Awed by the incredible spectacle off Point Harp, the deckhand the the wind-drying folkie lass stood in the sand, his hand still on her shoulder, until the battle had waned and the heaving seas of the battleground had calmed. Then she turned and smiled again, and said, "I really should get my clothes on. What will people think? And you need some first aid. Let's head over to Jen's. She has just what we need, I am told, to put things right. I'm parked over on the west edge, near her place."

The boy, his normally placid mind already overburdened with love, terror, pain and adrenalin, nodded mutely.

"You were a hero, you know. I can't think about what might have happened if you hadn't been there tuning your guitar...."

They strolled back down the boardwalk, a dramatic ripple in the tides of people going to and fro by the great bay. In the sunlight. In the afternoon. At the Mudcat Funhouse, Boardwalk and Capo-Clinching Carnival...