Running in the World Upside Down

Abstract

Caleb is running the last few miles that twist around Crescent Lake into Morrow’s Cove. In the late afternoon May sun the evergreen trees and hills and clouds are reflected in the lake, the whole world upside down. Just a year ago, Caleb graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland with degrees in English and education. He had moved to Morrow’s Cove in late August, the day brittle cool with the first hint of autumn. When Caleb first saw Morrow’s Cove, a haphazard cluster of houses, hammered into the rocky cliffs and painted in lemon, purple, lime, and pink like a tropical coral reef, Caleb said to his wife Gabriel, “I think we’ll be happy here.” But on the day Caleb and Gabriel arrived, the people of Morrow’s Cove were grieving. Four young people, drunk and reckless, had charged off the town wharf into the harbour.