One September evening, my friend Charlie and I were camping on his grandparents farm.  We were around 11 years old.  We were quite a ways from the farm house behind a couple of corn fields.  As the evening got later and darker, the wind picked up.  As the wind blew through the dry corn stalks, it made a loud rustling sound.  Almost as if someone were walking through it.  The fire was dying down and all the snacks consumed.  We retired to the tent. 

   While we were laying there listening to all of the animals and the rustling corn, Charlie says, "I have a story for you.  I swear to you this is true."  I said, "OK.  Lets hear it."  So Charlie tells this tale about an old farmer who used to own the farm down the road.  He became a widower when he was about 55.  His 16 year old daughter became the caretaker of the house.  A little while later, the girl became pregnant.  Rumors swirled that the old farmer was the father.  They became reclusive and stopped coming into town.  The girl had twin boys.  No one ever saw them until they were about 5 years old.  The old farmer finally let them come outside to play.  They didn't look quite right.  They had huge round eyes that bugged out and enormous foreheads.  They were extremely hyper and mentally underdeveloped.  The farmers daughter ended up trying to commit suicide and was sent to a psych ward.  See never admitted to the incest.  The farmer raised the boys but never sent them to school and rarely took them off the farm.  One day when the boys were about 12, a social worker came to the farm inquiring why the boys did not attend school.  The old farmer basically told her to mind her own business and to get off his land.  The social worker told him she was going to pursue the case and get the boys out of the home.  The social worker disappeared a few days later.  A few years later, the farmer got cancer.  He refused to go to the doctor.  One night he injected the boys and himself with lethal doses of horse tranquilizer.  Their bodies were found 2 months later.  The farm was purchased by a coal mining outfit and the house and barns were bulldozed.  The ground was then mined for coal.  However, several weird accidents happened to the coal mining company during the process.  There was a blasting accident that killed 7 people.  A bulldozer overturned, for no apparent reason, while doing some work where the old house stood; killing the operator instantly.  The owner of the company had a heart attack one year to the day after purchasing the property and he died.  The company eventually went bankrupt and the land lay silent ever since.

   Charlie then says, "That land is only like two fields over."  I said, "You're full of shit."  He replied, "Roman, I'm serious.  You can ask my grandpa tomorrow."  I didn't really believe him, but as I lay there in the dark, the corn making sounds like someone is rushing the tent, and my thoughts racing...I was scared.  I didn't sleep much that night.

   We get up the next morning and head to the house for breakfast.  We sit at the table and I start recanting the story to Charlies grandpa.  He listens intently.  When I finish, he looks at me and says, "I think Charlie is pulling your leg."  I look at Charlie and he is laughing.  I slug him in the arm and say, "You jerk!  I didnt sleep at all last night."  He laughingly says, "I cant believe you fell for that."  We ate our breakfast and Charlie could not stop grinning.

   Charlie and I remained the best of friends for the rest of our young adult lives.  After college Charlie became a very successful salesman at a software company.  He eventually became a CEO.  He travelled the world over.  I became a doctor.  I have a successful general practitioners practice.  I am a very proud family doctor.  When Charlie got time at home, we always made time to do something.  Whether it is just the two of us or with his family, we always had fun.  Charlie married a beautiful woman and they had three kids; a girl and twin boys.  I never married.  I spent too much time with my practice and enjoyed being a bachelor.

   One day about a year ago, Charlie came into my office late in the afternoon.  He looked quite run down.  He asked me to give him a physical to see if I could find anything wrong.  So I did.  I thought he was just overworked.  However, he did complain of some abdominal pain.  So I ordered a blood panel to be done as well as an MRI.  The nurse came into to draw the blood.  When she left, I told him it would take a few days for the results to get back, and that he needed to get some rest.  I gave him the address of the lab where he was to get the MRI done and they would get me the results quickly.  He left the office.  A few days later, the results were in.  I was shocked.

   Charlie came into my office.  I told him to have a seat.  I asked him if he had been having an affair.  He was aghast.  He replied, "Of course not Roman.  You know me better than that."  I agreed it didnt seem like Charlie.  Suddenly, Charlies face turned white.  He told me of an incident that happened several months back.  He had been on a business trip, gotten drunk, and some of the guys he was with picked up some prostitutes on the way back to the hotel.  Charlie said, "I didnt think I did anything with the girls, but I blacked out...maybe I did.  Whats wrong with me?  Do I have syphilis or something?"   I said, "Charlie you have HIV."  He was silent.  He began to cry.  I leaned down to console him.  I said, "Charlie, this isnt necessarily a death sentence.  There are drugs that will help you.  You can live a long time.  We caught it early.  Look at Magic Johnson!"  Charlie replied, "Yeah, I know.  What am I going to tell my wife?  She will not accept this.  She will leave me."  I told him, "I'll help you through this Charlie."

   The next day Charlie and his wife came in.  She was nervous as hell.  We told her together.  She was beyond angry.  She said she was divorcing him, taking the kids, all his money, and if she tested positive for HIV she was going to kill him.  She got the blood test.  I called her a few days later and told her she did not have HIV.

   Charlie had a rough year.  The divorce was brutal, his wife turned his kids against him, he was broke, he had been demoted at work, and he was sick all the time.  He stayed with me a lot that year.  He was a lost soul.  Over the past weekend, he became quite ill.  I told him to come to my office early today and wed run some more tests.  So he came in today and we took some more blood and I sat him down.  Charlie said, "I dont understand Roman.  You said the drugs would fight the HIV.  I am sicker now than I was a year ago."  Looking at the floor I said, "I know Charlie."  Then I glanced back up at him and said, "Do you remember camping at your grandparents farm?"  He said, "Sure I do.  What does that have to do with this?"  I looked at him coldly and said, "Charlie, you dont have HIV.  You have pancreatic cancer that has gone untreated for a year.  You're going to die soon.  Hows that for a scary story, bitch?"  I walked out of the exam room and back into my office.