He spent more than a month recovering at the home of Angela’s parents in another town while the farm remained mostly unattended.
When he finally returned to the mountain the sight nearly broke his heart. Half the pigs had become thin and weak because feed prices had doubled during the crisis, and the credit union had already begun calling him to remind him that his loan payments were overdue.
Each night heavy rain hammered against the tin roof of the pig shelter while Caleb sat alone listening to the sound and wondering whether his dream had already collapsed.
One evening after receiving another call from a creditor he sat on the dirt floor inside the storage shed and whispered in defeat, “I am finished.”
The words echoed softly against the wooden walls and for the first time he truly believed that everything he had built was already lost.