Summary

Helen once heard a story about a girl who was dropped off to swim, and what happens next justifies the telling of the story. According to E.M. Forster in Aspects of the Novel, novels are interested in logical time sequences. The girl never likes swimming at first, but once she is acclimated, she starts to like it. All the girl does at the pool is swim her laps.

The narrator notes that there is another measure of time that is not strictly sequential; rather it is measured by intensity. Helen walks to a river and considers it her responsibility to help Rose get to sleep. Helen likes the river’s consistency and also its ability to equalize sound rather than drown it out completely. The river carries things forward, and different aspects of the river are visible in different...