Libing

Pondering, the old man gazed at the mountain thicket--no, forest, deep and foreboding. Unusually silent, not even the crickets were speaking. It was punctuated only by the sounds of the rushing river rapids.

He could remember--

"Are you insane?" the eldest lashed out.

The old man was brought back to Earth. The lazy boy was nowhere to be seen, the eldest was grabbing onto something in the river, the clever boy was glancing around frantically, and the polite boy was sprinting downstream.

"Oh God..." the old man thought.

He's fallen into the river.