I ran all the way back up the path toward Portofino singing in my head, “Jenirifer, Jennifer, Jennifer,” over and over again. When I got to the top of the path I stopped for a minute to look at the place we had been standing when Jennifer had kissed me in the moonlight. I stood there wishing she would appear again and trying to remember how it was when we kissed.

By now the music from the yachts had stopped. It was very quiet and you could hear all the little night noises very clearly. From the harbor came the distant sound of the slap of the lapping waves on the sides of the yachts and the clink of their anchor chains as they moved up and down on the gentle swells of water.

I decided not to go back to the hotel right away but sit for a moment and watch the wide silver path of moonlight on the water of the bay. I climbed over the wall to the same spot on the ledge where I had hidden when I was waiting for Jennifer to come out to me. As I sat there looking at the water, it occurred to me that I had never doubted that Jennifer would come to meet me. I knew she would. She always kept up her side of our bargains, she always had. The wind made the ferns growing out of the wall rustle and sway and I heard a cat someplace yowling as I thought about how fortunate I was to have Jennifer for a friend.

Then I heard voices on the path; they were very close. Right above me. Whoever they were, they must have walked silently up to my spot and only started talking when they got there.

“You know what I feel for you. How could I help coming to you!”

It was a man’s voice; he sounded very upset and tense, like he was in the middle of an argument. I sort of recognized his voice but couldn’t exactly place it right away.

Then a woman’s voice answered him. “Oh, Jonathan, things are terrible between Ralph and me right now. I wish I could think.”

I had to grab the ferns to keep from falling because I did recognize the woman’s voice. It was Mom’s!

The man said, “I have prayed and begged for the Lord’s guidance and I can honestly say that the Spirit has led me to you and that somehow in some wonderful way our meeting tonight was foreordained and the blessing of the Lord is on it.”