Jay watched her petite figure disappear into the bustling crowd, swept along with the children carrying colorful bookbags as they streamed through the school gates. Once his daughter's lovely silhouette vanished into the crowd, he seemed to glimpse, in that tiny figure, Jessica as an adult seven years later, standing with her back to him beneath the deep night sky, her face turned slightly to the side, her smile as peaceful as a breeze, rippling through the boundless sea of stars.
