I remember when I was eight years old I was once on Lake Michigan. I was playing with a girl, we were building sand castles, and then she went into the water and didn’t come out. When you are eight years old and this happens, it can be an unsolvable mystery. The girl never came ashore and was never found. My first encounter with death remained a mystery to me. One day in 1942, I was conducting my daily experiments with words - simply writing down the words that came to mind. I wrote down nouns. I wrote “Lake” and thought: “Where did this word come from?” And suddenly a sand castle on the shore and a little fair-haired girl who went into the water and did not come out appeared in my memory. Two hours later I had a story ready. And when I put an end to it, tears flowed from my eyes. It became clear to me that finally, after ten years of effort, I had written something worthwhile.