A Lantern Read Through

You wade in to the ankle and lift one out. The paper is warm. A cedar elm leaf has stuck to the bottom of it, small and yellow, and inside is a folded sheet with four lines on it, in a hand that leans. You read all four.

It is about a man who stops a bus. He stands in the street and holds up one hand, and the bus stops. He gets on and sits down. He has nowhere to go. The driver waits, and after a while he says, Where to? and the man says, I just wanted to see if I could.

You read it again and set the lantern back on the water. It floats off to join the others. Every four seconds the flames in the shallows all lean the same way and straighten.