Of What Happens When We Take a Detour Through Hope (Georgia)
- The rain makes Cam nervous since the car's tires are completely bald, so he pulls off at the exit for Hope, Georgia. It helps that there's a feather on the sign, too.
- The town is pretty much empty except for an old guy sitting in front of an equally ancient-looking hardware store advertising parts new, used, and necessary.
- Balder and Gonzo are napping, and Cam asks the old guy how to get back to the interstate. Old Man Hardware tells him what he's looking for is past a dead-end sign. Okay, crazy old dude, whatever you say. But just when Cam is about to blow that popsicle stand, the car dies. Old Man Hardware tells him his friends will be fine, and he'll fix the car if Cam would just go on where he told him to go.
- Cam doesn't have much choice other than to listen to the old man, so he's off for a walk in the woods.
- He follows a path toward a strange bright light, which leads him to a ginormous ash tree covered with paper scraps for leaves.
- Guess what? Dulcie's there. And Cam is in lurve.
- The tree is a wishing tree, meaning that all the paper leaves are wishes someone has made. They are granted, too, though not always in the way that the wisher intends them to be.
- Dulcie tells Cam to make a wish. The only paper he has is the scrap he rescued from the graveyard in New Orleans with "to live" written on it…