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While having his first meal of creamed chipped beef on toast, Jarod encounters Zoe, who is trying to avoid her possessive ex-boyfriend, Vince, a police officer who won't accept that their relationship is over. Intrigued by the woman and her dilemma, Jarod hitches a ride with her by leaping into her car as she's leaving the diner.
When Jarod finds $27,000 in cash in Zoe's car, he initially believes that she is fleeing not her boyfriend, but justice. Before long, however, he is convinced that Zoe is telling the truth and managers to keep her out of her ex-boyfriend's grasp. Traveling across the country in Zoe's red convertible, Jarod develops strong feelings for her, as they share his first "road trip."
The disquiet that Jarod experiences when he finds that Zoe has cancer and has been refusing treatment turns into outright distress when he realizes that she intends to kill herself before the cancer can. As she prepares to jump the same cliff where her twin sister died, Jarod talks her out of killing herself and convinces her to seek treatment. Jarod leaves Zoe with her family and promises to return to help her through her impending ordeal.
Miss Parker, Broots and Sydney are being lead down the yellow brick road by Jarod-literally. First, he lures them to a warehouse that has been made into a mini-version of the road to Oz. Then he forces them to search for something from their pasts that reminds them of how much their families have meant to them over the years.
Upon their return to The Centre, Jarod lures the trio to Kansas. There, Sydney finds a scarecrow with a message in its pocket that reads, "There's no place like home. Everyone deserves one, so why don't you leave me alone and let me find mine." |
