News reports showed farmers burning infected pig pens in desperate attempts to stop the disease, and thick smoke sometimes drifted across the distant hills like a warning sign for everyone raising pigs.
Angela grew more frightened each week as the reports became worse. One evening she stood beside Caleb outside the pig pens and said quietly, “Maybe we should sell them while they are still healthy.”
Her voice trembled slightly because she understood that their entire future depended on those animals.
Caleb shook his head stubbornly while looking across the mountain pasture. “This will pass,” he insisted, trying to sound confident even though worry had already begun creeping into his thoughts. “We just need to hold on a little longer.”
The pressure slowly wore him down. Every day he feared waking up to find sick animals in the pens, and every night he lay awake calculating debts in his head while listening to the wind move through the trees.
The stress eventually became so overwhelming that he collapsed from exhaustion and had to be taken to Riverside General Hospital in Summit City where doctors treated him for severe fatigue and anxiety.