The two had met in college. Todd, 6 feet, with dark brown hair and eyes was considered quite a hunk in high school. Amy, 5′ 3″ with long blond hair and big sparkling blue eyes, was always very popular among the young men in her town. Soon after graduation, knowing they were destined to be together, married in a tiny chapel near the college. They moved to a small northeastern town in which Todd had been offered a well paying job in his chosen field. Their search for a home had proved to be a trying one. They looked at five houses before finding one they both liked.

It was a small house that had been abandoned for the past 30 years. The new owners had remodeled the entire house, which was located at the base of Higby Mountain. From the large windowed kitchen the view of the mountain was breathtaking, and soon the couple was taking ownership of their very first home together. Todd was quite athletic, participating in baseball, basketball, running and soccer. Amy enjoyed her gardening, home decorating, women’s social events, and volunteering at the hospital. Todd would sit at the kitchen table each morning before work and gaze at the mountain. He had never done any mountain climbing, but for some reason Mt. Higby fascinated him. He often felt the mountain was calling to him, and he began thinking about what it would be like to stand at the top and look over the entire town. His thoughts soon became an obsession, causing him to think of little else.

Amy was far from a mountain climber and thought Todd’s continuous distraction with climbing a bit foolish. When she could no longer hold back her opinion, she approached Todd and told him how she felt about his dreams of mountain climbing. After several hours of discussion, Todd had to agree with Amy that his thoughts about the mountain were coming between them. Todd tried to keep his mind on his job and home life, but somehow kept returning to the pull of the mountain. One afternoon while napping on the couch, he had a vision. There was a floating white object right there in his living room. The vision spoke to him, begging him to climb Mt Higby and rescue him from his bondage on the mountain. When Todd awakened, he wasn’t sure whether he had been dreaming or had actually seen the vision.