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Show RIVER pennant, in the precise center of that dark, onrushing steel wall. It slid toward me, hissing, relentless, mechanical, and huge. In one frozen moment I had three profound reactions. I could not believe what I was seeing: my eyes must have conjured this up with no help from reality. I laughed then laughed at its undeniable reality, for it seemed enormously funny, hysterical, till finally the truth hit and engulfed me in pure terror. On top of a fierce adrenaline rush came the terror, jerking me onto the rowing bench where I pulled for a stroke or two before realizing that rowing was absolutely pointless. The bows had already eaten up half the original distance between my boat and the wall of steel. The bows rushed downriver at twice the speed of the current, their subtle hissing grown intolerably loud. My every nerve was screaming-"You're a dead man!"-but I managed to devise a plan. Maybe I could wedge an oar between my boat and the barges and so manage to keep from being sucked under. It was utterly impossible and I instinctively knew it, but under the circumstances it was all I could come up with. I braced the oar against the bulwarks and waited for the onrushing bow. Thor too was now alert, his mouth hanging open in wonder. Time slowed to a crawl. My head pounded with a single thought, "You're a dead man." The fear grew as the bows swept closer and I yelled, screamed, howled, "Help!" hoping that someone on the barges would hear me, but it was like yelling into the teeth of a hurricane. The bows, rust red and streaked with black, came steadily on, looming up larger till they engulfed my vision and finally were on top of me. I jammed the oar against the river-blackened steel and watched the bow slip over the stern of my boat as easily and naturally as a -205- |