Reading from time to time, people find themselves in situations where they have to make a difficult choice concerning their moral values. The short story below is about someone who has to make such a choice. Before you read the story, think about the following questions, what is the most difficult choice you've ve made in your life so far? Do you think time can change a person? Why or why not? After twenty years, the policeman on the beat walked along the street as he always did. IT was barely ten o'clock at night when he had walked about halfway around a certain block. The policeman suddenly slowed down in the door way of a store stood a man with an unlet cigar in his mouth. As the policeman walked up to him, the man spoke up quickly. It's all right, officer. He said. I'm just waiting for a friend. It's an appointment may twenty years ago, there used to be a restaurant where this store stands big to bradies restaurant. IT was here until five years ago, said the policeman. IT was torn down. Then the man in the door way struck a match and let his cigar. The light showed a pale face with key eyes, a gradual and a little White school near his right eyebrow. His scarfpin was a large diamond, oddly said twenty years ago tonight, said the man I died here with, Jimmy wells, my best friend. He and I would, just like two brothers. I was eighteen and Jimmy was twenty. The next morning I was to leave new york and travel to the west to make my fortune. Well, we agree that night that we would meet here again exactly twenty years from that date and time, no matter what our conditions might be or from what distance we might have to come. We figured that in twenty years each of us ought to have built life and made our fortunes. IT sounds pretty interesting, said the policemen. Rather a long time between meetings, though. Haven't you heard from your friend since you left? Well, we kept in touch for a year or two, and then we lost contact. But I know Jimmy will meet me here. If his alive fully always was the tourist and most reliable fellow in the world, he'll never forget. I came a thousand miles to stand in this door way tonight, and it's worthwhile if my old partner turns up. The waiting man pulled out a handsome watch set with small diamonds. IT was three minutes to ten. I'll be on my way, said the policeman. Hope your friend turns up. I'll give him half an hour, at least by officer. The man who had come one thousand miles to keep an appointment with a friend of his youth smoke his cigar and waited about twenty minutes later. A tool man in a long overcoat with collar turned up to his ears. Hurry towards him. Is that you, pope? He asked, doubt, li, is that you? Jimmy wells shouted the man in the way, bless my heart, cried the new arrival. Well, well, well, twenty years is a long time. How has the west treated you, old man? IT has given me everything I asked IT for. You've changed lots, Jimmy. I never thought you were all by two or three inches. Oh, I grew a bit after I was twenty. Come on, bob. We'll go to a place I know and have a good long talk about all time. The two men walked up the street, ARM and ARM. The man from the west was beginning to outline the history of his career. At the corner stood a drug store brilliant with electric lights. Each of them tend to stare at the others face. The man from the west stopped suddenly and released his ARM. As I suspected, you're not Jimmy wells, he said impatiently with anger. Twenty years is a long time, but not long enough to change the shape of a man's nose. IT sometimes changes a good man into a bad one, said the tool man taking charge of the situation. You've been under arrest for ten minutes. Silky bob, chicago police thought you might have dropped over our way. And why IT us? They want to have a chat with you before we go to the station. Here's a note for you. It's from petroleum wells. The man from the west unfolded the paper. The note was rather shot. Bob, I was at the APP pointed place on time when you struck the match to light your cigar. I saw IT was the face of the criminal wanted in chicago. Anyhow, I couldn't rescue myself, so I got a plain plates man to do the job. Jimmy, adapted from a Henry short story of the same title.