RADFORD, Va. -- Jan. 6, 1978. It is 6:05 a.m.

Vinton Lineberry is lying on his back, though how he got there he can't remember. His wispy consciousness is drifting like smoke in a hollow. The world around him is vague and silent, its only point of reference the winter sky above. He fixes his mind on the iron-bellied clouds, waiting for time and place to mend. And then Lineberry realizes that moments before there had been a roof overhead, but now it is gone.