The Last Concert

The band played on as the bandstand sank into the lake. One last show, by the light of headtorches and battery-powered lanterns: the warden, as angry as anyone, would have let them play regardless, but there was a general will to spare him the trouble. When their boots were full of water and mud and unfunded splinters, they waded out, instruments held over their heads like rifles. There was one final round of applause, barely heard over the cracking of timber.