Every soul has aMission-but everylife has its Fate. If the Army had just let Wes Hutchinson be a pilot, maybe things would have been different. He'dget to marry hisEnglish love, Melody. They might have had a sonhe could teach to fly. Perhaps after the war Wes could have even squared things up with his sister's suitor, small town miscreant FrankLawton.Their children could have beenplaymates; it would have been so perfect. But the day after Melody gives him a special gift and tries to tell him she'spregnant, combat gives Wes his life's wish. Left atthe controls of his crew's ravagedbomber - with enemy fighters diving in for the kill - forhis last harrowing minutes onEarth, he's apilot. Miredin a fog of shame andheartbreak, Melody carries Wes' photo, his child, andthe giftheleft behind to his family in America. But by the time she reaches them, grief - andnow-hometown-hero Frank Lawton - have taken their toll.We can only fight so hard, so long. Forty years later, war orphan Justin Prator can't explain the talent for flying he and his son Paulshare, untilhe's contacted by his birth mother, a kindlyoldwoman witha stubborn Englishaccent. The sameday, Paul falls in love with anoddly familiar firebrand. Before theywed, Paul's "new" grandmother presents himwith theirfamily's lost icon - a silver ring - and pulls a smoldering tinderbox from the emotional rubble of World War Two. Edited by Cassandra Marshall