Article April 27, 2009 ISSUE

A FRESH STRETCH OF BEACH

BY ROBIN HOAGLAND

Few things are as clean and inviting as a Cape Cod beach in early spring. Each walk begins on a pristine stretch of sand. Every footstep (and misstep) from the day before has been erased by the ebb and flow of another high tide.

As I leave my first tracks in a new direction, I find myself thinking of another spring on another shore many years ago. The mental picture is vivid. Swimming to land is a man burdened with guilt. His save-his-own-skin rashness had abandoned a best friend at a moment of greatest need. Waiting to greet him is that same friend—with a breakfast ready to share.