Summary

The boat rode low in the wash of a late-afternoon swell, its hull carving a slow, deliberate arc through water the color of old glass. The buoy bells at the mouth of the cove rang thin and copper-bright. Heat lay on everything: the sun baked the deck planks to a warm, faintly sweet scent of resin; sea salt crusted the railings like sugared pearls. From somewhere beyond the headland a church bell tolled twice, a sound that seeped into the ribs of the boat and stayed.