Looking back at it all now, I realize I should have seen it all coming.But it's so easy to say now, when all the evidence is laid before me,but back then I was so young and impetuous, my life was so fullof promise and excitement, that I did not even notice the littleclues that came my way, hinting of the turn of events ahead.

It all started one dark, stormy night, just a few days after my twentieth birthday.Of course, at the time, I did not realize that the phone call that night would alterthe course of my life.It seemed like a normal phone call, nothing out of the ordinary,just a call from Sam asking me to meet him the next day.

I could not meet him the next day, nor the day after,I had so much to do at the farm. In the end it was a week before we got together,and by then it was already too late, though I was not to find out formany years to come how much I was to pay for putting him off for those few days.

Each evening for several days, Mirabella asked me if I had met with Sam yet.

"He seemed so anxious to see you," she worried. "Surely you can meet him tomorrow?"

"Perhaps," I would reply. That vague perhaps was to cost me dearly in the years to come.

Somehow, I know not how, Mirabella understood that Sam's request to see me wasmore than just a casual request for two long-standing friends to get together for a gossip.She sensed the urgency in his need to see me, although I was oblivious too, so submergedwas I in the daily rituals of milking the cows and feeding the sheep.

Although Sam did not call again, Mirabella continued to pester me about going to see him.One evening, when I came home tired and sore from trying to persuade a disgruntled bullto get back in his pen, I lost my temper and shouted at herto let it alone. But she resisted my bullying, and bullied me back.

"Why won't you go?" she demanded. "He's such a long-time friend, how can you ignorehim like this? He needs you, I know he needs you."

Ashamed of myself for shouting at her, I went to the phone and called Sam.His voice sounded weary, and I felt bad for taking so long to call him back. We arrangedto meet the next day.

A Cold Autumn Day

The day I went into town to see Sam was the first really cold day of fall.The air was biting, and my horse Raspberry was skittish and nervous.She seemed to shy each time a falling leaf blew past us.Sam seemed to be in no better shape, and he kept glancing around nervouslyas we drank our shakes and ate our fries in the diner.