The Boy in His Winter
by Norman Lock
After Huck Finn and Jim fall asleep on an appropriated raft in Hannibal, Mo., they find
themselves floating down the Mississippi for decades without ever aging a day themselves.
— Michael Main
We came by the raft dishonestly. We’d only meant to do a little fishing. It was cool
and nice under the big willow with its whips trailing over the water. Christ, it was a
scorcher of a day. The whole town must have fallen asleep, along with Jim and me. When we
finally did wake, if we ever did, the raft was too far along in space and time to return
it. We could no longer reverse ourselves, our motions in all five dimensions, than fly to
the moon.
The Boy in His Winter by Norman Lock (Bellevue Literary
Press, May 2014).