Snapshot (12 page)

“That is so cool!” Adam adjusted his focus as he looked through the lens and clicked away.

The curious chicks kept poking their heads out. The canoe drifted closer, allowing them better angles of the babies. Marti aimed and captured as many images as she could.
 

Threatened, the mother let out a loud wail, stood up tall, stretched her long neck in the air and flapped her wings.

“Uh oh, mama loon is pissed.” Adam lowered his camera and let it hang from his neck strap. He grabbed the paddle and maneuvered the boat further away.

“That’s incredible.” As the boat moved, Mama Loon hopped in the water, with the chicks following right behind. She wailed a couple more times, and then motored her way through the water to the narrow exit. The chicks swam after her in hot pursuit, which Marti found adorable and laughed.

Adam picked up his camera and scanned through his pictures. “These are so much better than the ones I got the other morning. She’s so close you can count the spots on her back.”

“I’ve got a perfect profile shot of her with the babies looking straight at the camera,” Marti said, thinking this could be a perfect birthday gift for Grandma.
 

Adam took a few more pictures of the bog, the tall reeds that blew in the wind, and some water lilies that floated on the surface.
 

“We should probably head back soon.” Marti relaxed at the front of the boat watching Adam, so intent on his subjects.

“Probably.” He turned off his camera, and returned it to the dry bag. He slid the bag forward to Marti. She placed her camera next to his, rolled the bag up tight and clipped it to the canoe.

As she was about to turn forward, she noticed Adam’s sandal in the bottom of the boat.

“You wanna toss me that?” Adam said as he paddled them toward the channel.

“What, this?” Marti picked up his sandal and examined it. She offered up an innocent look and batted her eyes.
 

Adam narrowed his eyes. “Just toss it to me, will you? Please,” he added.

“Nice touch with the please. Just for that, I will.” Marti flung the sandal underhand high in the air. It sailed to the edge of the bog where it caught in the brush.

Marti laughed, but then covered her mouth to hide her grin. “Oops.”

Adam shook his head, but amusement sparkled in his eyes. “You had to do that, didn’t you?”

“My bad.” She shrugged and bit back her laughter. Paybacks were a bitch!

He shook his head and paddled toward the sandal. “You could give me a hand here.” He eyed her paddle lying idle in the boat.

Marti turned in her seat and helped paddle them to the edge of the bog. She bit back the fit of giggles on the tip of her tongue. The water plants were especially dense near the edge, and the thick green algae floated on top like a layer of sludge. Adam extended his arm, but couldn’t quite reach the sandal suspended in the low brush. The boat drifted back out into deeper water.

They paddled as close in as they could get. This time Adam used his paddle to try to knock the sandal loose, but the boat floated out of reach before he could get to it.

“Just leave it. Let’s go back,” Marti said.

“I’m not gonna just leave it. This is the only pair of sandals I brought. It’s mine, and I’m gonna get it back.”
 

He sounded like a spoiled ten-year-old, which ruined the relaxed mood. “You mean to say that a super-rich rock star like yourself only has one pair of sandals?” She doubted it. He probably had closets full of designer guy duds.

“First off, I never said I was rich, and yes, I only have one pair of sandals.”

“You’re not rich?” she asked, not believing it for a second.

“Look who’s asking nosy questions now! I didn’t say I wasn’t rich either. In fact, I have no idea.” He struggled to reposition the boat.

Marti spun around to face the back again. They were going to be here a while since Mister Tightwad wouldn’t leave behind a stupid sandal. “How can you have no idea?”
 

“I don’t. First off, my parents have me on an allowance. My mom says too much financial freedom at an early age is unhealthy. However, that doesn’t include band stuff, like guitars. Those are top of the line. But my camera stuff, I have to save up for. I do get awesome stuff at Christmas though.” He pulled on the brush to hold the boat in place. He still couldn’t get to the sandal this way, however, and he’d need to let go to reach for it.

She leaned back and watched the growing cloud cover roll in. “How do you know your parents aren’t stealing all your money?”

“I don’t. Listen, if my parents end up blowing all the money or siphoning it off to some offshore account, they obviously want it more than I do. It’s only money.”

“How can you not care? You earned it.” She watched him bat at the brush with the paddle while trying to hold the boat in place. The boat rocked from side to side. She gripped the edges.

“I’m sixteen. What do I need with a bunch of money? When you think about it, it’s not normal for a kid to be loaded. Aren’t we supposed to earn our money when we’re adults?” He jabbed at the brush again.

She admired how his t-shirt stretched across his shoulders and arms. “I’ve got to say, Rock Star, you surprise me.” She hated to admit it, but his connection to money seemed very healthy.
 

“Maybe you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.” He poked at the brush, this time leaning way out and tilting the boat to a precarious angle.

“Adam! You’re gonna flip the boat!”

“Just. About. Got it.” With one more jab, he leaned further, and the canoe tipped too far.
 

Marti screamed and the boat flipped before she had the forethought to close her mouth. Her body splashed into the cool, murky drink.

Chapter 7

Marti flailed underwater, and the long water lily stems rubbed against her legs like the snakes she feared. She swished her legs to come up for air and discovered the water was only a few feet deep.
 

She popped up between the canoe and the edge of the bog. Adam held his arm high with the sandal. “I got it!”

“You jerk!” She tried to stand, but her feet sank into thick muck on the bottom of the lake. She cringed and wanted to scream. She tried to tread water to avoid the disgusting lake bed. She swallowed some of the algae-laced lake water. She coughed and spit as she felt slimy green beads of algae in her mouth.

