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
