Part 20 (1/2)

The man hesitated, frowning. He looked back ruefully at the flickering TV in his living room. Then he snorted, but he put on a battered fis.h.i.+ng hat and stepped out onto the porch. Hampered by a slight limp, he climbed down the steps and trudged over to the tarp-covered frame that was stacked with canoes. He lifted the tarp and began to ease one of the boats off of its berth.

”Yeah!” Erny cried, leaping around the clearing.

”Do you need help with that?” Tess asked.

”Nope,” said the man. ”Wait down there.”

”Good work, Ma,” Erny whispered as they walked down to the water's edge.

”Thanks,” said Tess. She looked across the lake at the sheltered beach of the campground and the mountain looming behind it. It didn't look too far away and the surface of the lake was indeed calm. But Tess was filled with apprehension.

The old man set the canoe down and went back for paddles and life jackets, at Tess's request.

”Is it all right to row over to that little beach?” Tess asked when he returned.

”Yeah,” said the man. ”It's safe enough. Just avoid the rocks on this side.”

Tess gazed anxiously at the boulders along the water's edge, from which once, long ago, she had seen her brother swing out on a vine, like Tarzan, yodeling his invincibility for the sake of the female onlookers.

”You two know how to paddle this thing, right?”

”Yeah, we know,” Erny a.s.sured the old man.

Tess was not so sanguine. ”You use the J stroke, right?” She remembered the term from their trip with Jake.

”Or you can take a stroke and just pry your paddle against the hull.”

”Come on, let's go,” Erny cried impatiently, picking up their plastic bag of lunch and jumping into the back of the boat.

”You go on up in the bow. Let your mother sit in the stern, sonny.”

Erny did as he was told.

”All right then,” the old man said to Tess. ”Get in. I'll hand you the paddles.”

Erny settled himself on the bow seat. The man tried to hand him a small paddle, but Erny insisted he could manage the big one. The man shrugged and handed him the larger paddle. Tess did not want to discourage him, even though the paddle looked like a bit much for him to handle. Tess took the other paddle and sat in the stern. Despite Erny's protestations, Tess insisted that they both put on their life jackets. The old man handed them each a stained, frayed orange vest, which looked as if it would sink immediately on contact with water.

”What's in the bag?” the old man asked.

”Our lunch,” said Erny proudly.

”It's gonna get all wet.”

Too late, Tess realized he was right. Dawn had tried to talk her into taking a cooler, but she had been in a hurry and wanted to travel light.

”We don't care,” Erny a.s.sured the man. ”Let's go, Mom.”

Tess gripped her paddle firmly as the man gave the canoe a push and the boat glided out onto the surface of the lake. The perimeter of the lake was lined with evergreens and gray-barked trees with branches almost completely denuded of leaves. The mountains loomed up on the other side of the lake, outlined against the sky by ragged pines. The lake was silvery gray and quiet but for the sound of bird calls and the occasional splash of a fish leaping and then falling back into the water. Erny looked all around him with an expression of innocent delight on his face and for one moment Tess was very happy that she had not been deterred from this by her fears. She let them glide for a little bit, until they were away from the sh.o.r.e and then she dipped her paddle into the placid water.

Even though she stroked and lifted her paddle as best she could in the prescribed J motion, the canoe began to veer a little bit. ”Erny,” she said. ”You'd better help me paddle.”

”Oh yeah,” the boy said, turning around and rocking the canoe beneath them. He reached for his paddle, which was under the seat behind him. He pulled it loose, stuck it in the water, and promptly lost his grip. The paddle sailed out into the lake. ”Ma, oh no. Look.” He started to lean over the side to try to reach it.

”Erny, sit down,” Tess cried. ”You're going to capsize the boat.”

”My paddle!” he yelled.

”Just sit still. I'll try to catch up with it.” Tess's heart was pounding. This was exactly the sort of mishap she had feared would occur. Every time she lifted the paddle from the water and moved it across her body, their lunch was splashed with water. The boat responded to her frantic paddling with jerky, uneven movements. Erny gazed anxiously at his escaping paddle, which seemed to be setting out on its own journey. ”Come on, Ma,” he insisted. ”We have to catch it.”

”I know,” she said, her forearms already aching. ”I'm trying to.”

”Come on, you've almost got it,” he cried.

Tess managed, with one final push, to get them close to the paddle. Using her own paddle as a hook, she extended it out and managed to snag the wide end and guide it toward the canoe. As the paddle came near, Erny leaned out again.

”Erny, don't...”

But before she could tell him to stop, he managed to grab the handle and jerk it toward him, over the side of the canoe. The dripping paddle teetered and then fell into the boat.

”All right,” Ernie crowed.

Tess lifted her paddle back into the boat and exhaled. She let them slowly drift for a moment. The beach, which had seemed so close, now looked to be a daunting distance away. And there were the rocks to think of. What if they were hiding below the surface and she accidentally rammed the boat into them?

”I don't know, Erny,” she said. ”I'm not sure we should go all the way over to the beach.”

”It's not far,” Erny said.

”It is when you don't know what you're doing,” said Tess.

”But you promised we could...”

Tess felt as if all her shaky confidence had slipped away with the paddle. ”Stop, Erny, please. I know what I said, but-”

”Ma, look,” Erny cried, wide-eyed and pointing to the sh.o.r.e. Tess peered at the trees and was about to ask him what she was supposed to be looking for, when suddenly she saw and understood. Standing still at the edge of the water, gazing out at them, was a large, s.h.a.ggy moose with mild eyes and rounded antlers.

”Do you see it, Ma?” he cried.

”I do,” said Tess. ”It's amazing.”

”Hey, Mr. Moose,” Erny called out.

”Quiet, you'll scare him,” said Tess. But she was smiling, both at the unexpected sight of the moose and her son's joy at having picked him out from the camouflaging surroundings.

”Man. Wait till I tell Jonah,” said Erny and Tess realized that, even at this exciting moment, he was thinking of home. He was not the only one.

”Can we get closer?” Erny asked.