First Canoe
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First Canoe
The leaves danced in the wind, and I spared my attention to watch them bob on their branches against the bright blue sky. It was beautiful, but it was only a moment before a lurch in the craft snapped my gaze back to the water.
“Hannah, stop leaning!” My voice rang over the dark waves as I resisted the urge to set my weight in the other direction and risk overcorrecting our tilt. My sister straightened her back with a small huff.
“The paddling is more effective when I lean into it,” the twelve-year-old replied from the front of the canoe.
“It is,” I agreed. “But we have to communicate. If I had leaned the same direction as you, we might have tipped.” Or that might have just been what my heart claimed from its refuge in my throat. But with what little I knew of how to boat, I was certain that I did not want to swim today too.
“Hmm…” My sister mused aloud, dipping her paddle to one side of the canoe, then the other. “How?”
“Well…” I provided a corrective stroke from the rear to keep our craft moving in a vaguely forward direction across the lake, and reflected what we’d figured out so far on our stint. “You’re in the front, so you’re in charge of where we are going. You can make the more precise turns. I’m in the back, so my strokes are stronger and make bigger turns. You should tell me to paddle right or left, to set the main course, and then use your paddle to do the little corrections.”
“Okay,” I watched the brim of her hat raise and lower in a nod. “Paddle right.”
“Woah, wait a minute.” I glanced ahead at our course, already drifting left toward the reeds we’d get tangled in. “Do you want me to paddle right, or turn right? Remember, when we paddle on the right side, the canoe goes left, and vice versa.”
“Turn right,” she declared.
“Okay. So then you need to say either ‘turn right’ or ‘paddle left’.” I dipped my paddle in even as I provided the clarification, powering the canoe back towards the middle of the lake. The wind picked up for a moment, and I almost dropped my paddle in my haste to seize my hat when I felt the brim lift with the breeze. “You’re in charge of the boat, I’m fixing my hat,” I called up, and waited for the verbal confirmation before carefully setting my paddle across the sides of the canoe to reset my hat on my head, pulling the strap tight so it would not escape.
I did everything in the boat with caution, sitting with one foot folded tightly beneath my bench and the other splayed against the side like a child who didn’t want to go fast down a slide. Between the two positions, I was as good as seatbelted in place. Unless, of course, we should happen to tip over.
“Okay, I’m resuming paddling now,” I clarified before dipping my paddle into the green ripples again. “Which way do you want to go?”
“Let’s go visit them,” She pointed toward another canoe further down the lake where two other teens were making a fair attempt at maneuvering their craft, if only to end up mostly going in circles.
“Alright.” She needed my verbal response because the last time she’d tried to turn around and look toward me, I’d sent her sitting straight again with a shrieked plea. “But be careful. I don’t want to strike against their craft and give them more problems, or tip ourselves.”
Her shudder was agreement enough, and we set off back down the part of the lake set aside for boating expeditions towards the other canoe. The wind raced us, teasing at our life vests’ straps and switching the direction of the small waves that coursed along. As I paddled left and right per my navigator’s whim, I spared a moment to turn my attention to the lap of the water against the boat, and the beauty of the world captured in our small laps on the first time for each of us in a canoe.
Meet Elizabeth Baber
Elizabeth Baber is the latest addition to the Debra Hill Sings team, working as the head Virtual Assistant for the wonderful woman herself. Elizabeth would identify as an author(ess), spreadsheet fanatic, and all-around geek. The majority of her time is spent serving Central Virginia’s low-vision patients as a technician with the MedRVA Foundation.
When not at work, she can be found cooking with her fiancé, coaching Teen Bible Quizzing, wrestling novel ideas, running an online Dungeons and Dragons server, or trying her hand at one of a hundred rotating crafting hobbies.
Some of her work can be found on her website: www.writingonwords.com and you can contact her at elizabeth@writingonwords.com.
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