Sunlight glittered on the river. Late summer flowers bloomed along the banks. Ducks drifted, at peace on the water. The year"s last brood of sand martins honed their hunting skills above the riverside pastures.
Tommy Page fished for livebait from an old landing stage to the east of the town. He watched the sand martins and felt reassured. Life went on. And he felt connected to it. In fact, he felt so at one with the natural world on that August afternoon that he was almost overcome by the feeling of joy that filled him.
A shadow fell across the riverbank. Startled, Tommy looked up, but there were only a few tufts of high cirrus in the otherwise cloudless sky. The shadow had no visible cause. The willows on the bank behind him suddenly writhed in a gust of wind. He put down his rod and tu
