It had been a glorious vacation.

For two weeks, the Latham family, among Pleasant South Carolina, had basked in simple summertime

pleasures.

Fishing, boating, water skiing, swimming in the cool clear water of Lake Greenwood, a

large man-made lake in the western part of the state.

We had never in our lives taken a two-week vacation, ever.

That's the voice of Nancy Latham.

And this particular year, Chris was insistent we take a two-week vacation.

Chris Latham, the workaholic, finally had the time.

He'd grown up nearby in the town of Greenwood.

Had you had a good vacation?

We'd had a great vacation.

At the girls?

The teenagers?

Well, they spent those two weeks in July 2011, perfecting their tans and roaring around

the 11,000-baker lake on Jetskin's, not a care in the world.

I did it?

Oh, yes.

It lives only in haunted memory now.

The last day of that splendid vacation, its peaceful, mundane moments, preserved as if

on an old film.

We'd back in agonized technicolor, again and again.

...