That is where my life really began. My mother, my brother Henry and I all lived in a large house on a peach tree orchard. There weren't houses for a long way, so we had to make our own fun. My brother and I, dressed in dirty trousers and worn leather boots and little caps on our heads, would make carts from our wagons and race them down the hill near the house to our favorite swimming hole. We spent so many days and so many summers in the sun, building houses in the trees, swimming in the cool water. When we heard our mother's call, we trudged up the hill, pushing our carts, and when we came to the house, our mother stood at the door with her beautiful, smiling face gleaming, the last light as the sun escaped to the rest of the world. We could smell the wonderful dinners prepared from our places in the water, and these scents accentuated as we reached the table.
Our father had left our mother when she became pregnant with me, left for another woman. So my mother was forced to raise us both by herself. I knew she loved us when she read to us before we slept. Soon our heads would nod to dreams and we awoke in our beds, this time, to the scent of a warm breakfast. As the leaves turned on the trees in the orchard, so came a cold fall. My brother and I walked to and from school every day. We were both always interested in science and mathematics, and soon became the best in our class in both subjects. .
As we reached the appropriate age, we discovered women, and I fell in love for the first time. I was only seventeen. Her name was Laura. I loved her more than I had ever loved anyone before. I would think of her when I woke and before I fell asleep. I would forget everything when she was near me. I haven't spoken to her in years." George's chest heaved gently, the corners of his mouth in failing arch. .
"We would sit out in the grass near my pond when it was night, and we would face each other. I could see my soul buried in her eyes.
