The next morning he locked the gates of the pig pens and handed the key to Walter Grayson because he could not bear to watch the farm slowly d/i/e in front of him. With heavy steps he walked down the long mountain road carrying nothing but a small backpack and the crushing belief that he had failed his family. In his mind the farm had already become nothing more than a painful memory.
Five years passed without him ever returning to the mountain. Caleb and Angela eventually moved to Lakewood City, where both of them found steady factory jobs that paid enough to cover rent and groceries even if the work was tiring.
Their life became simple and predictable, and although there was no luxury there was at least a sense of peace that had been missing during the chaotic farming days.
Whenever coworkers talked about raising livestock Caleb simply smiled with a hint of bitterness and replied, “I once threw my savings into a mountain and learned my lesson.”
Earlier this year everything changed unexpectedly when his phone rang one afternoon.