“But that’s not going to happen. The Forest Service’s job is to enforce that law, a law the district ranger knows as well as anyone.”

Kowalsky stepped closer to the podium again. “You’ve made your speech,” he said to Luke. “Anybody else have anything to say or ask Mr. Brennon?”

“I got a question for you.” Joel spoke from the side of the room. Like Randy and Ronny he wore a SEARCH AND RESCUE cap. Joel was tall and broad-shouldered like my father, and his jaw had the jut and set of that side of the family. His last name might be Lusk but he looked one-hundred-percent Glenn. He was like my father in other ways as well.

“You say you’re from Illinois, right, Mr. Brennon?”

“That’s right,” Brennon said. “Carbondale.”

“These portable dams of yours,” Joel said, every syllable drawn out like taffy being stretched, “you’ve used them on rivers in Illinois?”

I didn’t know where Joel was going with his questions, but he was doing it in classic southern good-old-boy fashion—as if he were dumb as a fence post. But he wasn’t dumb, and whatever was on his mind was something he’d thought out or he wouldn’t have spoken in the first place.

“That’s right,” Brennon said. “We’ve used them on a number of streams and rivers, not just in Illinois but Indiana as well.”

“Flat slow-moving streams and rivers,” Joel said, and it wasn’t a question.

“Implying what?” Kowalsky said, taking a step from the podium, a step closer to Joel.

“I ain’t implying nothing, I’m saying it,” Joel said. “A whitewater river’s not like any other. Things that work on a flatland river won’t work on the Tamassee.”

“I think Mr. Brennon knows what his dam can do better than you,” Kowalsky said.

“But he doesn’t know this river,” Joel said, “not the way those of us who’ve lived here all our lives know it.”

It was obvious Kowalsky wasn’t used to other people having the last word. His pupils seemed to contract. His glare swept across the room before settling again on Joel. Maybe he expected Joel to lower his eyes, but Joel stared back steadily, his eyes as implacable as Kowalsky’s were intense, which only infuriated Kowalsky more. He let his glare shift slightly to include Ronny and Randy Moseley and several of the other men wearing SEARCH AND RESCUE caps. Luke’s poetic imagery was forgotten now.

“Maybe you hillbillies don’t know nearly as much about that river as you think,” Kowalsky said. “I sure as hell haven’t seen any indication you do.”

If Kowalsky hadn’t said hillbillies, Joel probably would not have replied the way he did. Things might have ended right there with Joel shrugging his shoulders or saying something like we’ll see.