The Last Summer of the Chain Ferry
by Lorvoker
Romance
Ilinca has hauled the hand-winched chain ferry across a reed channel of the Danube delta since she was fourteen, and this is its last summer: upstream, a concrete bridge is rising, and its engineer, Tomas, rides her ferry twice a day for what he calls the only honest view of his work. The morning he leaves a pencil sketch of her on the bench, with a contract for his next bridge in Lisbon tucked inside, the village is about to vote on the ferry's fate — and whatever Ilinca chooses, something she loves stops running.