After she had buried the body she brushed her hair, then put on her white gown and walked out to
the backyard. She looked over to the mound of dirt and smiled. She made her way
out on the pier over the lake and looked down at the frozen water. She carefully stepped down onto the hard surface. She walked slow and deliberate,
step by step until she was far enough out to see the vast mountains around her.
She knew this lake well, knew exactly where the thin spots of ice would be, she
stood on one and waited. The weight of her and the warmth of her bare feet
would soon do the work for her. She heard a small cracking sound and then
another. There was no going back, she fell through.
Fifty years later, Dakota Slater and
his son packed their bags for their first trip to a cabin Dakota had just
bought in northern Wisconsin. His son, Elliot had just turned twelve, his mother had left them
a few months back because of her drug addiction. Dakota had struggled with the same problem, but he had to take
care of Elliot, so he had joined a twelve-step. One of the guys in his group
had suggested a winter trip during Dakota's lay-off months and sold him a place
really cheap. He worked construction and every winter he had nothing to do and keeping
busy was the best way to keep himself sober. Elliot didn't talk much, he'd been through
and seen a lot from both of his parents and Dakota was ashamed of it. He drove through the white dusted forest, looking over at Elliot in
the passenger seat. Elliot had his hood up over his head and looked down at his
phone as he played a video game.
Dakota started to say something but
decided against it. He didn't know how to talk to kids, not even his own. He
sighed and drove the rest of the way in burdened silence. Lumi, their golden lab in her crate, in the back of the SUV, was
asleep. She didn't add much to the conversation. When they finally got to the
cabin, Dakota was surprised at how big it was considering the price. It looked
like it had two stories and an attic. It had a big front porch and aside from
some minor repairs it was in good shape. He got out and Elliot did the same,
somehow getting out of the vehicle safely without even glancing up from his
phone.
"Help me with the bags,"
Dakota said.
Elliot dropped his phone into his hoodie pocket and did what he was told
without complaint. He was a good kid who never disobeyed them or got into trouble and got
average grades at school. He had turned out better than most kids with two
addicts for parents. Dakota had held down a job at least, for most of Elliot's
life. But provider was the only roll Dakota had ever had in his son's life.
They never had been close emotionally, that was his mother's part of the deal.
Dakota had always been too high to realize how much she had failed to do her
part. He couldn't blame her completely though; she had a disease and hadn't
been ready to be a parent either. Dakota had emotionally neglected them both
until drugs were her only family. So, when she had left a year ago, Dakota woke
up and realized he needed to be more than just a financial provider. Elliot
needed at least one parent in his life that would be there for him.
They carried the bags inside, and
Dakota let Lumi out of her crate to run around. The road they’ve driven up on
had no cars on it and even if someone drove up, they’d be going slow since the
roads were pretty icy. She never wondered far from Elliot anyway, Dakota tried to play with her in the snow, but she ran inside, Dakota
sighed and followed her. She jumped up on the couch where Elliot sat playing on
his phone again. Dakota called her but she crawled closer to Elliot and laid
her head on his lap. Elliot absentmindedly patted her head and she seemed to
smile defiantly at Dakota. He threw his arms at her, since she was the only one
paying even a little attention to him. He knew he hadn’t earned much more than
these cold shoulders from them, but he was trying.
“What do you want for dinner?”
Dakota asked.
“I’m not hungry,” Elliot mumbled
without looking up.
“Come on buddy, I’m trying here,”
Dakota said.
Elliot rolled his eyes and sighed,
“I’ll eat whatever you want.”
Dakota felt tears burn the corners
of his eyes as he let out a breath to remove the lump in his throat, “okay,
go get unpacked while I figure something out, you can choose any room you
want.”
Elliot jumped up obediently and Lumi
followed him, they walked up the stairs and disappeared without a word, look or
even a ‘screw you’.
“What do I want to cook?” Dakota
asked himself, he began the process of making hamburger helper, because it was
quick and easy and they hadn’t eaten since the fast food breakfast they had
stopped for hours ago on the drive up. He got so wrapped up in cooking that he
was startled to see Lumi and Elliot outside the window in the back yard. They
were playing in the snow and he watched them and smiled. He hadn’t seen Elliot playing outside
since… well he had never seen him play outside. He turned the stove off and
let the meal simmer on the cooling burner and walked over to the double glass
doors that led to the back yard.
He walked out, “hey!” he shouted.
Elliot stopped in his tracks and his
smile dropped instantly, “I figured she’d want out since she was in the car all
day,” he explained nervously.
Dakota tried to chuckle through another
lump, “that’s fine, I’m glad you are
having fun.” Elliot blushed and didn’t say anything. Dakota had never yelled at
Elliot in his life, he had never needed to, but he understood that Elliot had
no clue what to expect from a man he didn’t even really know. Dakota watched
him as he fidgeted with his jacket zipper, uncomfortable.
