What The River Knows: A Novel Novels & Stories

Everything is going well until her mother gets a phone call, and goes off to the study and locks herself there. Getting bored, Riveria leaves the Tv on and goes up to her room. She locked her door and blasts loud music while rereading the first Percy Jackson book. She didn't know when she fell asleep, but she sure knows when she starts dreaming. As usual, her dreams take her on a wild ride. She is on the cliffs, looking out at the sea. Two bodies lay below. With one last glance, the wolf moves away and runs through the streets roaring, daring someone to come out.

As the horn cut through the morning fog, I glanced at his hunched figure on the dock and stepped onto the gangway. Out at sea, my phone lost signal. On the deck, I watched the coastline shrink, like ashes of a burned past. At the bottom of the suitcase lay a faded photo of my mother holding me as a baby in the Swiss Alps. On the back, her elegant handwriting read, "My daughter is like morning frost, pure and steadfast, yet like the warm sun, destined to shine." In my past life, I thought her death was fate's decree. Now her diary revealed the truth: Richard tampered with her medication to seize her fortune. Her sorrowful passing was a meticulously planned murder.

She looks at the river. "Yes," she says. "I have always known. I just did not have the language for what I knew." She looks at me. "The river pilot. The one who knows the bends of this river better than anyone alive. The one who has been ferrying people and cargo through the mountain sections that other pilots consider too dangerous, for thirty years, without accident." She pauses. "The river is the formation. The pilot who knows the river — who reads it the way Rael reads foundations — has been keeping the formation from the surface." I look at the window.

Although the thought of it made me a little embarrassed, he obviously knew what he was doing. River was apparently waiting for me on the couch while reading a white-covered book that from its thickness I estimated to contain three hundred to four hundred pages. He raised his head and put the book down on the table when he noticed me. "Are you ready to face Evan?" he asked. "In a minute," I replied. His question suddenly made me nervous. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. River was still faithfully watching me as he sat back on the couch. "Come on." I extended my hand toward him, waving it quickly to invite him to come over.