I saw only two other skiffs the whole way, plus a sailboat on the far horizon probably outward bound from Key West or the Dry Tortugas. The two of us sat side by side but alone, as silent and remote, it seemed, as the dark islands touched one another by my skiff's trailing wake.
Violence releases a potent chemical cocktail into the muscles and the brain.
The aftereffects can be a little like a hangover. It produced a gloom in us both. I had drifted so deeply into my own thoughts that I had actually jumped a little when she spoke. You really would have done it. It took me a moment to understand the question.