What came next seemed to happen in slow motion. Or rather, the first part was like that, before the whole world turned upside down and time lost meaning. I remember I was arcing the paddle to my right and had just felt it bite the water, when darkness swept over me. It wasn’t total darkness, but the day had been so bright that it almost seemed that way. Now a band of gloom raced past, overtaking Charlotte and Aiden in less than a second. It must be a scudding cloud, I remember thinking, though the sky, up to this point, had been clear. I tilted my head, eyes adjusting to the sudden change in light. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was aware of a light breeze where before the day had been still. I expected to see a raincloud. What I didn’t expect was a swirling dance of leaves and debris so dense it blotted out the sun.

I turned to my left, the kayak starting to rock as the wind picked up speed. Grit and dirt splattered against my face. I narrowed my eyes, but even so I could still see it. A twisting mass of orange and grey spiralling across the bank, dipping into the water and heading towards me. It was hypnotic. Somewhere, someone shouted a warning. Even then, I wasn’t aware of being in danger. Not really. It was all so unexpected, so … alien. A corkscrewing wind, picking up litter from the bank. Weird. Not life-threatening.

I probably thought this for less than a second, before a shearing gale twisted the kayak round in a tight circle. The paddle was ripped from my grasp. And then I was in the middle of a power that wiped out everything else. I was blind and the screaming wind deafened me. It took a few seconds to realise the boat was gone, that I was in the water, tumbling over and over. I opened my eyes, though I couldn’t remember having closed them, but all I could see were bubbles as the water churned the darkened world to white. It wasn’t even possible to see what was up and what was down, so I didn’t know which way to swim. Not that I could swim; the river was alive and taking me wherever it wished. I hadn’t even had time to take a breath of air and although I could only have been underwater for a very short time, my lungs already ached and I had to resist the urge to inhale. I kicked and moved my arms. A small part of me was still functioning, it seemed, and I guessed that if I could move anywhere away from that spiralling column, then I might find calmer water and get my head above the surface. But with no sense of direction, it was hard and I was panicking and no matter what I did I couldn’t seem to get away from whatever force was playing with me, throwing me around like a child’s toy, drawing me deeper and deeper towards … well, towards death.