I never knew how long I could hold my arms out. I tried to figure that out by counting, ?one Mississippi?, ?two Mississippi?, ?three?? to ?sixty Missi...sippi? to see how many minutes I could remain with my arms outstretched. Suffice it to say I did not have to count too many ?sixty Mississippi’s? before my heavy-as-lead arms started inching downward toward my sidesUsually the first lowering of the arms met with a ?harumm?. The second with a, ?get your arms back up?, and the third with the. I was tempted to kiss her right there, but I held off. I glanced over at Denise. She looked like she was giggling inside. She gave me a thumbs up.The song ended and the band started an upbeat catchy tune. I stood up and held my arm out for Ginny. She looked at me. She was a little confused. I nodded my head towards the dance floor. The light bulb turned on. She smiled at me and stood up. We headed to the dance floor.I was pumped up with excitement. A beautiful woman was chasing me. This hadn’t. Christine just looked at me for a moment, and then slowly took a smallhelping of food on her plate. Finishing that she went back for a largersecond serving, and soon the two of us were chowing down as if we hadn'teaten in weeks. After about 45 minutes when we'd consumed most of thefood and all of the hot chocolate, we both leaned back on the couch andjust breathed a sigh of contentment. That was when I realized thatChristine was crying.Oh-Oh. What had I done now I wondered? "What's the matter?". In a short time, Sam became known as a one-man force. He did have his problems. During two incidents, Sam received minor gunshot wounds. His superiors were horrified that Sam had been injured, shot, and was still on duty.Sam was sent on a recovery leave. This was the loneliest time in his life since his family had died of the flu. He didn't know what to do or where to go. With nothing else to do, Sam bought his first car and drove north to Montana to find his roots. Sam visited the original.