A Wisconsin Adventure

     Day Four

 

The small waves ripple gently against the layer of rocks along the grassy lakefront. The sound is rhythmic, natural. I’m standing on the pier, watching the water, observing the motion.        

    It’s early evening, the next day. Ally and I are at the tapered southern end of Big Cedar Lake, north of Milwaukee, visiting my younger brother, Bob. It’s one of my favorite places—tranquil, stress-free, Mother Nature at her best. 

    In the late-day sunshine, the lake reflects the color of the cloudless blue sky. Year-round and summer homes, with their respective piers and swimming areas, ring the shoreline, and are nestled among tall oak and maple, pine and white birch trees.

    In the distance, a powerboat turns sharply, the sound of its engine discordant over the water. The boat is towing a yellow ski tube.  Two male bathers in life jackets, prone and side-by-side, cling to the multiple front handles, legs trailing in the water. The ski tube slows and partially submerges as the boat turns. Then, momentum building once again, the water churns and the bathers bounce and splash across the surface of the lake.

    Near my location on the pier, a white swimming raft floats placidly. As the wake of the powerboat arrives, the raft, and the four flotation drums it rests upon, bob gently in the water.

    Dusk begins to settle. I join my brother on the shore, as Ally explores nearby.

    Bob has gathered an assortment of loose sticks and twigs. In a waterfront depression of blackened embers, he lights the dry wood. A small fire crackles. Thick white smoke curls upward toward the lake. I note the pleasant scent of wood smoke.  As the flames grow, I feel the heat on my hands and face.

    Darkness slowly descends—and our fourth day in Wisconsin comes quietly, peacefully, to a close.

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             Day 6.

 [Editor's note: There is no Day 5 entry.]

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