Downstream

undress, keeping an eye out
for river police. Jack shoots
out into the open river, the
sky above cascading with
stars, behind him the black
hulls of barges, ‘the whole
expanse of water was running
with light. It was like
swimming in quicksilver.’
Eventually he feels the tide
turn and it’s time to leave, ‘a
tension had been released, a
ritual performed’, and like
river swimmers before and