55 Years Ago, My High School Friends and I Promised to Meet at Our Lake — What I Found There Changed Everything

So we brought the lake to him.

Oscar flew in with Tommy's red lure.

Anna brought Ray's compass.

I brought the carved fish.

Nick's pocketknife was already there.

We placed all four objects on the table beside his window.

Four pieces of four boys' lives. Together again.

We took a photograph.

Anna said hers would have complained that we put the compass upside down.

Nick looked at me.

"Fifty-five years," he said.

"We kept the promise."

I looked at the empty chairs around us.

"Not exactly."

Nick shook his head.

"They sent their children, Harold. I'd say that counts."

I cannot sit beside that lake with Tommy or hear Ray complain about getting old. But I know now that they remembered me.

They missed me.

They wanted me.

And somewhere in Australia and Germany, children grew up hearing stories about a fourth boy beside a lake.