Simon sits wedged in between the other men and lets the motion of the truck roll him into the slope of their shoulders, only to be rocked the other way along the next curve.

Boo drives in a calm that Simon reads in the low light when his cigarette lights up his face. Even though they take the sandy corners at fifty, Boo still looks as if he were on the interstate: broad and gentle, pushing cars and trucks in an even flow over the landscape. The other two almost sit on each other. Ned has the .22 magnum in his hands, the butt on the floor. They are looking for deer as they drive, scouring the narrow strip of grass between the road and the trees for the green dots of nightshine.

Even though it is April, Simon feels the temperature drop as the road dips down toward the river. Boo slows and turns into the woods and it isn’t until they are ten yards down the tote road that Simon realizes they haven’t gone into the ditch.

The bottom trees crowd the logging trail. Piss elm and tag alder shoulder one another in the mossy night and reach out to slap the pickup as it glides over the broken branches and dead leaves, still winter-tame and waterlogged on the ridge between the channeled ruts. Where the trees thin, the hazel brush grows like thickets of human hair for a chance at the weak northern light. Boo lifts the coffee mug that sits still somehow in the crook of his jeans and tilts it so the next bump jars the lukewarm liquid into his mouth.

Ahead Simon sees the trees open up to reveal the river skulking under the mist. The surface looks pillowed and deep. Boo turns the wheel sharply and the end of the truck swings around, shucking gravel and broken branches into the brush along the edge of the clearing. He steps on the brakes and the truck shudders into the dead grass, beer cans, and used condoms nestled in the weeds. He pops it into reverse and eases it to the river’s edge. Boo leans back and blows out the last shreds of cigarette smoke from his lungs and puts the coffee cup on the dash, pushing the stiff Dairy Queen napkins, spark plugs, and a tire gauge into the seam along the windshield.