"Come on honey, I think you're overreacting here a little," Bob pleaded with his wife.

"Bob, Buck takes Miles and Maizy to the racetrack--without our knowing, even--and you think I'm overreacting!?" Cindy snapped at him.

"Well, I don't think he meant any harm by doing it."

"Right, just as..." Cindy coughed loudly, then continued, "...just as Hitler didn't mean any harm by invading Poland!"

"Well Buck's not Hitler by any stretch of the imagination."

"Oh come off it Bob; you can't protect him this time!" Cindy coughed some more before saying, "I think we should cut him off to the kids until he learns his lesson!"

"Now let's just set things straight here a minute, honey," Bob held up his hands. "I agree with you fully that what Buck did today was wrong and that we should take every precaution to make sure it doesn't happen again. But I don't think throwing him out is the answer. And besides," his face shriveled up with pain, "I don't think he could take being thrown out again."

"Your parents?" Cindy asked him. Bob nodded. "Well they're..." More coughing, "...not around to..."

Just then Tia came in the front door. "Well, where've you been tonight?" Bob asked his oldest child.

"Out," Tia said, heading for the staircase without wanting to finish the conversation.

"Out where?" Cindy asked, eyebrows raised.

"With a new friend," Tia said impatiently.

"Well you could have called; we were starting to get worried," her mother said in a stern but accepting tone. "Who is she? Or he?"

"I'll explain in the morning," Tia strode up the stairs before Cindy could inquire further. She and her husband exchanged uneasy glances. "What do you suppose that was all about?" she asked him, "She's been so open the last couple of months."

"Beats me," Bob shrugged.

"Well once I go take my medicine I'll..." Cindy started coughing heavily and scurried off toward the kitchen. Bob trudged into the living room and sat down on the sofa. At that point, Miles, who'd apparently been eavesdropping on the whole conversation, popped up from behind it. "Please don't send UB away, Dad!" he pleaded his father, "He didn't do anything wrong!"

"Well, I know he didn't mean any harm, buddy, but what he did, taking you and your sister to the track without telling your mom and I, well, he...he probably should have told us first," Bob said, not too convincingly.

"But he didn't bet a cent; his friends did, but he didn't!" Miles protested. "I'll testify to the Supreme Court on it! You have to believe me on it."

Bob couldn't help but smile. "I do believe you, Miles," he said, pulling his son close, "but it's just that...well...your uncle hasn't exactly been on the level with your mom and I in the past, and as much as I want to take his word for it that he didn't gamble, I'm afraid he's going to have to prove it this time."

Miles looked a little hurt by this. "It just won't be Christmas without him!" he said and broke into a run out of the living room. Once he'd left, Cindy came back in, apparently having watched her son's exit. She turned to her husband with a long look of resignation. "All right, we'll give him another chance, but this'll be his last one," she said. "If we find he's done anything illegal with the kids while we're getting my parents, he'll never set foot in this house again."

"Fair enough with me, honey," Bob said, relieved inside that the situation had reached a peaceful end.

"Good," Cindy seemed glad there'd been an agreement between them. "Well, I've just got to go..." More coughing. "...up to see what's going on with our daughter now."

"Right, I'll be up once I'm finished with me coffee Bob told her. As Cindy left, though, the one thought that had crept into his mind since he'd seen Maizy on TV not more than a half hour ago sprang up again: As much as he loved Buck as a brother, what on earth had he been thinking?

"Okay, we've been walking for almost a half hour here, where's this shelter you were promising!?" Skylar demanded.

"Have patience; the real world doesn't give you instant gratification!" Kevin snapped at him. Inside, though, he was beginning to get a little concerned himself. Although the snow was still only coming down as flurries, he felt it was imperative to get out of it before things did get worse. The Christmas Star, however, seemed to be leading them to nowhere in particular. And on top of it all, they'd had to cross several streams along the way, which had seemed to get Danny all riled up over and over again, and Kevin was hoping desperately that the Mississippi wasn't in front of them somewhere.

"I can't go on much further!" Kayla panted, out of breath.

"Don't worry, just one more hill to go," Kevin told her, not that optimistic inside.

"You said that three hills ago!" Skylar snapped.

