Mountain Lake

The twin cousins and I decided to take out the fishing boat to Pine Mountain Lake without permission.

The engine died in the middle of the lake and cell-phones were still relatively new, so naturally we had none. We attempted to use the ores to get back to the dock, but one of the cousins dropped the ore in the water and it floated away.

Thinking fast, I jumped into the lake to retrieve the ore.

I failed to assess that my twin cousins were not strong enough to pull me back into the boat after I got the ore. They cried and thought I was going to drown. I assured them I was a good swimmer and would get back on my own.

The twins settled down and tried to coordinate rowing the boat back to the dock. They bickered and whined, shouting at me that they couldn’t do it and finally broke down crying again.

I had to think fast to quiet them down and get the boat back before the adults figured anything out.

Yelling at one of the twins, I told them to toss me the dock rope. I tried pulling myself into the boat, but I wasn’t strong enough. I told them I would swim and pull the boat behind me.

The twins thought I was crazy and kept asking me not to die trying to save them.

“We could just scream and the grown-ups will come?” One twin offered.

I grunted pulling the rope, coughing out water as I pushed my legs under water, “Oh yeah and then be grounded the entire time? Nope!”

It felt like we moved at snail speed, but I could see progress across as the trees and other docks moved past and behind me. I had jumped in fully clothed, so my flare jeans and shoes weighed me down quite a bit. I unzipped my jeans and tossed them into the boat, along with my shoes.

At first, the twins cheered me on, but within a few minutes they became bored and started asking how much longer it would take.

“Seriously?” I garbled from the surface of the water.

I had been pushing, slowly, with my legs forever and tugging the boat across after every surge of my legs. I was breathless. My chest heaved with every stroke. The adults were still across the street at another house for a good while. I had time.

I felt something graze my leg. I thought it was seaweed. A fish? Northern! A Northern Pike! It looked like a monster of the deep. A water dinosaur that never evolved beyond its habitat. It's shiny scales reflected up through the water. I saw its razor like teeth, it appeared to be smiling at me from below. My instinct took over and I yelped, inhaling a bunch of water. I lost my focus and the rope, as the water poured down into my throat. I had to think fast. My mind screamed, "Grab something!" My hands stopped slapping the surface and searched the dark water, my eyes opened and saw the gritty shadow of the boat rope. I reached, wrapping my fingers around it. The eerie long form of the Northern gazed at me from below the boat. It was big, almost taking up the girth of the boat under water. Its eyes glittering. My eyes burned from the water. I pulled myself to the surface. I coughed, hacked and practically threw up a bunch of lake water.

The twins cried and became angry with me asking me if I meant to drown.

I held the rope and rolled my eyes as I let my breathing return to normal.

Hopefully, the Northern had lost interest and swam away. What does a Northern eat? Fish. They eat fish and not humans. I kept swimming, slowly. Or do they?

The twins started choral singing a song with hand clapping in the boat. It was annoying, but maybe the sound would keep the Northern away.

What a terrifying creature. It looked like something from the dinosaur age.

The dock was much closer than before. My hands ached from holding the rope, my arms were tired from treading the water. My legs felt like jelly from pushing the water behind me.

I took a big sigh. Relief was near.

I felt a surge of pain in my right thigh. I yelped and let the rope go. Grabbing for my leg under the water, I felt the slime and scales of a big fish. It was the Northern. The pain radiated up into my stomach. The Northern thrashed and whipped itself back and forth below the surface. My whole body went with it. I forgot to tread water and felt myself slip beneath the surface with the monster. The Northern had a lock grip on my thigh. It's tiny razor teeth were gouged into my flesh. Blood started oozing from my skin and spreading into the water. I could hear the cousins screaming above water. Their appearances were wavy from under the surface.

As we both sank to the darkness of the lake, I pushed my fingers in between the razor blade teeth and pulled the jaws of the monster off my thigh. The Northern thrashed again. The razor blade teeth cut open the tops of my fingertips and sank deeper into my thigh. More blood. More burning. The burn carried throughout my body. My vision blurred and started to sting, either from the lake water, blood or both.

I felt my instinct to open my mouth to breath. If I did, only water would enter and I would drown. My last thoughts would be of pain. The light from the surface was almost none existent.

One more try.

I clasped my hands together into a fist and brought down force to the Northern's head. With the force to its skull, I felt the grip of teeth loosen, then it thrashed and locked its jaw once again.

I was tired from swimming. I needed to breath. I could barely see anything. My energy was wavering.

Find that energy. Now.

I brought my clasped hands down against the skull one more time. The Northern lost its grip off my thigh. I grabbed its side and gave it another blow. It thrashed in my arms. My body whipping back and forth. My leg pulsing blood into the lake with every bash. I gave the Northern another blow. Then another. I kept going until the Northern's blood started to mix with mine.

It stopped moving. I let its lifeless body go. It seeped into the darkness of Mountain Lake. The Mountain Lake swallowed the monster.

My lungs were going to burst.

I kicked to the surface. Kicking and feeling the water entering my open wound. Feeling the pain, but knowing I was alive. My knuckles stung from the blows.

My cousins yelled in excitement as I broke the surface.

They noticed the water had changed colors.

I didn't want to scare them.

I told them I was on my period.

They asked why I went underwater.

I told them I was caught on seaweed.

The cousins believed me.

After much gasping and pushing under the water, I pulled the boat in towards the dock on the muddy lake floor. I heaved a big sigh, grateful for having my feet on solid ground. The twins jumped out and kissed the dock. Then they ran up the dock towards our cabins, leaving me behind.

Two older boy cousins stood near the hill staring at me then laughing. I was confused at first. I had just survived a literal attack from a monster. I realized I had removed my pants in the water and never put them back on.

I guess there were worse things that could happen, like drowning without your pants on.