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Show RTVER knapsack is a bag of marijuana seeds. I'm going to start some reefer plantations down below Memphis." "You're puttin' me on," said Ralph. "No, Ralph, honest. Think about it: it could work." Ralph shook his head. After a long row we pulled up to the barges on the Kentucky shore. They were empty grain barges, still littered with kernels of corn. They each had a companionway about two feet wide running around the raised bulwarks of the hold so that deckhands could get around. The full force of the Ohio's current rushed in rolling waves along the sides of the barges, raising a deep sighing sound like an incoming tide. I climbed up onto the ledge of the deck and tied the boat to a cleat. Ralph handed me the camera and I started looking through the viewer at America. She still lay motionless in the middle of the river, black smoke pouring out of one stack, massive as a sleeping whale. Suddenly Ralph yelled, "An oar's gone!" I looked down at the boat and sure enough, an oar was gone. Thor had probably kicked it loose. Immediately I knew we were screwed, and in a flash I could appreciate exactly how screwed: with one oar, the boat was as useless as a duck with one wing. I started running down the line of barges, ripping off clothes and looking for the oar down in the murky, rolling water. My heart jumped and the adrenaline pumped. I got down to my levis and struggled to get out of my clodhopper boots. The laces were badly frayed and knotted but I managed to kick them off. I ran the length of three or four barges and finally, in the best cliffhanger fashion, at the very end of the last one I spotted the oar sweeping along with the current. If I'd hesitated for one second, if I'd considered -36- |