. They sat around the table, munched the cookies, sipped the milk, and talked some more.