The Lake

As the summer gave a grand encore today, I got back to the lake to swim. The sun was hot and the water looked and smelled like stale vegetable soup with muddy overtones. All over the lake, patches of long strands of viny water plants came up to the surface, gripping the arms & legs of swimmers, much to the delight of some and horrors of many. The water was warm and still. I swam far out, beyond the first buoy and all the way to the farthest buoy. Birds and planes glided overhead, but I was miles below in my own watery world. A guy on a Jet Ski drove by, surprised to find a man in sunglasses swimming in the middle of the lake. He stuck him thumb up smiling and I replied the gesture. I was thinking about my great aquatic friends Huck Finn, Walden’s Thoreau and even Jeff Buckley. I loved the fragrant, dingy water. Back on dry land, grownups played beach tennis and children were yelling. “Ik ben gesteekt (‘I got stinged’) one of them bellowed. It was false alarm of course. The kid had lied.