Daren Lane left Riverside Park, and walked in the meadows until he came to a boulder under a huge chestnut tree.

Here he sat down.

He could not walk far these days.

Many a time in the Indian summers long past he had gathered chestnuts there with Dal, with Mel Iden, with Helen.

He would never do it again.
The April day had been warm and fresh with the opening of a late spring.