Splash

The creek is eleven inches deep. You find this out by stepping into it.

There is a splash, and the figure's boots go dark. The buzz at your wrist is not the short click you get for a step. Then you are back at the post with the nine-point rose, and the path starts over.

It leads to the same bank. A flat stone stands on edge by the water, and on it, in chalk: 11 IN. That is crossed out, and under it, in the same hand: 11 IN.

Someone knelt in the mud to write it twice.

Two leaves are on the water. One is going upstream and one downstream, at the same speed, and they pass without touching.