The Lake

Ellie was cold. Colder than she had ever been. She hurried through the snow, but it was hard work. When her cousin, Mary-Anne, had asked if she wanted to go for a walk, this hadn’t been what she was expecting. Without warning, Ellie’s foot tripped on something unseen in the snow, and she landed, face first, in the soft powder. The shock of the cold and wet snow on her bare face caused her to suck in a sharp breath.

“Keep up, slowpoke!” Mary Ann called back to her. She was very far ahead.

Didn’t she see me fall? Ellie wondered. Raising herself out of the snow and onto her knees, Ellie looked around. The forest was beautiful, she had to admit that. In the morning light, the bare trees stood silhouetted in shadow, like bony soldiers marching over the hills to the water. Ellie stood up and began dusting off the borrowed snowsuit with her mittened hands.

“Stupid snowsuit. Stupid Boots. Stupid Vermont.” Ellie grumbled. She looked down to where she had fallen. There was a perfect impression of her head and shoulders in the snow. Where her head had landed, a small red stain marred the pristine sparkling white.

“Shit.” Ellie checked over her shoulder reflexively to see if anyone had heard her use a swear word. She pulled off her mitten and gingerly touched her face. Her cheeks seemed frozen, and she knew that if she could see herself in a mirror, they would be chapped and red. She touched her lip. When she pulled her hand away to check, it was smeared with blood.

“Shit.” She said again.

She leaned to the side and spat streams of bright red. The blood fell in ribbons and splatters across the snow. Gross, but kind of pretty, she thought. She put her mitten back on and pulled her hair away from her face. She spat three more times to be sure the blood was all out of her mouth. When she looked up, the small figure in the pale blue jacket she had been following through the woods had disappeared.

“Mary Ann, wait! Wait for me! I’m coming!” Ellie called as loud as she could. The spot where Mary Ann had disappeared was a path through the dark wood. “Why couldn’t we have visited in the summer?” she grumbled as she started running down the path, more carefully this time.

I should have stayed at the house, Ellie thought as she followed Mary Ann’s small footprints. The trees seemed to lean into Ellie as she walked.

Why didn’t she wait for me? I know she heard me – there’s no way she didn’t.

Mary Ann had been so excited to show Ellie the lake. Ellie had been woken up at 7 am to 12-year-old Mary Ann bouncing on the fold-out bed.

“It’s soooo pretty El, you really have to come and see! It’s not far. There are icebergs and swans, and – come on!” Mary Ann’s long blond hair framed her small oval face. Ellie smiled at her little cousin.

“Okay – one second, Mary Ann, let me ask my mom.” Ellie had secretly hoped her mother would forbid this adventure for some reason. The news said the high today was going to be thirty degrees. To Ellie, this sounded like an excellent reason to absolutely not leave the comfort of her aunt’s cat, warm fire, and squishy chairs. But, her mother and her aunt both cheerfully agreed, excited for the girls to have an adventure.

“Have fun! Stay away from the lake!” Ellie’s mom called after the girls as they left.

That had been almost an hour ago. How freaking long is this path? Ellie thought as she rounded another bend. The trail was well defined and packed slick by cross country skiers. Ellie found that lucky since snowdrifts piled almost halfway up the trees.

Making her way through a close stand of birch trees, Ellie emerged onto a snowy beach and her breath caught in her throat. Freezing wind painted lakes in the snow and dusted up sparkling white dunes. The morning sun rose over the grey water, bathing the beach in warm orange and pink light. Ellie imagined the snow was glitter, being shaken down from the heavens by a crafty giant. Shallow waves washed up under the frozen lake, and little icebergs cluttered up in spaces. Ellie made her way over to Mary Ann. She was crouched down and picking through a pile of bone-white driftwood. She turned and smiled at Ellie. All at once, Ellie was grateful she had come; she just wished she had brought her camera.

“Ha, okay, Mary Ann,” Ellie said, “you were right. This place is beautiful! What’s that you have there?” Ellie gestured toward the small stick Mary Ann was holding behind her back.

“Oh, just a pretty stick, see?” She held up the stick to show her cousin.

“Yeah, very pretty!” Ellie took the stick and examined it a little closer. Small holes and divots that crisscrossed all over the branch. It reminded Ellie of looking out the airplane window down at some of the big cities they had flown over to visit.

“Hey, Mary Ann, do you know what insect does this?” she looked up from examining the stick, but Mary Ann was halfway down the beach. That girl, Ellie thought.

“Mary Ann, our moms said to stay away from the water!” she called into the wind, her words only going an inch or two in front of her face before they were swept away. “Mary Ann!” she dropped the stick and started running towards her. She could see Mary Ann starting out into the lake, one booted foot on a nearby iceberg. The ebb and flow of the lake’s movement cause the little ice raft to bob slightly against the beach. Mary Ann looked back over her shoulder at Ellie, flashed a smile, then put her second food onto the iceberg. She stood, arms out in a T, balancing on the bobbing ice.

