Mallard Lake
by
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Lucas?” “Lucas! You in there?” There was only silence from the house, the peculiar mating call of a pair of loons on Mallard Lake, and the wind in the trees. He was here, Annie was sure. His car was in the carport in front of the house. She left the front step, her arms holding her jacket tight against her chest to ward off the wind from the lake in front of her she went around back. Lucas’ boat was at the dock. She shrugged. Maybe he fell asleep reading or walking in the woods to the east of the house. He often did one or the other this time of day. She looked up and saw only a wisp of smoke from the chimney. It wasn’t like him to have such a small fire on a raw windy day like this, she thought as she walked back to her car. Just then the front door opened. “What?” Lucas shouted. “I wanted to see if you were all right.” “Why?” “I always do on my way home, Lucas. Have you eaten yet?” “No. Still afternoon.” “Getting to be that time. Were you sleeping?” Annie asked as she walked toward him smiling and eyed his rumpled flannel shirt and wrinkled khaki trousers. “Is that why you don’t have your shoes on?” Lucas looked down at his feet and feigned surprised at the absence of his shoes. Annie smiled as he wiggled his toes and stared at his socks. “I must have taken’em off in the kitchen.” “Why?” “Not sure.” Annie smiled, “Never mind. Do you want something to eat?” “Aw, I’m not hungry yet. Why’d you come anyway?” Annie shrugged, “I’m here most everyday Lucas, remember? Just came by to say hello and see if you needed anything.” “Yes, yes, I remember, so, no I’m okay then, and hello. You okay?” “I’m fine.” “Where’s your mother?” “Claire’s home in Iron River. Donnie went shopping with her today after work.” “Oh.” “Like I said Lucas,” Annie said patiently, still smiling as she came up on the small front porch now and stood next to him, “I’m on my way home from work. You know, over at the State Park.” “I guess I knew that. You go on. I’ll eat later when it gets dark.” “It doesn’t get dark before dinner. It’s after five now. You sure you don’t want anything?” “No. Go on and find…what’s his name? Donnie? Eat with him.” “You should eat now Lucas.” “Just leave me be. I’ll eat when I get hungry like I always do. You don’t need to drive all this way to make sure I eat.” “It’s on my way home.” “Go there then. I need to be alone now,” Lucas said with some agitation as he waved and turned back to the door, “go on home and get your own dinner,” he continued as he moved back inside, leaving her standing on the porch as he closed the door. Annie looked at the door and smiled again. It was the second time this week he’d left her there. She knew he wasn’t angry. It was just the way he was sometimes. She didn’t know why. He was frustrating to talk to when he was like this, yet her mother wanted her to stop on her way home from work to be sure he was all right, so she did. Mostly he was pleasant and they would talk for a bit. She enjoyed him when he was like that but there were days like this too. Finally, she shook back her long streaked blonde hair and shrugged, knowing she’d never understand unless he said why and he wasn’t likely. She went down the path to her car, and drove back down the gravel road to reach the highway and her rented house in Watersmeet.
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About the Book
Lucas Grundy tires of the larger world he’s lived in for over thirty years where he was so successful and has sought relief for a summer in the place he was born—the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Its sparse population, woods, wildlife, and lakes provide an escape, a peacefulness to think of what he wants to do with the rest of his life. To his surprise, he finds that the place offers him surcease from his complicated life, a place to live now in the contemplation he seeks. He moves to the edge of Mallard Lake, a place of solitude, good fishing, and abundant wildlife. It is also a place of violent weather, brutal winters, and long idyllic summer days that provide escape from the aggravations that drive his migraines and the discontent of his second marriage. He finds here too, Annie Fallon, twenty years his junior, the daughter of his late father’s companion, who is as displaced as he is and who, after caring for her dying mother, needs to escape the harsh life and her loneliness on “the Upper” and get back to the world Lucas has left behind. Lucas helps her grieve and find a new life in the larger world. While he does, they form an uncommon love for each other. Annie’s need to leave and Lucas’s need to stay makes her leaving emotionally difficult and confusing for both.
About the Author
Michael W. Burns served as a Naval Aviator after graduation from Saint Michael’s College in Vermont. He worked in a variety of staff capacities for Committees and Members of the United States Senate for 12 years before joining the Veteran’s Administration Healthcare System in San Diego, California, as an Administrative Assistant to the Director and then to the Chief Medical Officer. Since 2001, he has traveled and written extensively about the United States and Canada. Michael has authored four previous books. His first book was a non-fiction account of the first of his more than 250,000 miles of solo trips in a recreational vehicle across the United States and Canada, He has created three works of fiction. Into the Blue Far Distance, published in 2002, chronicled his trip. Sunset House, his first work of fiction was published in 2010, the second, The Two Worlds of Harry Logan in 2013, and the sequel, The Transformation of Harry Logan in 2014.