When the dogwoods bloom overnight and the oaks wake one morning with a full complement of leaves, spring has come to the Tidewater section of Virginia. Shad roe, orange and milky, appears on ice in the fish markets, and there are rumors of bluefish running out by the third island of the Chesapeake Bay. Men pull their boats from storage and run their outboard motors in barrels of fresh water. The engines sputter the true hymn of spring, sending clouds of smoke wafting over the neighborhoods, where the children are beginning to emerge from a winter of ice storms.