Adam laughed. “My bad.”

 
“How are we gonna get back in the boat?” She tried not to whine or cry as the plants tangled around her limbs.

“First, we have to flip it over. I’ve done this before with my brothers.” Adam moved to the edge of the canoe and attempted to push on the side. As he pushed with his arms, he tried to stand, and Marti saw his surprise and disgust as his feet pushed into the gunk.

She raised her eyebrows. “So now what, Sherlock?”

“This is gross.”

She could tell he was trying to swish the lake sediments from his feet. He didn’t seem to realize that oily-looking slime covered his head and streaked his face. Awareness hit. She touched her own face and cringed; slime covered her as well. She tried to scrape it away, but knew it wasn’t really working.

“Let’s try to drag the canoe into deeper water, away from the plants,” Adam suggested.

They towed the flipped boat away from the edge where their feet didn’t touch bottom. The water became much better, but a thick layer of green algae still floated on the surface. Marti wiped her mouth and chin, praying she didn’t swallow any more lake scum.

“Now what?” She held onto the edge of the boat.

“We need to get underneath and push it up and over.”

“I’m not putting my head underwater again.”

“Well, I don’t know any other way to flip the boat.”

“Can’t we just try to lift this edge of it really fast?”

“It won’t work. The boat will fill with water.”

“Oh.” She tread water. Her life jacket rose up around her face as she bobbed.

“We gonna do this or what?” Adam didn’t look happy about it either.

“So how does this work?”

“Feel underneath where the crossbars are? You’re going to take a breath and pull yourself under the boat. There will be plenty of air,” he reassured.

The idea of going into a small claustrophobic space and trying to breathe set her heart thumping at a rapid pace. Why couldn’t they have gotten the assignment for something easy, like taking pictures of rocks?

“When we’re both in place, we’re going to kick up with our legs and lift with our arms. As soon as we get the canoe far enough out of the water, we’ll flip it to the side.”

“And this is going to work?” she asked, needing a guarantee.

“I hope so, because it’s a long swim back to camp.” He didn’t appear as confident as she wished.

“You go first.” No way would she go under there by herself.

“Okay. I’ll see you on the other side.” Adam grinned and his face turned all adorable, which made her want to splash green scum water at him. Why couldn’t she stay mad at him? He was like some pesky fly that wouldn’t leave her alone.

Without warning, Adam’s head dipped below the surface and didn’t come up again. After a moment of panic, Marti saw the canoe move and heard a muffled call.

Crap
. Her turn. She felt under the edge of the canoe for the cross bar. She faced the canoe, took a breath and pulled herself under, kicked forward and pulled herself up on the other side.

She wiped the slime that coated her face, and spit. “Ptew, ptew.” She took a breath and opened her eyes to pitch blackness.

“Adam?” She hoped her voice didn’t sound wobbly.

“I’m here.” His voice echoed under the metal hull. His hand reached out and touched her arm. “How you doing?”

“Smashing.”

She heard his chuckle and pictured his impish grin. “Now that I’ve got you here alone, what would you like to do?”

“I want to get the hell out of here,” she said.

“Got it. Can you go to the crossbar right behind your seat. You should be able to reach out and grab it.”

Marti reached forward until her hand bumped into the bar. “Got it.”

“Good. I’ll be at the bar on my end. At the count of three we are going to lift up, and as soon as the boat is out of the water, push it to the right. You’re going to have to kick up with your legs as hard as you can.”

“Piece of cake,” she said sarcastically, trying not to think about water snakes or snapping turtles.

“Good. So at the count of three, lift. One. Two. Three!”

Marti pushed on the bar and immediately her head went underwater. She came up sputtering.

“That didn’t go so well.” Adam spit water.

“No shit.” Marti wondered if they could do this, but didn’t want to be the first to call it quits.

“Let’s try it again. Ready?”
 

Marti positioned herself better and prepared to kick with all she had. “Ready.”

“One. Two. Three!” Adam groaned out the three, and she felt the boat shift on his end.
 

She pushed and kicked up in the water with all she had. The edge of the canoe lifted, but didn’t even rise above the water. The weight brought it back down and she sputtered up again.

“I hate to say this,” Adam said. “But I think we have to go where it’s shallower so we have something to push against.”

“You mean the muck? Won’t we sink in?” The thought of it caused her to gag. What lived under there? She shuddered.

“Afraid so. I don’t know how else we can get it over and unless you want to swim through the muddy shallow channel.”

“Maybe they’ll send a helicopter to save us.”
 

“I don’t think there’s a coast guard station anywhere nearby.”

“Oh god, I don’t want to do this.” But she knew she would. Complaining somehow helped.

“Come on. Push it this way. Something’s on my leg, and I’m afraid it’s a leech.”

“No!” Marti whined. “Please don’t say leeches.” She flutter kicked as fast as possible.

“A little farther,” he said, not sounding too happy anymore.

When she had to scrunch up her legs to avoid the gooey bottom, he called it enough.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Not really, so let’s do it quick.” She positioned herself once more.

“Here we go. One, two, three!”
 

Marti pushed with every ounce of muscle she had. Her bare feet pressed into the soft lakebed up to her ankles. She cringed, wondering what lived in the mud, but didn’t want to complain and look like she couldn’t handle a little mud.

The canoe rose out of the water. The instant it broke the surface, she felt Adam heave the boat to their right. She did the same, and, miracle of miracles, it flipped, knocking into her, but that was a small price to pay.