A Lifetime

Chapter 3

The next day felt much like a fog. She habitually finished chores around the house. Her walk with Grizzly, her German Shephard, was unconsciously longer than usual. Her energy was lacking but it certainly felt more intentional than sitting about the house suffocated by her thoughts.

She welcomed the fresh air to hopefully clear some of that same fog. It wasn’t really helping though. It did, however, seem to help her thoughts become less foreboding.

She walked into the house, hung up the leash, and immediately called Oliver again. She needed her best friend’s thoughts and input. 

“That was a long time ago dear. Don’t worry about it in the least. I mean, I understand the nerves but do the project, pay off Sophie’s car and then let’s talk about which book you are going to finish for me. Deal?”

His calm demeanor was exactly what she needed at times like this. He was such a great listener. All the while, he paid attention. He knew there was more.

“What are you scared of?” he asked the question that she had already asked herself over and over again already. It was taunting her. She couldn’t answer it. She had closed a chapter of her life so long ago that opening the book to find the pages unchanged seemed recklessly painful. But she wasn’t going to actually open the book. She was going to assist, in a small way, with the sequel to help with a problem without having to deal directly with the main character. She would be the writer of an insignificant scene. An irrelevant scene and then move on to the next script. That’s what she told herself. That’s what she needed to believe. That’s how her writer’s brain coped.

By the end of the day, she was emotionally drained. She needed her muse, more than usual. She steeped her tea bag in her cup, as she always did late in the evening, and carried it to her lake. Her friend would listen every day, if only to her thoughts. It was soothing. Especially tonight. 

It was the blackest dark. This time of year, in the East, it was dark at six o’clock in the evening. But it was after nine, so the stars offered little help against the shroud of night. This night was not just blistering cold, the wind added more depth to its typical bite.

She had wrapped a blanket around her coat as she walked to the chair outside.

She finished one cup earlier than usual. It was cold but that wasn’t why. Her sipping was hypnotic. She took one small sip after another, as each memory crept in. She pushed one away, only to be haunted by the next. His smile. His eyes. The look that no one can replicate. It’s something that few couples share that eludes explanation. It speaks for itself. It spoke for them.   

She went inside, debated on going to sleep but knew she would be staring at the ceiling, so she went back to the coffee maker and poured another cup of hot water and dropped in another tea bag.

She walked back out, defeated, to her seat by the lake. 

She held the cup with one hand now, her other hand touching two fingers to her lips. She was lost in thought somewhere. In another time.

A sound caused her to shift her attention to her left. It was the subtle hum of an engine that appeared to be heading in her direction. This was unusual for this time of night in the winter. Her area wasn’t a main artery for traffic during the summer. Definitely not now. Someone was probably lost. She did have the occasional turnaround for those who didn’t know their way around this enormous lake.

She sat still as the boat approached. It was packed with what had to be close to eight teenagers. There was laughter and screaming. She began to smile at their laughter. She thought of her children. It was a nice distraction.

The smile on her face began to fade as the boat’s engine gave no indication that it was slowing down. It was still revved at the same speed as when it first passed her dock.

There was no doubt now, this boat couldn’t make the turn in this area at that speed. She began to stand and wave her hands...to try to get their attention. It was so dark, and she almost knew it was pointless but sitting there felt helpless.

That’s when it happened. The boat tilted dangerously on its side, and something appeared to roll out into the water. The boat continued to race away as whatever rolled out, lay in the water. It didn’t make a move. Not a sound.

For a fraction of a second, she tried to reason that it couldn’t be a person. “I mean, the boat left,” she thought. It was probably a cooler or someone’s kneeboard. People lose stuff all the time in the lake.

But she couldn’t take the chance that she was wrong. She was to her feet way before she knew it. She was ripping off her clothes as quickly as she could. She knew her clothes would slow her down and could pose as a drowning hazard to herself.

She dove in and began swimming as fast as possible to whatever was motionless in the water, quite a distance from her. As she got closer, her heart sank as deep as the depths now below her. It was a girl. She could see the hair, floating around her head. Her eyes closed. She was on her back, arms stretched out as if subconsciously trying to save herself and float.

Katherine began pulling her, with strength that didn’t exist mere seconds go, towards the shore. That’s when an engine sound could be heard again in the distance. It sounded slightly different from the water, but she knew it was the same engine and it grew louder by the second. It was coming back.

The girl smelt strongly of alcohol and Katherine could only deduce that the boat driver was drinking as well, given his careless driving that caused this accident in the first place.

“What sober driver doesn’t realize you dumped a passenger overboard?” she fumed.

Her fear escalated. Her breathing grew fierce.

