As a young boy waits for his father to come home from a trip, his family creates rituals to stay connexted and to make the separation easier.

This is the story of a young boy waiting for his mommy to come home from a trip. To make their separation easier, his family creates rituals to stay connected and make the countdown fly by. Inspired by her experiences, Kristin Ayyar share how her family copes with the separations that are part of everyday life. -- From cover.

Jerome's mother is a sailor in the United States Navy, and when she is away at sea he tries to be brave even though misses her and has some bad days.

"This is the revised text of a work first published as Countdown under the pseudonym Michelle Maddox by Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc., in 2008"--Title page verso.

A boy and his daddy come up with lots of different ways to stay close to one another while the daddy is in Africa for four weeks.

I do love my husband. To death. I love him so much that I've waited a whole year (minus one day) for Killing Kurtis Day to arrive. Tomorrow it will finally be here and I'm giddy with anticipation. Don't jude me, you don't know the whole story. I reckon if you were in my shoes, you'd kill your husband, too.