“You ever build a snowman?” Dakota
asked walking over to him. Elliot shook his head. Just then the smoke alarm
started to blare, and Dakota cursed, making Elliot jump. “Oh, it’s just the
hamburger helper, let’s go eat and then we can come out and build a snowman
okay?”
Elliot nodded reluctantly and went
inside. Dakota looked at the sky and hoped it would stay daylight long enough
for them to come back out. Dakota gave Lumi some of her dog food and they all
ate in mostly silence. Dakota kept checking the window to make sure the sun was
still out, then he noticed Elliot doing the same. He felt a joy spark inside
knowing Elliot wanted to build a snowman with him. It gave him a little courage
to speak,
“do you like hamburger helper?”
Elliot looked puzzled for a moment
and then shrugged, “it’s food.”
Dakota chuckled, “well that’s one
way to look at it, but you know you can tell me if you don’t like something, or
if you do, that way I can cook things you like more often.”
Elliot looked at him like the
concept was completely foreign to him. Dakota cleared his throat and waited on
a response but there was none, just a look of skeptical contemplation.
“I’m finished Dakota,” Elliot said a
while later, Dakota winced, he hated that Elliot hadn’t called him ‘dad’ or anything like it since he
was a toddler. He blamed himself so he didn’t correct it and instead just
nodded. There was still some daylight left so they bundled up and went outside.
He showed Elliot how to make the
parts of a snowman, starting with the largest ball first. Their snowman still
didn’t have a face, Dakota wasn’t sure if they had anything to use as its mouth
nose and eyes. Elliot didn’t seem to care, he was fascinated.
“It is so much easier than I thought
it would be,” he said, then he looked around, “where is Lumi?”
Dakota looked around and didn’t see
her anywhere, they started calling out her name and looking for her. Dakota
spotted her on the lake, digging into a spot on the ice.
“LUMI! Stop it, get back here!”
Dakota shouted. Before he knew it, Elliot was running out onto the ice to get
her. Dakota hadn’t tested it yet to see if it was steady, plus it was probably
slick, he started out after Elliot. Elliot slipped and slid but made his way to
the dog without falling down. He grabbed her collar and then looked down at the
ice and screamed.
Dakota didn’t see anything wrong but
ran towards them faster anyway on instinct, he got to them and Elliot was still
screaming. Dakota looked around and saw nothing but Lumi was barking alongside
his screams.
“What is it?” Dakota grabbed his
shoulders and knelt down to him.
“A woman, under the ice,” Elliot sobbed,
Dakota had never saw him like
this.
“That’s impossible, we would have
seen someone go under,” he said.
“You don’t believe me?” Elliot
scoffed.
“I do, I just think it was probably
something that looked like a woman, maybe a couple fish swimming close together… I
hope there’s fish that big in here, we’ll catch them,” he ruffled Elliot’s dark hair a
little trying to lighten the mood. But the boy still looked terrified and Lumi
wasn’t satisfied with the explanation either. Dakota had to carry her back to
the house and Elliot sulked behind him. Dakota didn’t know how to make him feel
better without lying to him about reality, so he just didn’t mention it again.
Elliot played his games and Dakota spent the rest of the night getting
everything ready for ice fishing the next day. At least they had seen how thick
the ice was already.
The next morning Dakota got Elliot
up early, before dawn and they set out onto the
lake. Elliot wanted to bring Lumi but Dakota said it was too risky considering
how she had behaved the night before, he didn’t want her running off
chasing any wild animals. It was just another thing to make Elliot unhappy with
him but he had to set some rules.
An hour later and the sun hadn’t
come up yet, in fact it started to get darker.
“Must be a storm coming,” Dakota mused. Elliot sat with his chin in his hand and
sighed.
“Help me pack up,” Dakota said
getting up and starting to load their things into a bag and tacklebox. He was
busy so he didn’t notice when Elliot started following a figure under the ice.
By the time he turned around he couldn’t see him anywhere.
“Elliot!” he shouted; a tight
feeling he’d never had before gripped his entire body.
“Help,” he heard, then a loud crack
almost like a gunshot, then a splash. Dakota knew the sound instantly; Elliot
had gone through a thin spot in the ice. He took off into the dark without
knowing where to even begin to look. He ran around until he saw the hole and
didn’t think twice before he dove under. He saw Elliot floating and then a
woman came up and grabbed Elliot’s ankle and began to pull him further under. Dakota grabbed his waist
and pulled him out of her grasp. He swam up toward the hole and finally made it
out. He shook Elliot until he finally coughed up some icy water and woke up.
“I should have believed you,” Dakota
said.
“That’s okay, thanks for saving me,
dad,” Elliot said.
Raine
has been writing poetry since the seventh grade and fell in love with a
guitarist. She has had several articles published by Vocal. In
addition, she has run a blog, written several poems song lyrics, short
stories, and seven books. Writing has been her passion her whole life.
