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La Conner, Washington

S tacy and Jim Chapin meet at their condo in La Conner, Washington, and get into Jim’s black Chevy Tahoe. They have a six-hour drive ahead of them, and the Sunday-afternoon traffic sucks.

Hunter and Maizie call and tell them they’re being asked to go to the police station and that they’ll be handing over their phones to the cops.

Which means that for most of that drive, Stacy and Jim cannot reach their kids.

Stacy feels as if she’ll burst.

Why aren’t they hearing anything from the police? From the university? From anyone?

She phones the emergency cell number for the university that parents of incoming students are given. She chews out the person who answers, asking why no one from the school is communicating with her about her son.

The voice on the other end says that’s because there’s a protocol with emergencies, and the police are the ones in charge of situations like this.

In perhaps the only time in the aftermath of her son’s death, Stacy momentarily loses her cool. “That’s not good enough!” she yells.

She has no idea to whom she’s talking; in that moment she’s not interested. But being Stacy Chapin, soon she wants to find him and apologize.

For now she just wants the snarled traffic to move. All she wants is to get to Hunter and Maizie and tell them that no matter what has happened to Ethan, they are still a family. And they are going to be fine.

Stacy, the mother hen, is going to make sure of this. She is going to be there for Maizie and Hunter. She is going to be there for Ethan, whatever has happened. She is going to be there for Jim.

She doesn’t have a clue as to how they are going to get through this, but she is going to do her damnedest to protect her brood. Family first.

All the plans she and Jim had of traveling, retiring—those belong to the past. They are quite, quite gone.

Hunter and Maizie need to hear one message from her: Whatever happened to Ethan, they are alive, and they are going to be fine. She will make sure of it.

It’s what Ethan would want.