"Your attention please, United Flight 248 to Des Moines is now boarding from Gate 36," the woman on the intercom at the Denver airport announced. From her seat in the loading area, Kate breathed a huge sigh of relief. It had been a long wait, but she was finally going to be able to retrieve Kevin and get the vacation back on track.

"It's about time," she commented to Peter as they stood up and gathered their belongings. "I thought it would never arrive."

"Well, you know what they say, better late than never," Peter said. "In a few hours, this whole dilemma will be over with we'll have the whole family together again."

"At least this time we know where he is," Kate said throwing her coat over her shoulder. "I couldn't sleep at all last year, wondering where he could be if he wasn't back in Chicago."

"Now let's just hope they've still got him at the airport," Peter said. "I'd hate to go searching around Des Moines all night."

"So would I, but if that's what we need to do to find him, that's what we'll do," Kate said firmly. She turned to the rest of the McCallister family, who were lounging in nearby seat with bored looks on their faces and said, "OK everyone, get your tickets ready. This is it."

Just then the PA system roared to life again. "Will the McCallister family please report to the American desk, McCallister family to the American desk please," a man's voice announced over horrible static.

"Why would they want us there now?" Kate asked, puzzled.

"I'll go see what it is," Peter said, giving her a reassuring smile. "It's probably something about our tickets for the flight to L.A. or something; you and the rest of the family get on board and don't worry."

"Okay," Kate said, smiling back, but deep down at that moment she had a very strange feeling. More specifically, THAT feeling. She did a quick head count of the people around her. The rest of the family was present and accounted for. Yet she still couldn't help feeling uneasy, as if something terrible was about to happen again. It was with this in mind that she said to the gate attendant, "Miss, could you please come onto the plane with my family to make sure they all get on board?" as she handed the woman her boarding pass.

The gate attendant stared at her as if she was some kind of nut. "Aren't you capable of keeping your family together?" she asked Kate.

"Let's not go into that," Kate said quickly. "Please just help me get everyone on?"

The gate attendant sighed. "Very well, madam, if it'll make you feel better."

Meanwhile Peter weaved his way through heavy airport traffic on his way to the American desk. He too was puzzled about what American would want at this point in time. He could have sworn that he and Kate had taken care of canceling their seats about the flight to Los Angeles. Maybe they were giving him a last minute refund for the tickets.

The agent at the desk was on the phone when he arrived. He motioned for Peter to wait while he finished his call. "Yes Marilyn, I know you want the peach perfume for your mother, it's just a matter of finding an outlet that sells them. It's not that easy, you're asking for one of the rarer brands out there. I'll call you back, there's someone I have to talk to right now. Yes."

"Peter McCallister," Peter introduced himself once the agent had hung up.

"Yes, Mr. McCallister, this just came in to us," the agent told him. "The flight your son accidentally boarded had engine trouble and had to land in Wichita instead of Des Moines."

"Wichita!?" Peter gasped. "Why weren't we told of this earlier?"

"Well, they tried to call us earlier, Mr. McCallister, but our phone lines were still down from this afternoon's storm, and it was only until about fifteen minutes ago that we were able to get them up and running again," the agent admitted. "We would have brought you the message personally, but we forgot which airline you were transferring to. That's why we paged you."

"Well thanks for telling me before we took off, or we'd have been wandering all over the Des Moines airport looking for him," Peter said. "I'll go tell the family about the change."

"Merry Christmas, Mr. McCallister," the agent called after him as he turned to leave.

"Same to you," Peter called back to him.

And then the loudspeaker cracked to life once more. "Your attention please, United Flight 248 is now departing from Gate 36 for Des Moines." the man's voice announced again. Peter broke into a run. The plane to Des Moines couldn't be leaving already, could it? He rushed back into the United gate section and saw with horror that the plane was indeed already backing away from the gate without him. "Oh God, NO!" he shouted and dashed for the gate as fast as he could.

On board, Kate reclined in her seat, her eyes closed. The gate attendant had seen everyone safely one board, much to her relief.and yet that feeling still hadn't gone away. Something still wasn't right. But what?

"Kate, are you asleep already?" Aunt Leslie asked from the seat behind her.

"No, Leslie, and I've got that feeling that we've forgotten something again," Kate told her sister-in-law without looking back.

"Why? We got everyone on board, and we have all our things."

"I know but I still feel like we've forgotten." It was then that she became aware that the plane was moving. And then she realized what was wrong. She jerked upright abruptly.

"PETER!!!!" she shrieked so loudly that everyone in the cabin turned to look at her. She clicked off her seatbelt and zipped over to the door. Her husband was standing on the edge of the loading ramp shouting something at her, much like the two of them had been doing after Kevin not more than six hours ago. "PETER!!!" she shrieked again.

"KATE!!!" Peter yelled after her, "HE'S NOT IN DES MOINES! HE'S NOT IN DES MOINES!!!"

"What's Dad saying?" Megan asked, the rest of the family having by now joined their mother at the window.

"Sounds like 'Please mot him the coin or something,'" Jeff said.

"Well what's that supposed to mean?" a distraught Linnie asked her brother.

"Don't ask me."

Buzz didn't say anything. Instead, he simply burst into laughter. "What's so funny, young man?" Kate shouted to her oldest child.

"Oh, it's just funny that we just lost someone older than Kevin," Buzz chuckled. "My money was that it would be Tracy, but-"

"SIT DOWN!" Kate bellowed and jerked a finger back toward coach. Buzz immediately stopped laughing and shuffled back toward coach. His siblings followed quickly, apparently afraid their mother would erupt on them. Kate's anger vanished as she trudged back to her seat, replaced with utter shock. "Are you all right, Kate?" Aunt Leslie asked her.

