THE END

It was a time for moving on and move on we had to. Emily Anne, Jimmy and most of the kids from our eighth grade class went to high school at the local high school in our town. I later found out Jimmy didn't make it past tenth grade, had to be sent to reform school; rumor had it he tried to steal money out of the bakery's cash register, and when old Mr. Sorensen the owner grabbed his arm Jimmy hit him in the face. Lost touch and didn't hear much about Emily Anne.

Jason and I went to a school outside the town and became very close in the years that followed. I took mamma's advice; I studied hard, went to college and worked hard for many years after that. Never got married or had any kids. After the summer of my freshman year at college, Jason and I came home from the shore to find out mama and daddy were getting a divorce; seems daddy and Jason's mom Mrs. Cumberlink -well - they were just quite neighborly. I don't think mama ever recovered; she loved daddy so much despite his indiscretions.

Looking back, seeing forward, remaining the same ~

what though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind ...

from William Wordsworth's poem "Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood".