JIMMY PARKED his car and carried a cardboard tray of coffee cups and a bag of doughnuts across the cracked tar parking lot toward the Mystic River. The cars slammed across the metal extension spans of the Tobin Bridge above him, and Katie knelt by the water's edge with Just Ray Harris, both of them peering into the river. Dave Boyle was there, too, his bruised hand ballooned to the size of a boxing glove. Dave sat in a sagging lawn chair beside Celeste and Annabeth. Celeste had some kind of zipper contraption covering her mouth and Annabeth smoked two cigarettes at once. All three of them wore black sunglasses and didn't look at Jimmy. They stared up at the underside of the bridge, and gave off an air that said they'd prefer to be left alone in their lawn chairs, thank you very much.
Jimmy put the coffee and doughnuts down beside Katie and knelt between her and Just Ray. He looked down at the water and saw his reflection, saw Katie's and Just Ray's, too, as they turned toward him, Ray with a big red fish clamped between his teeth, the fish still flopping.
Katie said, "I dropped my dress in the river."
Jimmy said, "I can't see it."
The fish plopped out of Just Ray's mouth and landed in the water, lay there on top of the surface flopping away.
Katie said, "He'll get it. He's hunting fish."
"Tasted just like chicken," Ray said.
Jimmy felt Katie's warm hand on his back, and then he felt Ray's on the back of his neck, and Katie said, "Why don't you go get it, Dad?"
And they pushed him over the edge and Jimmy saw the black water and the flopping fish rise up to meet him and he knew he was going to drown. He opened his mouth to scream and the fish jumped up inside there, cutting off his oxygen, and the water felt like black paint when his face plunged into it.
He opened his eyes and turned his head, saw the clock reading seven-sixteen, and he couldn't remember coming to bed. He must have, though, because here he was, Annabeth sleeping beside him, Jimmy waking up to a brand-new day with an appointment to pick out a headstone in a little over an hour, and Just Ray Harris and the Mystic River knocking at his door.