The koi had been his wife’s idea, “Something peaceful,” she’d said when they first dug the pond together. She’d wanted color and life outside the kitchen window. After she passed, he kept them for her. The house creaked in familiar ways, the pond shimmered under the same light. Even the wind seemed to know its place.
That morning started the same way it always did until Walter noticed movement beyond his kitchen window. Across the field that bordered his property, three men were walking the land. They didn’t look like farmers or surveyors.