Shadows danced their midnight ballet on the walls and the wind sang a gloomy symphony, crying like a wolf in the ink of the night. The guardian beam flashed and died, flashed and died with uniform precision; a hibernating heart, slow but sustaining.
Setting the Hook [an excerpt]
![Setting the Hook [an excerpt]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56170598e4b0441404b001ec/1592549597550-M8VB6SE6UNRYN2J3NY4B/trout+flies.jpg)
Rappahannock County was home to hundreds of trout streams. Overnight temperatures in late winter dipped into the minuses and seldom rose above the mid-teens during daylight hours. The trees had dropped their leaves, and the riparian vegetation was mostly dead or dormant. Ice crystals had formed along the dappled edges of the mountain stream we had come to, but most of the water remained accessible, flowing freely down the slopes.
Swing... and Miss
As I reclined against Andre’s chest, his arms encircled me and I felt all my misgivings fade away. I’d forgotten how it felt to be held by him, but memories started flooding back, and I sank into him further and sighed.
“Tell me something that would surprise me,” he challenged, “something that I wouldn’t believe.”
I thought for a moment and then recalled where I was and what I was doing not five months earlier and I began to tell him a story…