The Listening Spot

Chapter 11

Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash

Previous Chapters

1.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot

2.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-eb2

3.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-4eb

4.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-3ca

5.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-918

6.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-bd8

7.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-29b

8.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-14a

9.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-a56

10.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-1df

Chapter 11

C.J. jumped into his tent and changed into some fresh clothes. He didn’t remember his tent feeling so cozy, but all of the negative energy that swirled around Jericho’s place left C.J.’s mood needing a reset. He laid in the tent, enjoying the silence and the occasional disrupting song of the birds. A deep inhale and a long exhale, and relaxation washed over C.J. 

Despite the sun’s prominence the temperature was only warm, and that suited C.J. just fine. On the way out of the tent he grabbed his ‘new’ binoculars and made his way to the lake’s lookout point. The binoculars weren’t bad, he had a fairly detailed view of the water, he aimed his binoculars at the center of the lake and panned left until he caught the sight of a bobbing kayak. There were two young boys on the kayak, doing a fairly good job of navigating the water.

As they rowed to the T.L.S. side of the lake C.J. could see the two passengers were engaged in a fairly vigorous conversation.  They stopped rowing not too far from the shore and one of them pointed to the water. C.J. curiously watched as one of the two boys removed their life jacket. C.J. lowered the binoculars and instinctively stepped in the direction of his camp. He needed more context as to what was going on, but he felt uneasy leaving the two of them unsupervised. C.J. waited another minute, but neither of the boys moved. Once he felt they might not get into too much trouble he jogged over to the tent to see what they were talking about. 

As soon as he ducked into the tent, he heard, “I dare you to swim to the other side, without a life jacket.”

“Mom said we shouldn’t do that. I’m not going to do it.”

“Well, you said you were a better swimmer than me, so prove it.”

“What if I get tired?”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll throw you your life jacket.”

“Are you sure? This doesn’t feel like a good idea.”

“Well, if you don’t do it, stop telling everyone you’re the best swimmer in the family. It’s a lie.”

“Fine! I’ll prove…”

 C.J. was out of the tent headed toward the lake, he crested the hill and didn’t stop to look, he just ran. As the lake closed in he noticed another adult was much closer than he was to the lake, and moving in fast. The boy without the life jacket was splashing in place, barely keeping his head above the water. The other boy was struggling to throw the life jacket in, it was caught around one of the oars and his little hands couldn’t untangle the straps. His desperation made wood blocks of his hands and he fumbled clumsily to do what would seem to be fairly easy in a non-emergency situation. The boy in the water was taking longer and longer breaks from the air above, each trip below the surface sapped more and more of his energy. 

The other runner splashed into the lake, the water briefly destroying their running cadence. With a quick stumble and recovery they were not deep enough to start swimming to the drowning child. C.J. kept running and reached the shore just as the mystery adult reached the other child. Not knowing what to do he waded in knee deep, more of a show of support than anything else. The child was still sputtering, which was a good sign, and the other swimmer appeared to know how to approach the situation. C.J. waited for what seemed like forever for the two of them to reach the shore. As they hobbled out of the lake, C.J. couldn’t believe his eyes, it was Penelope. 

The sound of crying obliterated C.J.’s shock. The boy in the canoe was helpless and didn’t look like he’d be able to paddle to shore. Penelope was catching her breath so C.J. made his way to the kayak. The water was chilly, and as it passed his navel, he started hyperventilating through the discomfort. After he was neck deep and had taken a couple of strokes toward his destination his breathing normalized and he thought about what he’d say to the young kayaker. 

“Hey are you okay?”C.J. asked. 

The boy shook his head and sobbed, “yes”. 

“Hold on we’ll get you back to shore, if you can paddle at all I’d really appreciate that”, C.J. said with a smile.

By the time they reached the shore C.J. was exhausted, in some form or fashion, he pulled and pushed that kayak the entire way. When he was finally able to stand and guide the kayak on to dry land he let out a loud sigh and just collapsed on the wet sand. 

Something about C.J.’s flop and the melting away of the stress from the tense moment stoked giddy laughter from the group. They couldn’t help it, the four of them laughed and laughed and laughed; they laughed until side stitches and tears arrived. The laughing abruptly stopped when one of the boys saw their parents coming over in a two person kayak. He started jumping and waving, and his parents waved back. Once their parents reached the shore Penelope and C.J. retold the story, assured the parents everyone was well, and received two giant ‘thank you for saving our children’ hugs. 

After that the two of them were left alone on the shore soaked to the bone.