People of the Lakes(301)

“I never knew there was so much water in the world.”

The image of the Dream bowl, and the world within, refreshed her memory. Yes, she’d seen, but a person didn’t understand the magnitude of sky and water, the vastness of distance, and the stunning insignificance of a human being in this wet world. In the forest, humans marched large, but on the open water, they vanished into obscurity.

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“This much and, more,” Pale Snake said behind Tier.

“Mama? We won’t drown, will we?” Silver Water asked.

“No, Tadpole. Pale Snake and I will make sure that you’re safe. Won’t we, Pale Snake?”

He laughed at the sudden concern in Star Shell’s voice, fully aware that Silver Water had just felt that first panic that people can’t help but experience on open water.

“I think we’ll be quite safe. We’re going to follow the south shore all the way to the river that takes us to the Roaring Water.

As you can see on the shore, all the driftwood piles up on the beach. Wind and current both move eastward here—and even if the canoe tips over, just hold on to it. It will wash ashore before long.”

“I feel so much better.” Star Shell gave her full attention to being scared as they entered the swells rolling past the last protective point of land. The little canoe rose and fell, the sensation disconcerting. Bars of light danced downward into the depths, leading the eye into a hazy, cold infinity, greenish here, unobscured by silt. But where was the bottom?

“Relax,” Pale Snake called. “Move with the canoe as it follows the waves, not against it. What is this? First I have to teach you to paddle, and now I have to teach you how to ride a canoe?”

“I’ve never been off the river!”

“Believe me, I can tell.”

At the sarcasm, she forced herself to relax. Star Shell, people paddle across this water all the time. It can’t he that hard.

Nevertheless, her soul bleated that each movement of the canoe presaged immediate disaster.

“Mama? Is there a bottom to this water?” Silver Water asked.

“I think so.” But as she looked at the shore and then into the murky depths, she couldn’t be sure. The land looked more than a dart’s cast away. Even on the Lower Moonshell, a man could cast a dart across the river, except in times of flood. And the Serpent River, which she’d seen only once, had shores that a person could reach in a short time. That however wasn’t the question that suddenly plagued her. Did land float on water, or did water lie on land? In a river, a person knew. He could dive down and touch the bottom. The shellfishers and pearl hunters did it all the time. What about here?

“Pale Snake?” Star Shell asked hoarsely. “Is there a bottom?”

“Along the shore, there is. You can feel it with net sinkers, or plummets on a fishing line. Once you paddle farther out, the bottom drops away. Maybe it’s there, maybe not. No one’s ever tied a rock onto a cprd long enough to find out. Myself, I suspect that there’s a bottom down there somewhere.”

“Why?” She wished she could grab onto the sides of the canoe and close her eyes until they’d beached again.

“Because the Upper Lake is surrounded by land. If you can see bottom all the way around the edges, it’s most likely that it goes clear across … unless, of course, there’s a big hole in the middle.” He paused. “But if there was, wouldn’t all the water drain out?”

“Not if that’s where the water’s bubbling up from,” she responded, and felt a little queasy.

“Like a gigantic spring, you mean? Hmm. Interesting thought.”

“What happens if a person drowns out there?”

“The same thing that happens if a person drowns in the Upper Moonshell, the Red Buck, or even the Paint. He dies. Say, you’re not about to panic are you? You drown just as dead in shallow water as you do in deep.”

“I may be about to panic.”

He had the audacity to laugh at that. “Silver Water, your mother is about to panic. I’m not sure, but perhaps we should get her to turn arouad so we could see better. It’s never as much fun to watch someone panic from the rear. From the front, you can watch their face turn colors and their eyeballs roll around in the sockets.”

Silver Water cried: “Turn around, Mama! Turn around!”

“You are impossible!” Star Shell was shamed into picking up her paddle. She struggled to keep the canoe from wobbling, and paddled despite the terror in her heart.

“That’s it,” Pale Snake praised her.

“How far are we from the Roaring Water?”