When Marco wishes to show us something, he sometimes tells us to make a picnic. It is cold, so Juliet and I spent time in the kitchen in the sharp light of the morning sun. I filled the big thermos from the pot of white bean soup spiked with savory, and the small one with strong coffee laced with warm cream. Juliet had risen early to bake small rolls and a thin sweet cake with apricots, and she wrapped them in towels to sit in the basket on top of a plate of cold meats.

Marco has taken us to the lake.

There are other lakes up in the hills, but Marco tells us this is the best of them, and I am given to believe him. The lake is clear, tucked under with a watery green, settled into a shallow valley that is mostly trees. The clouds have all been chased away, and the sky is a perfect vault of unbroken blue. It is colder still up here, but the wind is mercifully absent, and the sun is strong. We are taking our picnic on a small rocky shoal that spills out of the trees and into the lake. For all our bundling, we are a little cold, and I am careful to open the thermos. The soup steams within, and once we eat a bit we are all right.

The ground is strewn with flat round rocks, and I send one over the smooth surface of the water. Juliet is interested; she has not seen this before. I warm my hands on my coat and take hers in mine, showing her to place the stone against the fleshy join of the thumb to the hand, and to curl her forefinger around the edge to find good purchase. I make the motion with my wrist and arm, and she mimes it, testing flexibilities.

Her body finds the throw, and her arm reaches out, her wrist letting the rock sing free and spin toward the water. The stone splashes true and comes up true again, and again, and still again. It marches from us in a gentle leaning curve, stepping into the water to leap free, perhaps unhappy with the temperature. By the time it slows to nestle into the water and sink from sight, it is a long way away, and I have lost count. Juliet is clapping, and resting on her toes.

"Ah," Marco says, taking a pull from his coffee and sitting on a rock, comfortable in the sun. "I have always wished it to be able to do that."