Cherry reflects on her long, happy marriage to Ned Lockwood. They never had children—Cherry didn't want them and Ned was content with his students. They became avid travelers, with Cherry handling logistics and Ned handling bookings and activities. Their adventures included a hot air balloon safari over the Serengeti (where the operator passed out), snorkeling in Raja Ampat, camel rides in the Agafay Desert, and visits to gorillas in Uganda and orangutans in Borneo. They were both pickpocketed in different cities. Cherry connects her mother's old prediction about seeing castle spires with someone she loved to possible moments in Liechtenstein or Bavaria.

Though their personalities sometimes clashed—Ned's impatience versus Cherry's rigidity—they made their marriage work. They lived in Sydney, Oxfordshire, and Brooklyn over the years, exploring different phases in their relationship. During their twentieth year together, they endured a terrible stretch of losses and health problems that nearly broke them apart, but a counselor helped them recover. Eventually Ned retired and Cherry moved into consulting, and they settled permanently in Hobart, buying a redbrick house with views of the Derwent River.

On their first night, neighbors Jill and Bert arrived with a pavlova and stayed until midnight. The four became inseparable best friends—hiking, playing board games, barbecuing, and looking after each other's homes. Cherry describes their friendship as mathematical perfection, like a square. Jill and Bert didn't travel internationally, had three grown children on the mainland, and complemented Ned and Cherry perfectly.

One day, while Cherry stayed home sick, Ned went to lunch at a vineyard with Jill and Bert. Cherry had a sudden, chilling premonition—the same cool, precise inner voice she'd heard before Jack went to Vietnam—that they would never return. She envisioned Jill taking a sharp bend too fast, the car flipping, all three dying. When a knock came at the door, she was certain it was the police. But it was Ned, who had forgotten his keys. Cherry collapsed sobbing into his arms. Jill was offended when she heard about the vision.

Four happy years followed. More hikes, board games, travel, and family milestones—Jill and Bert's first grandchild, two of their children moving back to Tasmania, Ned serving as MC at his nephew's wedding. Cherry felt she was as happy as she could possibly be, grateful every day that her terrible vision hadn't come true. She recalls a perfect Sunday morning—sunlight, toast with peanut butter, Ned making his smoothie, a Coldplay song—as a moment of pure bliss she equates with heaven. The chapter ends with Cherry preparing to describe what happened on another Sunday morning, four months before the famous flight.