But once the four of them crested the top of the hill, even he had to fall silent in awe. For standing in front of them was the silent outline of an old mansion of some kind that looked like it had once been glamorous but now was in a state of decay. Kevin noticed with relief that the Christmas star had parked right over it. "This is it," he said, "this is where we spend the night."

"Are you kidding!? That place wouldn't be right for a hobo to spend the night at!" Skylar protested. "And on top of that, it's probably swarming with mice and other pests!"

"Well I don't happen to see any other place we can go, and as far as I know, mice don't come out in subfreezing temperatures like this," Kevin told him, trying to contain his frustration. "But if you're so bent on rubbing it in with me that you'll sleep outside in the snow, go right ahead, I won't object."

"Maybe I will, so there!" Skylar snapped at him, but looked as if he'd rather be inside than out on a night like this.

"But what if somebody lives here?" Kayla asked as Kevin pushed open the rusty gate to the mansion. "We don't want to wake them up in the middle of the night."

"I don't think we'll have to worry about that," Kevin told her. "I just have a feeling that there hasn't been another human being in this house for at least the last ten years." He walked up to the window next to the front door and looked around inside the foyer for any sign of motion that would give away someone. There was none to be seen.

"Nope, I think we've got the place all to ourselves," he called back to the others.

"Good, because I think I've walked as far as I can for one night!" Danny said, flopping down in exhaustion on an old lounge chair one the porch.

"Same here," Kayla fell into his lap, looking worn out.

"Likewise here," Kevin said. He gave the doorknob a twist. It was locked firm. Undeterred, he climbed up onto an empty porch chair, reached up, and lifted open the window on the other side of the door. "Our paradise for the evening awaits us," he said, gesturing them inside.

"If this is paradise, I hate to see what the pits are like!" Skylar grumbled as they all climbed down into the mansion's kitchen. "What exactly are we supposed to be looking for anyway?"

"Preferably the master bedroom, although any place with a halfway decent bed will do fine," Kevin told him.

"I guess it's right up those stairs over there," Danny pointed to a grand sweeping staircase like those seen in many luxury houses visible through a window in the kitchen door.

"Works for me," Kevin said, leading the way into the parlor and up the stairs. He had a little bit of difficulty with them, though, because the wall alongside it was little more than stained-glass windows looking out on the grounds, and although the top of the landing was no more than thirty feet at most above the ground, Kayla's fear of heights kicked in again after she took just one glimpse out the windows and grabbed hold of the staircase railing with her eyes closed, whimpering loudly.

"It's okay," Kevin told her, taking hold of her hand, "Just hold on tight. We'll take it one step at a time."

He helped her up slowly but surely to the top of the stairs. "Thanks," she told him, staring down at the solid floor to regain her composure.

"Can we just find the master bedroom or wherever we're staying?" Skylar interceded.

"All right all ready!" Kevin gave him a very searing look. Glancing around, he noticed a very large pair of double doors at the end of a long hallway ahead of them.

"Down this way," he said, leading them down the corridor. Glancing in the door, he smiled and nodded. "This is it," he said, opening the door wide. The bedroom was quite large, even by contemporary standards. The ceiling had to be at least fifteen feet high. The bed was of the four post variety, with lush purple curtains. A large fireplace ruled the wall on the right. A tall window overlooked the grounds.

Kayla summed up everyone's reaction to the room. "Wow, I'll bet whoever lived here was assistant to the president or something!" she exclaimed, running to the bed and jumping on it.

"Well, I'm not sure if he was with the president, but he probably was pretty important in this area," Kevin smiled, remembering at how he'd jumped on his own bed in joy after first realizing his family had disappeared two years ago. And after how long Kayla had been without a soft bed, he really couldn't blame her.

"Well whoever he was, at least he's not here anymore," Skylar seemed the least phased about the magnitude of the building. "Now if you all don't mind, I've had a very long day, so let me sleep and don't wake me up."

"Don't you worry, we certainly won't," Kevin said shaking his head in disgust as Skylar lay down on a sofa in the corner with his back to everyone. He pulled a pack of matches out of his pocket, struck one, and lit some logs that had been left in the fireplace.

"Best if we have some heat for the night," he told the others. He noticed that Kayla, despite her buoyant energy just a minute ago, had somehow already dozen off. He smiled. She deserved a restful night sleep. Danny was tucking her in. "Sleep well, Kayla," he was telling her.

