Finally! Ginny is going to Guam. It didn't have to be Guam. It could have been anywhere far away and tropical. But the opportunity had presented itself and Ginny jumped on it like it was the last train out of dodge.

Ginny gets to pack exactly what she wants into her new matching set of French Blue hard shell valises. For this she summons her inner Hepburn. Only items that inspire the highest vibration will make the cut. Thirteen degrees from the equator, so always temperate, it will be easy to fit many light airy pieces in her luggage. A mix of fresh prints, chiffons and linens. Nothing tacky, nothing dowdy. Nothing that screams Unsatisfied-Stay-At-Home Mom-Year-Thirteen!!

Ginny is leaving for GUAM. It won't be real until she reaches the airport. Should she call a taxi? Should she leave without saying goodbye? Should she at least write a letter? She imagines the near-future tears of her husband and daughter. There is enough for a story from their end, but that one is heavy and sad. Ginny doesn't want to feel that right now because her curls are flawless and her skin is radiant with cold cream and anticipation. It's been a whirlwind and she's eager to breach the other side of the rainbow, the technicolor side. All she knows is she is making that flight.

"Auroris! " she declares. A perfect occasion to wield her magic word she had purchased by mail. The steps ahead illuminate. She will not dwell on the past because she's now boarding a plane to an exotic island wearing big tortoiseshell shades, a pink, green and red silk Givenchy head scarf and white linen pants. No one can tell her how to feel.

The truth is she told her family she needed to pay her mother a long overdue visit. What she did not tell them is for how long. There will be no tears at departure because no one knows that Ginny will be starting a new life, teaching little Guamanian children through Andersen Air Force Base, little children she will have more fondness for and capacity to love than her own children during their childhood years.

Now it's real. She's up in the air and her mind is so far from her daughter and husband and stifling homemaker life. Up in the ether she can finally breathe. She inhales, and waves to the drab hills, water towers and tiny houses below. They were always beneath her, she realizes. How alleviating it feels to break free of these shackles that had tethered her for so long.

Ginny always felt she was meant for something more. She longed for independence and recognition. She deserved it, but the banal demands of life, the necessary and urgent duties of home and family had drained her of all zeal. To fill the void she had obsessively poured her energy into shopping and decorating, something she could do even with little Katie pestering her in the background. It wasn't her fault she got pregnant right out of the gate. If she had her way she would have gladly taken the pill to stave off the shackles a few more years. She tried her hand at playing the good Catholic. But she was Lutheran, dagnabbit! Well, that's what they get.

The flight attendant hands her a small foil bag of salted nuts and a tonic and lime. Tonic seems the appropriate choice on a blindingly sunny PanAm flight. She flexes her long slender feet and decides she'd like to paint her toenails in Guam. No more pantyhose for, perhaps, ever.

Ginny exhales and feels all her prior troubles blow away like tiny trivial nimbus clouds. She makes the weather up here. Master of Her Destiny. She's just relishing the moment, perhaps the best moment of her life.

Ginny opens her journal and pores over the words.

Reflections " I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires" -The Prophet Gibron

Looking to her right she makes eye contact with a round-faced Guamanian man who is nodding in solidarity, causing her to question whether she had read the quote out loud. That's all right, she assures herself, this is the brave new me. Call me Ginger! she yells in her head and giggles to herself. No one had called her that since her third and final semester of college, which up until now had been the acme of her existence.

She takes a sip of tonic and peeks out the window overlooking the Big Blue Sparkling Pacific. The occasional passing clouds seem to be smiling through the winking windows. Her beverage is a bubbling ovation, cheering and leaping for joy. And it's all for her: Congratulations Ginny! She wouldn't be surprised at this moment to look outside and see the Big Man in the sky giving her a big thumbs up.

Ginny is awakened by the soothing voice of the pilot she imagines can only look like William Shatner. "Ladies and gentlemen, we will be starting our descent momentarily. Looks like we'll be landing right on time. Clear skies and a temperature of 78 degrees Fahrenheit. It's going to be a beautiful day, folks."

The landing is smooth and passengers applaud and smile at each other. Everyone is in good spirits because everyone here is in a better place now. "Welcome to Guam," croons the pilot, "Where America's day begins".