The Last Breath

Have you ever know that this was your last breath? Seen the water spans with blury eyes? Smelt that smushy fish odor? Felt water seeping in through your jeans, clinging onto you like creepers on a wall? And then, thanked god for every special moment in your life. Now thats something I always thought people do when they are about to die. So I tried the same.

On the day of question, we all bundled into a car and decided to go kayaking and canoing at Fox River. We were super excited and I guess some of it showed! The rental guy took one look at us - "So, you guys are new at this?"
"Well, yeah!", we replied
He then very humbly tried to explain why today might not be a good idea to venture out in the river. Strong winds and currents and blah blah. The lake - Pewaukee lake which we were standing by was even worse. Even the pro's had opted out for today. Well, our group was dispersing next week for their respective countries. Combine that with the fact that this rental guy was all of 15 years old - It kinda hit most of the guys under the belt. Shoot the river. NOW these guys wanted to go canoing in the lake !! I'm not mentally ill. Am quite adventurous though. So I decided to dive right in. I'm going to be hip. I'm going to be cool. I'm going to go canoing.

The canoes were pushed onto the lake. 6 life jackets, 6 oars and 6 daring souls got in. The world still stood in all its magnificense, with sun tanned beaches and waterfowls crying across them. One oar in water .. 2,3. And BANG!! Crashed into the side pier. The water-force was too high to row against. Okay, so this was gonna take more muscle power. We sweathed and we swore. I guess within the span of an hour we had covered a 100m sprint across the lake. And were we looking cool or not!! Alone, along the entire expanse of the lake - with the sun dipping at the far end. Some splashing in the water, some spotting of fishes down the lake - and all was well with the universe. The waters looked reasonably fine. "Now, what was that 15 year old kid talking about ?? Lets cut across the entire stretch of the lake !! Yeah man.. thats cool"

Now anyone who is remotely acquainted with canoing knows that this was not a good idea. Especially when the lake happens to be 45 feet deep and there is nothing securing you to the flimsy canoe. However, coming back to the story. We managed quite well to the center of the lake. Mighty proud and bloated chests et al. Sang some songs. It's very sixteen year old, I know. But then, wasn't the whole idea of canoing in rough weather too?

Now thats when things started to get rough. For starters, the waves (Yes!! You do have waves in lakes too) began splashing against the boat. That was not so bad. Until they became high enough to get the water inside the boat. So, we changed jobs. 2 guys row. 1 guy throws the water out. It didn't help that I was sitting right in front of the boat with the weather unfolding in its own sweet way. The rowing was useless. The storm kept pushing us back to the center of the lake. I opted to believe that it liked us way too far to let us go back to the shore. The sun had bidden farwell. The moon was spying on us. And we were cold, wet, clammy and to be truthful, quite lost... Ahem! so thats why people carry compasses on waters. Pretty late in the day, you would say.

After, another hour (or was it two) of laborous pain we reached ashore. Tied the canoe to the first dock in sight. Treaded across to the rental shop. The 15 year old frekled guy smiles at us. "So, you guys did !!" Well, we were not exactly our human selves - with lake water smelling drenched hair and clothes and arms that ached like hell with the slighest movement. "Yes, We did !!" Flashed a smile from beneath that cover of filth. He understood. Came with us to the dock to take his canoes back. We saw some guys ripping across the waters in spanking new speed boats. Asked him if they were for rent. "Oh yeah! Thats what locals out here rent when the weather gets rough like this". Crap!