The voice mail ends.
I listen to the message again. I listen to it on the way home, and several more times before I fall asleep. I listen to it the next morning when Mika comes over and I replay it for her. I listen to it again that night and the day after that. I listen to it on the days I miss Sam most and want to hear his voice again. I listen to his voice mail until I have it memorized, and I don’t need to play it anymore.
EPILOGUE
But I still think about him. I think about him throughout my first week in college when I’m walking under the cherry blossoms. I think about him whenever I’m in town, grabbing coffee at Sun and Moon. I think about him when I’m on the phone with Mika, and we talk for hours. I think about him after an awkward blind date Oliver sets me up with. I think about him after a better first date with someone from my English class. I think about him after I finish writing our story and submitting it to a writing contest. I think of him when I win an honorable mention, and it gets published online. I think about him when I visit his house for Sunday dinners with James and his family. I think about him on my last day in Ellensburg, as I get ready to move to the city where we always planned to live together. And I think about him whenever I close my eyes, and see us together again, lying out there in the fields.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
You forget how much time has passed until you have to sit down to write your acknowledgments. In publishing, you learn pretty quickly that everything happens all at once or nothing happens at all. And for most of my life, nothing was happening. Anyway, there are a lot of people I want to acknowledge who got me to this point in my life. The person I want to thank first is my sister, Vivian. What a long journey, right? You were there when this book was nothing but an idea in my head. You became my first critique partner. You gave me some of the best and harshest feedback I’ve ever received to this day. There are so many of your thoughts and ideas in this book, I can hardly distinguish them from my own anymore. Most important of all, thank you for always being the biggest fan of my stories.
Thank you to my agent, Thao Le. You don’t know how excited I was when I got your email saying you were halfway through and loved it so far! After our phone call, I knew you were the right person for this book. Thank you for helping me get this book into the right shape. And thank you for all your support and championing of me. You are truly the best in the business, and it is wonderful to work with you. Thank you to everyone at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency for all that you do. A special shout-out to Andrea Cavallaro for taking this book overseas. And thank you to my wonderful film agent, Olivia Fanaro at UTA.
Thank you to my editor, Eileen Rothschild. You truly helped take this book to levels I didn’t expect. I think that’s because you understood it in ways no one else did. You helped bring Sam to life and I am incredibly grateful that we got a chance to work together. Thank you to the Wednesday Books family. Mary Moates and Alexis Neuville, you guys make things so much better and more fun! Thank you for all you do behind the scenes. Thank you to Kerri Resnick for your genius and kindness. Thanks for finding Zipcy, who illustrated the best cover I could ever have asked for. Thank you to Tiffany Shelton. And thank you to Lisa Bonvissuto. It is such a joy to get the chance to work with you on this book!
To my friends and family. Thank you to Jolie Christine, my friend and CP. You really helped me through my revisions. Thank you to Julian Winters and Roshani Chokshi for your friendly support throughout the process. Thank you to Judith Frank at Amherst. You gave me space to work on this book when you didn’t have to. Thank you to my friend Ariella Goldberg, who helped me with the prologue when I felt stuck. Thank you to my brother, Alvin, for always being there, and for supporting my stories. And thank you to my mom and dad. From the very beginning, you guys always believed in me.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DUSTIN THAO is a Vietnamese American writer based in Southern California. He graduated from Amherst College with a BA in political science, and he is currently in a Ph.D. program at Northwestern University. He writes contemporary young adult fiction. You’ve Reached Sam is his YA debut. You can sign up for email updates here.