Part One

Chapter 1: A Ride in the Open Air

"It was late afternoon when a Camaro convertible pulled up to our curb.”

“That was the four-hundred-foot-tall block Y that presided over the valley.”

“I rang the bell, and saw her come toward mein a sleeveless, mock turtleneck top.”

“We walked past the rosebushes, petunias, andclustering hydrangea Ernie’s mother cultivatedaround the perimeter of their home.”

“My favorite place in the whole world,” she said as we came upon a crimson-red bridge arching over the stream.”

“Down the street came two missionaries on the lam from the MTC.”

“Her voice reverberated off the limestone wall of the Noyes Building.”

“She burst into a run toward me with outstretched arms.”

“She introduced me to a classmate with a busy, nineteenth-century-style beard.”

“He’s convinced that his blond locks and baby blue eyes oblige every girl to see him as Adonis.”

“This is what you do?” she asked, her hair tied back with a blue and white scarf.“Hand out punch at baseball games?”

“They’re called narcissus, ”she said. “From the myth of the hunter who fell in love with his reflection in the water.”

“Our professor took a tattered book from his satchel and said, ‘Behold, my trusted Astrological Almanac.”

“My carpenter, in the T-shirt, jeans, and work boots look I love so much.”

“I stepped from our car at the main entrance to the Missionary Training Center.”