The Mississippi River is a giant moving road of dark water and red mud. It divides the high green bluffs of Mississippi from the thick, mossy swamps of Louisiana. For five long years, Katina Bennett and Charlie Arceneaux lived on opposite sides of that big river. They were like two toy boats in a bathtub that kept floating close together but never touched.In the town of Natchez, Katina spent her days fixing up old wooden furniture. She knew how to polish old tables, fix broken chair legs, and open secret drawers that had been stuck shut for a hundred years. She liked things quiet, neat, and predictable. She kept to herself because it kept her safe.Across the water in Louisiana, Charlie lived on a big, tough steel boat called the Black Bayou. He was strong, quiet, and knew every bend of the murky backwater bayous where ordinary cars and boats could never go. For years, he kept a memory locked in his chest: a pretty girl he had seen laughing near a festival levee three summers ago, whose dropped sunglasses he had placed safely on a park bench. He never got to talk to her before a sudden rainstorm chased everyone away.They visited the same gas stations, ate at the same diners, and looked at the exact same muddy water. They were always just five minutes apart.Then came the midnight storm that smashed Katina's quiet life to pieces, forcing her to run for her life over the big bridge.