Croatia

Croatia is linked in the story to the plane crash that killed the parents of Willa Ashford and Colleen Sherman. The loss made the two girls orphans and became part of the history behind their unusually close friendship and partnership in beach volleyball.

The Crash and Its Setting

The parents of Willa Ashford and Colleen Sherman had traveled together to an event in Croatia when the small plane carrying them crashed into the Adriatic Sea. The account places the journey in Croatia but does not specify a city or a more precise location. The crash killed both families’ parents; six years before a later conversation in the story, Willa and Colleen had been left without either parent.

Consequences for Willa and Colleen

With no siblings, Willa and Colleen became each other’s only family. Their closeness was not simply the product of years as teammates: it had been forged in the aftermath of a shared bereavement. Colleen, already an experienced beach-volleyball player, later taught Willa the demands of the beach game after Willa switched from indoor volleyball, and their athletic partnership rested on this personal bond as well as their complementary experience.

Narrative Significance

Croatia enters the story through a journey that ends in irreversible loss, not through a sustained depiction of the country itself. The crash gives background to the sisters-like bond between Willa and Colleen and helps explain why Colleen’s later disappearance and presumed death devastate Willa so profoundly. When Willa returns to competition, she understands the decision as carrying forward the legacy she and Colleen built together; the memory of their parents’ deaths in the Adriatic Sea lies behind that shared history, even as the story’s later focus shifts to Willa’s life and choices in the present.