"[garble, gasp!, chuckle] der in dat forest I'z sees it!" exclaims Uncle Hank as he stops the motor and stands straight up in the boat.
We all fly forwards. Aunt Nancy pummels into my mother: who misses grabbing for my dad to anchor herself; and a second later there's a pile of us in the middle of the boat.
"Ha-AANK!" yells Aunt Nancy as she pushes me off of her, "What the hell do you think you're doing -- you bloody well nearly killed all of us!" she groans as we all try to stand in the boat, each of us inspecting ourselves for cuts and bruises.
I have a gash on my knee from the carpeting on the bottom of the boat where we landed. As I notice it, Aunt Nancy grabs a handful of ice from the cooler and places it on my knee.
I readjust her visor while she continues to put Uncle Hank in his place,
"What the hell were you thinking. This ain't no mission impossible type of expedition, HANK, it's a beautiful sunny day -- it would be nice if you didn't kill anybody! Your poor niece is bleeding!" she says, and then laughs.
"LOOK!" Uncle Hank exclaims. He's staring off into the distance.
I look up from icing my knee to try and see what has got him all excited. I follow the direction of his pointing -- only to see a small clearing in the trees on a hill in front of us.
"I knew it!" he says and starts to motor so we can chug closer towards the shore.
"Knew what?" says my mother who looks around for a seat belt as the boat begins to move.
"Yeah, Hank! You mind sharing with the rest of us just what the hell you're so flipping excited about?" yells Aunt Nancy as she grabs a beer from the cooler and hands it to me.
"[garble, mumble] dis iz being where's I'z sinking dat it landed." he says with the fervent attention and stance of Indiana Jones.
We are officially in a George Lucas fantasy.
Aunt Nancy rolls her eyes.
"Great, the mystery's solved!" she says, "Can we get back to enjoying our day? Where is the damn radio in this thing anyways?"
As Aunt Nancy looks around for the radio, my father and mother stare off into the clearing along with Indy.
It's really hard to say just what exactly we're looking at. There are definitely some trees missing from the middle of the hill ~ and it's pretty hard to clear out mature Evergreens -- but if it were a meteor (and I don't mention this out of respect) of that size, I'm pretty sure there would have been more disaster around us.
I'm fine not really solving the mystery. Aunt Nancy is right. It is the first gorgeous day we've had. The sun is warm -- even out on the water. I don't need my hoody, and the beers are starting to kick in real nice. I would rather go on a nice boat ride around the lakes than explore The Temple of Doom with Newfie Indy over there in the driver's seat.
"Come on!" I say with a big smile.
Everyone snaps there heads towards me.
My mother almost cries. My father raises his eyebrows in delight.
"Well look who's back!" says Aunt Nancy as she finally figures out how to blast the music.
And, as we putter away, the music diffuses into the warm winds that glide past us, and the day begins to unfold.
