Summary

Chapter 17, “Mary Lou and Helen Atkinson,” describes the author’s March 17, 2013 phone call to pilot Frank Atkinson’s two sisters. The women describe Frankie, as they call him, as someone who was always obsessed with the idea of becoming a pilot. Because he had poor eyesight, as a child he ate so many carrots that he turned himself orange.

In Chapter 18, “American Dreamer,” Frankie is 17 years old and growing up in Rochester, New York. He is a good student and athlete who refuses to believe that anything is impossible. Frankie is dating a girl named Dottie; she feels slightly jealous of his plans to attend flight school. One afternoon, he runs across Bobbie, a girl from his high school who has just won the town’s bowling competition. Bobbie has admitted to Frank her feelings for him.

Chapter 19, “The Assimilation of Elizabeth Liebersbach...