You ever think about how many bodies this ol' river's swallowed? Mistaking the moonlight for two frozen plums, now just bones, knitting the banks like stubborn roots, tucking them under, with the current's tongue, licking its teeth. Some slip...

"Tell me something impossible," she said, peeling back his wrapper of memories like layers of sun-warmed orange rind. The man beside her exhaled through his nose—half-laugh, half-sigh—while his fingers traced the rim of a glass that hadn't held promises...