Hydropsyche

A Novel

By James Bosch

The following excerpts are from Chapter 46 in Hydropsyche.

“In case you’re wonderin’, the boat you’re on is a replica cargo schooner from the late 1800’s with over 3,000 feet of sail. She’s 114 feet from bow to stern and has room for over fifty passengers, so you should have no problem with privacy.”



By early evening, courtesy of Langdon Briggs, they had hors d’oeuvres — Great Lakes style: Cucumber rounds with dill and smoked trout mousse; sautéed asparagus tips and morel wheels on fiddlehead ferns; goat cheese and chives on salted, wheat crisps; heirloom radishes with steelhead caviar and watercress; basil and watermelon mosaics with blue cheese crumbles paired with local wine.

Dinner took place on the deck around a narrow wooden table covered with a white cloth and silverware. They sat close together on bright red canvas pads. Their main course included grilled Great Lakes whitefish with cherry tomato and jalapeno salsa; rustic French bread; a cheese plate with seedless grapes, blueberries, cherries and raspberries; St. Andrew’s wine from Traverse City and garden salad with a mix of frisée, burgundy and green baby-leaf Romaine lettuce and homemade vinaigrette dressing.

We walk the velvet road the water paves

Around us, swaying grasses on the dune

Our circle sings their song: A lovely tune

Of love; for love is — the music life plays