The Reluctant Pawn

He woke the next morning feeling terrible, it was 6:00 a.m. and he knew there was no use in trying to go back to sleep.  He needed some coffee bad.  He got up and proceeded to pull the camp stove out of the back of the Jeep.  He got some water boiling and added some instant coffee.  It wasn’t the best tasting coffee, but then again he wasn’t drinking it for the flavor.

The sun had already risen over the horizon, but there was still a chill in the air.  He sat in his chair for a while drinking cup after cup of coffee.  He was staring down at the lake, which was as tranquil as it had ever been.  It resembled a mirror more than a lake.  A perfect reflection was cast onto it by every tree at its edges and by every cloud in the sky.  He noticed how sunlight seemed to be captured in the dew that had formed on the grass overnight, bright little bulbs of dew twinkling here and there. 

His thoughts suddenly changed from the serene surroundings to the events of last night.  He stood up and with coffee in hand walked over to the fire pit.  He dreaded thinking about what could happen at Horseshoe Bay, but he wanted to keep the promise to his brother.  Although his curiosity was peeked, he had no intention of staying another night. He just wanted to get it over with and try to get his life back to normal.

He took his time packing up. Before he knew it, it was 11:30 in the morning.

He made his way over to where the boat was at the edge of the lake.  He pushed the boat into the water, which now had only the occasional small ripple of wind blown waves streaking across its surface. 

He rowed his way, all the while thinking about the times he and his father and brother had shared on the lake. He remembered the first time his father had paddled the boys out to Horseshoe Bay in a canoe.  Their father would only let them use cane poles for fishing, which only allowed them to fish 4 feet on either side of the boat.  With worms on their lines, the boys plunked their lines in the water.  The first hour went by and not even a nibble.  Nothing could have been worse for kids the ages of 12 and 8. 

Suddenly Mark’s pole was just about yanked out of his hands.  “Holy shit!” Mark cried.  The front end of the canoe was starting to swing around in the other direction.  It was obviously a very large fish.  As their father fumbled for the net, Michael lifted his line out of the water, not knowingly placing his hook (worm still attached) on his father’s back.  As his father leaned back from grabbing the net, he felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder.  “Son of a bitch,” he said while gritting his teeth.  He grabbed the pole out of Michael’s hand and proceeded to snap the line.

 Meanwhile, Mark was still struggling with the fish, which was still pulling the canoe around pretty good.  All this activity in the canoe was like being in an earthquake that registered 8.5 on the Richter scale.  Mark was obviously having trouble holding the pole.  “Give me the pole,” said their father. 

As Mark started to lean past Michael to hand him the fishing pole, their father also leaned to that side of the canoe to take the fishing pole. Michael moved all the way to the right side of the canoe and sat on the edge. With the two larger males leaning to the other side, the canoe tipped slightly more to the left. Just as his brother was about to hand the pole off Mark went rolling out of the canoe.  It was like slow motion to Michael as he watched his brother’s eyes widen at the realization he was going overboard.  Mark had started to scream, but the sound of his voice quickly ended as he completely submerged below the water. 

Almost simultaneously their father was reaching for Mark as he went into the water.  He too was now going head first into the water. (Not exactly by choice.)  Both boys had lifejackets on and Mark was sure to pop back up to the surface in a few seconds, but instinct had taken over. Their father just reacted in that split second without having time to think about the consequence of his actions. 

Having seen his father now enter the water almost completely, Michael could feel a smile coming to his face. The smile was quickly replaced by a slight grimace.  He realized shortly after seeing his father enter the water that the canoe had begun to pitch the other way, due to the weight loss on the other side of the canoe. 

Before he could even think of how to regain his balance, he felt his head entering the water on the other side of the canoe.  He could see his feet pointing skyward. Suddenly everything was black. His eyes had involuntarily closed upon entry. He couldn’t really hear anything other than the sound of air bubbles rushing past him on their way to the surface.