"I think she will," Kevin said. "You really care for her, don't you?"

"Yeah, she kind of reminds me of my sister Shauntay. I looked out for her a lot too, before,..." That same pained expression that had first come out when they'd parachuted into the creek surfaced again.

"You can tell me what happened, it's okay with me," Kevin told him.

Danny took a deep breath. "You know, it's really ironic how you said you wished for your family to disappear, because,...I wished the same thing, and...well I didn't have the happy ending you did."

He strode over to the window, looking lost in another world. "You see," he continued, "there was this winter carnival in town last January, and I wanted to go so badly, but my parents wouldn't let me go since it was on a school night, so I snuck out after dinner and went on my own. I was really enjoying myself there...until the whole family showed up and grounded me for the rest of the winter for not telling them. As we drove home, I was so mad at them, I wished they'd all just get out of my life. Little did I know..."

He gulped as if swallowing a bitter pill. "We were driving home alongside a river," he said, and as we went around a turn, the car hit a patch of ice. My dad tried to straighten it out, but he couldn't and we slid into the river. The next several minutes happened in slow motion. I knew I had to get out and fast. I pounded on the back windshield as the water poured into the front of the car, but I couldn't break it. My legs were under by the time I gave it up and realized I'd have more luck with the driver's side window. It was stuck at first, but I managed to get it open wide enough to squirm out of. It seemed like the surface was a mile away, and I don't know how I managed to hold my breath as long as I did, but I made it up. After I crawled to shore, I waited ten minutes for my family to come up, but they never did."

He broke down into tears. Kevin couldn't help but do the same. "So that's why you're afraid of water," he said. Danny nodded. "Look, I know that it would seem you did it, but it wasn't your fault," Kevin said, putting his arm around him. "It was just an accident, OK?"

Danny forced a nod. "Did you love your family most of the time?" Kevin asked.

"Well, yeah, but I didn't really realize it until they were gone," Danny lamented. "It's a huge step down from a nice warm home to several cold orphanages."

"I know, but if you loved them, then you really didn't mean what you wished, and it didn't work," Kevin told him. "I know I say things I don't mean all the time, we all do. And I think somehow they know you didn't mean it either, and right now they're watching over you."

"Really?" Danny was starting to come around a bit.

"Yeah, I think that parents who die watch over their kids afterward, just to make sure they make it," Kevin strolled over to the window. "I think someone watches over all the orphans of the world, like their protector. That's why I survived the bad guys."

He stood staring up at the stars for what must have been a long time, because when he turned back around, Danny had fallen asleep in an armchair. His tears had dried. Kevin smiled and covered his best new friend with a nearby blanket. "Sleep well," he told him.

He turned back toward the window and looked up at the moon, peaking through the clouds. The words began rolling off his tongue without his even noticing it: "Somewhere, out there, beneath the pale moon light, someone's thinking of me, and loving me tonight."

At that moment in Nashville, Kate glanced up from the magazine she'd been trying to read in a futile attempt to forget all her worries, looked out the airport window, and found herself saying, "Somewhere, out there, someone's saying a prayer, that we'll find one another, in that big somewhere out there."

Back in Wichita, Peter lifted his head up of the pillow, where he'd been trying to ignore the fact that Campion had rolled over on top of him for about the third time and was squeezing his breasts again, looked out the motel window at the nearly full moon glowing through it, and started singing softly, "And even though I know how very far apart we are, it helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star."

"And when the night wind starts to sing its lonesome lullaby," Kate continued in Nashville, "it helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky."

"Somewhere, out there," all three McCallisters simultaneously sang without knowing it, "if love can see us through, then we'll be together, somewhere out there, out where dreams come true."

Campion snorted loudly and rolled over, leaving his foot in Peter's face. He pushed it out of the way. "Good night, honey," he said to the moon.

"Good night, Peter," Kate said dreamily out the window, wishing she could say it in person, "Good night, Kevin."

"Good night, Mom," Kevin said to the moon. He trotted over to the bed and jumped in next to Kayla. She rolled over in her sleep and placed her arm around him.

Unlike his father in Wichita, Kevin didn't mind it. He was just glad to be able to give them all a nice place to spend the night.