Cyril — Raymond Hunter Pyle

The people of Boone's Branch Landing are intrigued by the arrival of their newest resident. A self-effacing young man, tall and gangly, and ready with a smile or a blush, wouldn't normally stand out in a community of simple mountain folks. But Cyril practices meditation, unusual enough in the mountains, and has a strange awareness that goes well beyond what his eyes can see. Mountain folk are not put off by spiritual gifts, though. After all, there's more than heaven and earth.
Bill and Elly Maybe are charmed by Cyril's bashful ways and become his friends and landlords. Shelly, their daughter, a late blooming tomboy and of an age with Cyril, sees beyond Cyril's blushing innocence and recognizes something special and new.
The Landing, as the valley is known to natives, is a troubled place when Cyril arrives. There is love there, but there are also wisps of coldness and virulent shadows. As Cyril searches the place in his mind he calls “the stream,” he senses a beginning in the Landing -- and an end.