title: Under A Riverbed Sky
author: Christopher Woods
description: "Christopher Woods is a sensitive, talented writer." -- <i>Horton Foote, Pulitzer and twice Oscar-winning dramatist, from back cover</i><br /><br />"Poetic and mystical...of importance to Texas letters because of the continuing growth of Christopher Woods." -- <i>Texas Books in Review</i><br /><br />"[On the Dream Patch] Reminiscent of...To Kill A Mockingbird." -- <i>The San Antonio Express-News</i>
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  **Renegades of Time by**
  
   **Raymond F. Jones**
  
   **I**
  
  Joe Simmons was lying on his back in a puddle of rainwater.
  
  His vision of the sky was limited by tiers of foliage that ranged up and
  beyond any tree height he had ever known. Beyond his feet a monstrous, twisted
  palm tree seemed to rise forever. Its sharp sword fronds mingled with branches
  of adjacent trees that bore leaves of red and silver. These spread in massive
  sheets to the sky, and occasionally, when their load of rainwater was more
  than they could bear, they twisted gently and dumped gallons of water with an
  enormous splash from their hundred-foot heights.
  
  He raised on his elbows and turned his head to try to bring some familiar
  object within his vision. There was nothing. The rain itself had a sharp sting
  that felt as if it were on the edge of ice, but the air and the trees were
  tropical.
  
  A moment ago he had been on Huntington'