The last day of her stay, they drove up to Farmington. A common friend who used to be in Emma's French class was playing the flute in a concert given on campus. They knew there would not be many people there - it was the Spring break for college students and professors.

"It should take us about an hour," Adrian had told her before they left the house - and he had let her drive. Now the old sand colored Trooper was cruising along the country road, cutting through the woods like butter; they had been driving for less than 30 minutes and were already approaching the outskirts of the little town. Emma recognized the Mount Blue Motel on the side of the road and she knew they were almost there. She glanced at Adrian, thinking she probably had driven too fast, but he did not seem to mind. He was fiddling with the radio tuning to try and get something else to play than this damn country music.

It was late April and the leaves were not back in the trees yet. In spite of the relative warmth that had allowed them to walk around without a jacket for most of the week, in spite of the shy sun that was already starting to set behind the tree horizon, only the pine trees - the state tree after all - were standing in their full and perpetual green outfit, while other trees whose golden and leaves will set the forest of Maine on fire in the fall were still naked and gray, feeling and looking a little dull and silly next to their majestic companions.

"No, don't! Come back to that one!" she said, her eyes on the road and it took Adrian a split second to realize what she was talking about. He tuned back to the previous station and listened. "Yeah," she said, nodding with a smile, "that one."

He listened again and turned to her, an eyebrow raised in puzzlement. All she heard was the short giggle she was so used to and she knew judgment was being passed. She dismissed it with a quick hand gesture. "I like it, okay?"

He did not reply but the sound of his silence made her smile. She was looking at the bright yellow stripes in the middle of the road and she thought the asphalt had probably just been restored after the winter. She also thought she would have to exit Route 4 pretty soon to get into town and wondered if she could remember where to take the turn. She did not want to ask Adrian and convinced herself she could remember the way on her own. She wanted so bad to remember the way, to remember every detail of the best years of her life. But she could not. So, right after she activated the blinker to signal her turn, she checked with him. "Is that the one?" she asked.

"Yep," he answered, then added: "You remember." She turned to him and saw he was smiling gently, a touch of nostalgia in his glance.

The song on the radio was coming to an end when the Trooper drove past Irving, the 24 hour gas station/diner they used to hang out after hours when the only eating option was either that or microwave popcorn in your dorm. They drove a little longer up route 4 and then they were in town, the first building of the university - strong of its 3 stories - standing so much higher than the wooden houses around.

Emma took on the first on the right and drove through campus. The place was deserted, not even a couple of cars parked on the streets side near the library or the Student Center. She turned left and drove the Trooper to the end of the street, near Merrill Hall that held the Nordica Auditorium where the concert would take place. She parked the car onto the parking lot near the Baptist Church. Near it stood the huge maple tree whose red leaves were so majestic in the fall.

There were only a couple more cars on the lot. No one was there yet, apart maybe for a few musicians. "We're early," Adrian said as she was turning off the engine. She smiled, knowing he had said it before she would have time to do so. They got out of the car and as they stood briefly on the parking lot, they shuddered; as the sun was setting, the air was cooler than she expected. She put her hands in her jacket pockets and turned her face toward the sun, right between the church and the maple tree. She smiled and closed her eyes as the light warmth of the evening caressed her face gently.

"What do you want to do?" she heard Adrian ask near her. She opened her eyes and turned to him. "Dunno," she said with a shrug. "Let's go for a walk. I wouldn't mind seeing Stone Hall again." He nodded and they left toward the residence halls, cutting short by the Alumni Theater and the old gymnasium. The campus was small and they quickly got there. There were only a couple of cars on the parking lot between Stone and Mallett Halls. Probably a few foreign students abandoned on campus during the break.

They walked slowly up the road and reached School Street where the old rotten and infamous building that used to house noisy parties off campus was no longer standing. Adrian explained that the university had bought it, torn it down and built a neat parking lot surrounded by lovely trees and bushes. Emma remembered she had been so annoyed by the nuisance from the people living in that house, but she felt almost sad it was no longer there. "Weird, isn't it?" Adrian said as if he had read her mind.

She turned around to face the residence hall where she had spent some of the best time of her life. She raised her head toward the third floor and saw her bedroom window, at the end of the hallway. "I'm wondering who's in there, this year," she said, not really expecting an answer to her question.

Adrian was off to the other end of the building where his own dorm room used to be. At the other end of the same hallway, his room, like Emma's, was a single room where she often visited. She remembered the long phone calls at any time of the day or night from one end of the hall to the other. She remembered the night she had come back from her spring break in Washington, D.C. a day earlier and the evening spent in Adrian's room, watching his old black and white television set, the both of them lying on the bed and wrapped up in an old blanket and drinking hot tea and boiling cocoa. The heating was functioning on low settings during the breaks, and April in Maine has often nothing to do with green grass and cherry blossoms.

She remembered the first time she saw the label with her name on her dorm room door. The first time she had seen his handwriting.

You know what?" he asked, bringing her back to the present day.

"What?" she said, instinctively looking around her in the street for someone whom maybe she knew. There was not a soul around of course.

"I sure could eat a Gifford ice cream right now," he said with a nod.

She turned to him with a frown. "You think it's already open this early in the season?"

He shrugged. "I'd say it's worth a shot. It's only a 5-minute walk from here. And we still have plenty of time."

"I know where it is," she said and, passing in front of him, she grabbed his arm and led the way.

Gifford's was really down the road. Five minutes and they were ordering their ice cream. They took their time though to pick up the right flavor, the right amount of scoops and the right quantity of toping on top. Emma especially changed her mind three times before the amused eyes of the clerk. He did not care really. There were not many customers around and he kept the glass separating him from them tight shut while she was making up her mind. The heating was on inside. "Weird," Emma thought when she finally placed her order and felt the warm air blow in her face.

Adrian was already through his second scoop of choc choc chip when she got her double serving of banana cream pie flavored ice cream. She knew she would not be eating Gifford's ice cream soon again.

They walked back to town, along the Sandy River bank, strolling slowly, without talking much, side by side, setting apart from each other from time to time to let a Chevy truck or a mini van drive past them. The sun had disappeared behind the forest now and the air was getting cool. They caught the last beam of warmth right before they reached the new Movie Theater in town.

"It opened before Christmas," Adrian explained. "It's bigger than the old one."

She nodded. She thought he could not help giving her the guided tour. As if she did not know the place. But he was right. It had changed - a little. She thought of the student fair shows on Tuesday nights, where they used to watch all the crap they could bear for two dollars. She thought she would be gone the next day and she felt her throat tightened. She glanced at him. He was looking back at her. "Your banana cream pie is trying to escape," he said calmly with a gentle smile.

So she licked the cream from her fingers. "Shall we go now?" she then asked.

He agreed and they walked back to Merrill Hall. There were about a dozen other cars on the parking lot now, next to Adrian's Trooper. As it was getting dark outside, the light had been turned on in the building and a few people were walking in. So did Emma and Adrian.

Concluded in Part 2.