He’d done what you are taught to do in such a situation—curl your body into a tight ball so the hydraulic spits you out. As Luke waded out of the water, his chest was heaving. He did not look frightened or even relieved.

“I thought you were going to drown,” I had said, as we walked downstream to retrieve the kayak. I’d been trying to match Luke’s composure, but my voice trembled as I spoke.

“I was fine,” Luke said.

He had stopped walking and turned to me. The look on his face was more than just serene, it was beatific, like the faces of the raptured in Renaissance paintings. I thought he might be in shock.

“I didn’t tuck until the last moment,” Luke said. “Part of me wanted to stay. That hydraulic was like the still center of the universe.”

The kayak had lodged on a sandbar. Luke had started to shiver, so I made him stay on shore while I waded out to it.

“It was like entering eternity,” Luke had said as we’d made our way back up to Bear Sluice. “That’s what the Celts believed—that water was a conduit to the next world. Maybe they were right.”

Herb Kowalsky might not agree with what Luke had said about leaving the dead in the river, but Luke, unlike Kowalsky, had been to that place, and for Luke it had been beautiful.

JOEL’S TRUCK WAS STILL IN THE PARKING LOT, AND I WASN’T surprised when he called my name. He was behind the community center near the creek. The orange tip of his cigarette hovered before him as he stepped toward me.

“I didn’t want to be in there no longer, but I didn’t want to leave without speaking to you,” Joel said.

“It’s good to see you,” I said, and gave him an awkward half hug.

“I probably shouldn’t have spoken to that man the way I did,” Joel said, “but he’s been ragging on us ever since he got up here.”

“That’s what Billy said.”

“You’d think losing a daughter to that river would make him understand how dangerous our job’s been.”

Joel took a final draw from his cigarette.

“When’s Aunt Margaret getting back?” I asked.

“Tomorrow afternoon.”

“So I’ll see you both at Billy’s tomorrow night?”

“We’ll be there.”

Joel threw down his cigarette and crushed it into the gravel with his boot heel.

“I best go,” he said. “If I stay I’ll just get in more trouble.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow night,” I said.