She began to swim more quickly. The water felt like ice biting at her. It was well below freezing outside but the fear of the hurt girl had numbed her, to this point, from the pain. Now her thoughts drifted to the boat, heading directly for her. She began to fear the boat as well and her brain began to allow her to make sense of the danger. She also began to feel the cold. It hurt like thousands of stingers at once on every ounce of her body that was below the water’s ledge.

A small light was sweeping back and forth against the water looking for the young girl. The light seemed pointless as it illuminated the side of the boat and not much more.

Katherine was winded and began yelling, “Stop! Over here! Stop!” But the teenagers’ voices all stacked upon each other and along with the engine, even Katherine could barely hear her own pleas. 

They were going to run directly over her and the young girl. The light wasn’t even looking ahead. It was still looking to the side of the boat.

She took a deep breath and dove under the water, pulling the lifeless body of her companion with her. She held onto the hand of the girl while pushing her body down with her other. That’s when it happened. She felt a sharp tearing in her leg. The blade of the propeller sliced horizontally across her right calf as it kicked. She wasn’t sure how badly, but it almost caused her to gasp underwater. She held her mouth tightly with one hand and closed her eyes, for a brief moment, to let the pain settle in. As the pain intensified, so did the fear for the stranger in her grip. The body began to pull her down. This reality forced her to kick through the pain and could now hear the roar of the engine fade, even under the water.

She held the wrist of the girl and began to kick her legs with more effort and pain as she pulled the lifeless body back to the surface. The boat was gone but the aching in her leg was very much present.

“Help!” she screamed. The scream was a welcome release of the pain that now throbbed through her leg. She swam even harder for the shore with her eyes on the girl’s face. She wasn’t looking at the shore, she concentrated on her face. The girl that needed her. 

She yelled “Help” again. It now burned as the air tried to escape from her throat. It sounded raspy and weak, but she continued to yell. Her fear grew that no one else could hear her now. Coughs began accompanying her yells, making her labored breathing even more difficult. Making swimming more and more difficult. 

The fear for the girl kept her fighting to get to shore. As she swam, weakness took over more than her throat. She struggled to keep the girl’s head above water while pulling with her depleting energy. She kept the bend of her arm under the girl’s chin to keep the water out of her mouth. 

The sound may have been there before, she wasn’t sure, but she began to hear a voice. It was distant at first. The more she fought to swim, the closer it got. The louder it was to her. Suddenly her heart almost cried. Someone said her name. 

“Katherine! Are you alright?” she heard while looking towards the sound. Towards the shore. Kyle was running into the water.

“The propeller cut me!” was her answer, not her concern. “The girl, Kyle! She wasn’t breathing when I got to her. Help me pull her in,” she muttered through labored breaths.

Kyle grabbed the young girl under both arms and pulled her to shore. His head turning back frantically, watching Katherine struggle to keep up with him. She fell into the water once and he stopped. “No” was all she said as she slowly stood and continued after him.

The second Kyle lowered the girl to the ground, Katherine began CPR. Kyle ran over to a tree where he had thrown his phone. He began to talk to someone who Katherine determined to be the 911 operator. Kyle was giving more details and was telling Katherine that they would be there in under two minutes. “Everything’s going to be alright,” he promised. Trying to reassure Katherine.

Katherine began praying as she continued with compressions. She would look up to Kyle as she gave breaths to see if his expression was changing to indicate hope or that help was near. That’s when his face quickly turned to the biggest smile she had ever seen. 

She was so methodical in her counting of her compressions that she didn’t notice at first that the girl let out a small gasp. Then she began to cough violently.

Katherine turned her to her side and the girl began to vomit on the ground.

“You’re okay. Everything is going to be okay,” Katherine kept repeating over and over. 

“Kyle, the back door is open to my house” her voice quivering, the words were painfully broken. “Run to the couch and grab every blanket you can find,” she pleaded, knowing her own legs would never carry her now. She had no strength left in her. She collapsed on the ground beside of the girl. She took one arm and put it over the girl to embrace her. Reassuring her that she was not alone.

A beautiful silence began to engulf her. It was fluid in mannerism. Peaceful. The only thing keeping her awake was the violent shaking from her own body. Suddenly, she heard Kyle yelling down to her. She bent her head upwards to see him running towards her with a handful of blankets.

“Thank you!” she said in desperate relief.

Still looking up towards Kyle, she could see men with stretchers running towards them, just a short distance from them now. She could feel the girl breathing under her arm. Her head drifted back down beside the girl’s. The ground was cold and wet but oddly comforting against her exhaustion.

She could feel the warmth of the blankets now. Kyle carefully wrapped her up with the girl.

Strange voices were nearer now.

“Kyle?” 

“I’m here,” he spoke with such loving care.

“Thank you.”

Katherine closed her eyes.

“Katherine!”