"Leslie, it's one thing to forget your child," Kate said, staring straight ahead blankly into space, "but when you forget your husband, that's even worse. I think we're cursed."

"Don't say that Kate, we're not cursed."

"Well you never know, Leslie; Peter did walk under the ladder he'd put up against the house yesterday a couple times, so maybe it's bad luck from that that got him," Uncle Frank proposed. His wife and sister-in-law gave him sour looks.

A few minutes later, a Continental flight was pulling out toward the runway. "Tower Two, this is Continental 444 to Jacksonville," the pilot was saying into his radio. "We're now taxing to runway three niner for." he glanced out the window as he said this and froze for a moment. "Uh Tower Two, be aware that there's a guy standing out here on the runway sticking out his thumb at us."

"Say again?" the incredulous tower responded.

"I repeat, there's a guy standing here on runway three niner sticking out his thumb at us," the pilot repeated.

"Well, see what he wants then," the tower told him.

"Roger," the pilot turned down the plane's power. "Keep an eye on this for me," he told the co-pilot as he got up and walked through the curtain into first class and down the aisle to the door. He motioned for the stewardess to open it and stepped into the doorway just as Peter came up alongside. "What do you want?" he asked him.

"Could you give a poor suffering father a lift to either Des Moines or Denver?" Peter asked him.

"Time to check the old e-mail," Ferris said, turning on his computer. "I wonder how many requests there are tonight?"

"Hopefully not too many," Cameron commented from his friend's bed.

"Now why would you say that?" Ferris asked him. "You know I'm always open to helping others in times of need, be it you or anyone."

"True, but with all the stuff you've been getting all semester, I kind of hope they let up a little for Christmas," Cameron said. "And besides, I don't want to assist in any unreasonable requests like the last one from Mike Spotts with his English grade."

"What was so wrong with that?" Ferris asked. "All we did was move him up a little grade."

"All YOU did was move him up a letter grade," Cameron corrected him. "It's called hacking, Ferris. It's also illegal, especially when it involves breaking into the school computer system."

"But I did it for a good cause."

"Good cause?" Cameron snorted. "The guy needs at least three tutors to get him through English." He sat straight up. "I'm telling you, Ferris, I have a bad premonition that someday soon Rooney or someone else is going to catch on to what your doing, and then we'll both be in trouble."

"Why would you be in trouble? After all, like you just said, it's me who's doing the hacking."

"Rooney's well aware I'm your best friend, Ferris, and as far as he's concerned that automatically makes me an accomplice to you whether I'm helping you or not," Cameron argued.

"You know, Cameron, one of these days you're going to have to stand up to Mr. Rooney," Ferris told him.

"How? Walk right up to him and say, 'Mr. Rooney, I order you to stop following after my best friend and trying to get him in the act of playing hooky?' Ferris, the man is an unassailable dictator, and it would be best to let him just go his way while we go ours-provided of course they don't collide in the end."

"Submissiveness never got anyone anywhere, Cam," Ferris said. He typed in the address to his help page, www.askferrisb.com. He'd started it about a year and a half ago as a response to the requests of those students who looked up to him to help them out of the pits of everyday high school life. Tonight, he saw, he had about two dozen requests from his fellow students. "Looks like we've a couple requests for class transfers and some people who don't want summer school," he said out loud.

"They're already asking about summer school?" Cameron asked, shocked.

"One can never start thinking about things to early, my friend," Ferris told him. "Time goes by so quickly after all. For example, it seems like only yesterday that Duckie Dale approached me asking for help to get on the academic team for tonight competition so he could impress his best friend."

"That was almost seven months ago when he came to you about that, and you can still remember it?" a surprised Cameron asked.

"I can remember back a long time, Cameron," Ferris said proudly. "For example, I can remember when that eel popped up in its aquarium tank in fifth grade during that field trip and scared you so badly you stumbled backwards into Claire Standish."

"Did you have to bring that up?" Cameron protested. "Everybody was laughing at me for two days after that!"

"But I stood by you, didn't I?" Ferris posed. "Stick with me, Cameron, and no one will ever get to you."

"I sure hope not," Cameron commented. He buried his face in his chemistry book, apparently having said his peace for the moment. Ferris smiled as he turned back to the computer screen. It was certainly true that he'd stood by his friend in times of crisis more times than he could personally count in the past. Cameron had always had trouble facing his fears, and it had been Ferris's pleasure to watch him finally stand up to his father in the spring. He could remember Cameron running over to the Bueller house as young as age nine after taking verbal bashings from Mr. Fry, who for some reason seemed like he would have welcomed the opportunity to do in his entire family. Although this chapter in his friend's life had eventually ended smoothly, he was still worried about how Cameron would face life without him at his side, as the two of them had committed to different colleges (Cameron was going to Western Michigan University, although he hadn't decided on a major yet, whereas Ferris was trying his luck with the theater department at the University of Illinois main campus after having successfully been the lead in the last two Shermer High plays). He planned to keep in touch as much as possible via e-mail, though, so their separation wouldn't be so great.

Ferris jotted down the last couple of notes of what his petitioners wanted from him now and closed out the Internet connection. "I'll just go the bathroom and then I'll pop on Wargames for us," he told Cameron, referring to their favorite movie. Cameron nodded without looking up. Ferris headed for the door and almost walked right into Jeannie, who was standing just outside his room frowning. "Have you been listening in on the pleas of the masses?" he asked her with a smile. He was used to her spying on him to a certain degree, perhaps hoping she could someday lay something on him.

"So that's how you operate, Ferris; you crack into the school computer," Jeannie said sternly.

"Well I thought we reached an agreement that we'd go our separate ways in life," Ferris winked at her and walked off toward the bathroom before she could continue the conversation any further. Jeannie's frown got deeper.

"It's an agreement that doesn't always work!" she said between her teeth after him.