It was just after lunch when the ferryboat came, capturing my attention as it swung round a bend in the shallow river, serenely floating like some stately autumn leaf. Riding impossibly high in the water, it seemed to have no draught whatsoever and the sides of the boat looked to have been woven from thin boughs of weathered wood with the sparkle of embedded sea glass lending it flashes of emerald green, golden brown and sky blue. The sole occupant was an older gentleman in a rustic brown robe gripping a pole, his sandy hair unruly and thick with silver. It was a beautiful looking boat, if somewhat weathered, and looked quite out of place on my normally mundane, quiet country river.

  As it grew closer, the man brought the boat slowly over to the bank on which I rested, standing upright, he waved to me.

  "Good day to you!", he called, startling me from my contemplation, "Would you like to come aboard?". There was something about his warm voice that reminded me of summer afternoons and the quiet buzz of honey bees. I scrambled to my feet, not wanting to appear rude, and greeted him in turn with an uncertain smile and a weak wave. "Hi!", I said, "your boat looks amazing, not something I ever expected to see on this tiny river!"

  He gave the side of the boat a gentle thump, "She's unique alright that's true and we've been to places far smaller and quieter than this lovely stretch of water". I gave him a slightly disbelieving glance, "smaller than this? but surely you would run aground were the water any shallower! I can cross up ahead and only wade to my knees!"

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  Grinning at me, he exposed his perfectly white teeth and snorted a laugh, "She's very light on the water, this Lady is, why she could probably float upon a teaspoon!" I laughed back at him, thinking he was talking in jest, "Now THAT I would like to see!"

  Suddenly his grin faded, and his face became more serious, he looked me up and down then nodded to himself. "Would you like to come aboard?" he asked me again.

  I looked more closely at him, searching for signs of danger, waiting for some sixth sense to scream out that he was a predator and I was prey, but he looked perfectly harmless and it WAS a pretty boat. "Are you the Ferryman, come to take me across the river Styx?" I said before I could stop myself.

  His smile returned and he shook his head chuckling, "I am not He and you seem far from needing a lift to the afterlife."

  "Where are you travelling to?", I asked, "there really isn't much of interest from here to the distant sea unless you have a fascination with farming and paddocks."

  "I follow the water wherever it leads", he says. I nod, thinking that he must live somewhere downstream, maybe he's an eccentric retiree out for his daily pleasure cruise.

  "How long would the ride take? I don't want to have people worry if I'm gone too long", I said, warning him just in case he was thinking of kidnapping me that I would be missed.

  "How about until you grow bored?" he says, "we can stop at the next town". Thinking to myself - that's just 2 km down the river, I grin back, "Permission to come aboard, Captain!"