Ellie sprinted the last few yards and yanked her cousin off of the ice. “What is wrong with you! You could have fallen in!” Mary Ann had started to cry. “Mary Ann, look, I’m sorry I grabbed you, okay? You can’t do that though, it’s way too dangerous. Calm down, we are okay, alright?” Ellie tried to bring Mary Ann in for a hug, but the little girl pushed her away.

“No! Look, you made me drop Roger!” Mary Ann was pointing at the lake and sobbing. Just beyond the iceberg she had balanced on, there was a small brown form in the water.

Ellie looked to Mary Ann, “Roger, your bear?” she asked.

“Yes! I got him from my dad…… he gave him to me right before…” the before hung in the air around the girls like a fog. Ellie did not want Mary Ann to start talking about before or about her dad. If she started to get upset, she wasn’t sure she could find her way back to the house alone.

“Okay, I’ll get him, alright? Shhh… Shhh… Mary Ann, it’s okay!” Ellie said. Mary Ann’s cries had become a wail of grief and frustration. Ellie tried to hold her cousin up as the strength seemed to leave the little girl’s legs, and she collapsed onto the snow.

“Damn it,” Ellie said to herself. “Mary, I’ll get him, okay? Don’t move.” Ellie rose up from the crouched position she had been in while consoling Mary Ann. How am I going to do this? She thought. The bear was behind the largest iceberg, but crushed ice and slush lined the space between shore and the hunk of ice. Ellie didn’t want to get her boots wet but couldn’t figure out how to get over any other way. Mary Ann’s cries were still increasing in volume and urgency. Ellie bit her bottom lip and stepped into the water.

The boots she had borrowed kept her surprisingly dry, but she could feel the weight and cold of the water surrounding her foot and ankle almost immediately. Balling her fists in determination, she pushed off with her wet foot and hopped onto the iceberg. She immediately threw her arms out to the side to steady herself. The water was deeper here than she had expected, and looking down, she could barely see the rocks and grasses at the bottom of the lake. She risked a glance back to shore and saw Mary Ann had stopped crying completely. The little girl was staring, watching Ellie with her massive grey eyes, the exact grey of the lake. Mary Ann’s eyes, once so warm now, seemed depthless.

A large wave jostled Ellie’s iceberg, bringing her attention back to the lake. I’m just going to grab the thing and get out of here, she thought. In just a few short minutes, the two of them could be back at the house, warm by the fire. Ellie would have to work on Mary Ann though, there’s no way their parents could find out she went in the water. They would ask why, and almost every explanation would lead to Ellie admitting lost track of her cousin and found her standing in the water.

Ellie performed an experimental slide step to the left, inching her way closer to the bear. His green bow was caught on the ice edge, and his black plastic eyes looked up at her from under the water. Poor thing, she thought to herself. She risked another sidestep and then another. Looking into the water, it seemed the only thing below was blackness. One more step, she thought, she slid her foot out again, and at once, the iceberg flipped upside down, taking Ellie with it.

The shock of the water on her bare face and neck was so severe, she felt her heart stop. Her eyes bulged in the frozen water. Panicking, she began scrabbling at the underside of the blue translucent ice. Still, her mittens kept her from finding a handhold. Treading water and holding her breath as best as she could, she ripped off her mittens and let them float into the depths below. She felt along the ice for a seam, some kind of purchase somewhere, and finally, she found the edge. The air was burning in her chest now, and her shoes and snowsuit were becoming so heavy. She grabbed to the side of the ice as tight as she could and pulled herself up just enough to take a breath.

Looking around, she realized the shore was now behind her. She spun and screamed for Mary Ann. But she was there, right where she had been. Her grey eyes unmoving, her face blank.

“Mary Ann – please, please, it’s so cold, and my boots are too heavy. Can you grab a piece of wood or something? I can’t stay here long. Mary Ann -” but her fingers slipped, and Ellie went under again. She screamed in fear and cold, again scrabbling for the edge. Grasping it again, she pulled herself up for another breath, and again, Mary Ann had not moved.

“Mary Ann, what are you doing! Help!” she inhaled a large gulp of water. Coughing and sputtering, she screamed again, “please! What are you crazy! Help!!”

Mary Ann’s frozen face broke into a small, curious smile. “It’s cold, isn’t it? I could go get help, Ellie, but it’s too late. Let go. It won’t take long.”

As Ellie slipped beneath the water the last time, her boots and suit seeming to weigh a hundred pounds, she looked up at the beach from below the ice. Mary Ann walked out onto the overturned iceberg and watched as Ellie fell into the black.