Heartache on Sable Lake – Part 3

Dear blog friends, – This is the 3rd installment of my short story. In the previous two pieces, a couple puts their canoe into Sable Lake on what looks like a calm and beautiful day for canoeing. Then the wind picks up and the decision is made to turn back across a lake that is increasingly choppy. Your comments and reactions are so, so welcome. Anything you say will make this a better story.

“Okay? I’m going to turn the canoe around.” Max had already decided on a course of action. The smartest thing to do was to assume the wind would pick up even more and getting back would get tougher. Better to start back to the boat ramp now.

            “Yeah. Let’s go.” Diane was reluctant but ready. She tucked her feet under the seat so she could lean into paddling. Max maneuvered the canoe around to face the other side of the lake and they started. She paddled right, he paddled left, adjusting to keep them on course. It felt okay. A little choppy but not bad. The canoe cut through the water and they moved quickly. It was a weird thing, though, going across the lake versus going along the shore. No matter how fast they went, the shore seemed the same distance away until they got very close. At least when they paddled along the shore, they could mark their progress with trees and other landmarks passed.

            “How do you think we’re doing?” Diane yelled back at Max. By now, maybe ten minutes into their crossing, the wind had gotten stiffer and small, steady, waves were hitting them on the port side. Diane started to worry about capsizing. It was ridiculous, she knew that a wide solid canoe like theirs doesn’t flip over because of some five-inch waves, but still she worried and wished that they could head right into the waves instead of moving alongside them. She didn’t tell Max she was getting scared. He knew that. They’d done this crossing before in tougher weather. When she’d tell her friends about having to turn around because the weather turned, they wondered why they’d set out in the first place. You never know up here in the U.P., she’d tell them. The weather’s different here, everything’s different. Unpredictable.

            “We’re going to have to pull harder.” Max yelled. “Pull hard when I call.”

            When Max called “Right” Diane took a long hard paddle. In between the “Rights” she knew Max was paddling left in the back. They moved well although the bow started to skip on the waves which were now much higher.

            “It feels tippy, Max!” Now she was getting scared. They were square in the middle of a lake that was nearly a mile across. They both had life preservers on. That was good. And they both could swim. Still, it was October and the water was cold, soon to ice over-cold. The thought of the canoe flipping terrified her. She couldn’t tell if Max was terrified. She couldn’t afford to look back to see.

            She yelled into the wind. “Max! What’s happening? Do you think we can make it? Should we turn back?” It was a stupid question. There was no point in turning back – it was the same distance to either shore. There was no answer from behind her. She assumed he couldn’t hear her with the wind so she turned her head just the slightest bit to yell again.

            Max had fallen forward, his head on the canoe bottom, his arms flopped at his sides, his paddle wedged under his chest and sticking up in the air.

            “MAX!!” Diane turned around in her seat while the canoe bucked in the waves. “MAX!! What’s going on? What’s happening? MAX!!” Now, the waves and the wind started to toss the canoe. Diane leaned back in her seat and tried to reach him, but he was too far away. She used her paddle to prod him, poking his side as gently as she could. “Max. What is it, Max?” There was no response.

Max laid in a heap at the back of the canoe. Diane sat in her seat while the canoe moved this way, then that. Her heart banged in her chest. He couldn’t be dead. Maybe he passed out from dehydration. That happens to people. Or maybe he had a heart attack or a stroke. Something. But he couldn’t be dead.