October 2 2018

Wow! October 1st just slid right past me.

Episode 7

Wakaw

We were up at the cabin at Wakaw Lake for the annual Matlock reunion. It's Deanie and I along with her brother and two sisters and their counterparts. We had enjoyed an evening of culinary delights and merriment. We retired for the evening, I sleep in the upper bunk in the kids room. They say I get it because I'm the only one who can climb the ladder to get in, but I think it has more to do with me being the only one who can sleep with the ceiling two inches from his nose.

I woke early in the morning, it might have been the spider squeezing between the ceiling and my nose that woke me. It had rained hard the night before, so I went out to smell the clean, fresh air. The stairway at the end of the deck led down to the path to the lake. It was one of those steep paths that has little foot steps dug in  to keep you from falling. I hadn't noticed the rain had caused a bit of a slide and had filled the foot steps in. It was no longer a path, it was now a mud slide, or, I should say mud slick because it was fast. How do I know it was fast? Well, because my eyes were still in that early morning sand paper on the inside of your eyelid stage I didn't have them fully open when I took that first step.  Not only that, the predawn darkness hid unknown dangers. I landed on my back in a slick coating of mud and away I went. I immediately went into concussion protocol which was tucking my chin into my chest to keep the back of my head safe. That kind of sped my descent. You know those weeds you try to pull and you can't loosen them to save your life. There weren't any of them on the way down. I was hoping for the best as I rocketed downward. The path ended at the boat dock, I would slide to a stop there. Not so. The dock had a layer of frost on it, it's like I gained speed when I hit it. I went off the end like a frisbee sailing out over the water, I think I even skipped a couple times just to get me out a few more yards. I finally slowed down about thirty yards from shore, which for a non swimmer, might as well be to the moon. I did what any aqua phobic would do, I panicked. I was flailing like mad but never moved an inch. I saw my life pass before me...over the years I had seen it a few times, so it was like a rerun. I started thinking about my funeral, the kids would show up, that would be nine, if Deanie's siblings came that would be an even dozen, that would be enough. I thought of the swim instructor's words at the university pool when my ass came to rest on the bottom of the pool after she taught me to relax. "Some bodies are more buoyant than others".  Just as I was thinking, " I'm a little reluctant to go just yet". There it was, a bright light, the light at the end of the tunnel, already? Oh. Wait, it's just the sun rising over the horizon. Ok, so if I sink to the bottom and shoot myself upward and forward I could gain a yard or two, if I could do that twenty times I should be to shore. I quit flailing and sunk, like a rock I might add, my feet hit ground, I stood up, I was only in four feet of water. Maybe it wasn't quite 30 yards. Turns out the lake is pretty shallow. I walked to shore.

High on life.

Loved