Hans_0609609491_2p_02_r2.c qxd
7/25/02
15:58
Page 69
spreading out before them, at the mighty Rocky Mountains. She stretched out her arms. “I want . . .” “No! Say it as if it’s happening now.” Michelle filled her lungs to bursting. Then she called across the valley, “I’m with my children!” She was startled to hear it come back to her with almost the same intensity. Children . . . Children . . . The echo. “Go on.” “We live on a great big farm . . .” Big farm . . . “ . . . with lots of pets . . .” Pets . . . “ . . . and we are as happy and successful as we could ever imagine!” She kept her arms stretched out wide, alone with Sam on the very top of the world, listening to the final words of the echo: Imagine . . . Imagine . . . Imagine . . . p. 32 B
Over the next week, Michelle and Samantha followed the same routine: Up at six, they jogged out to the Rock. Each day Michelle found the trek a little bit easier, until, on the seventh day, she raced ahead of Sam and beat her to the promontory by a good 60 seconds. When she heard Sam break through the woods behind her, Michelle was at the end of the point, shouting out her goals, her hands up in the air like Rocky at the top of the Philadelphia courthouse stairs. “Great job, missy!” Samantha called her approval. Michelle suspected that her new friend had cut her a little slack, but it still felt good.
THE STORY OF THE ENLIGHTENED MILLIONAIRE
69