My Uncle Emil was from another planet. No doubt about it. No other way to explain what he was doing. There we sat eating breakfast like we had all the time in the world. Nowhere to go, nothing to do. Except finish seeing the remaining lakeshore. That there were hundreds of downed trees between us and Wedge Lake seemed to be of no matter to the man.
"Archie me lad, what can we do about it? What's there is there. It'll still be there tomorrow. For the moment we're fine, have enough to eat and a lake full of fish should we run short. But we won't unless you're up for more of the same. Today we finish what we came here to do. Maybe you'll do us the honor of snagging a few walleyes on the way. Tonight we'll take it easy. Start up 'Of Mice and Men.' Tomorrow we set to work moving this camp through the jackstraw."
We fished and ate till seven in the evening. Nothing else. Emil did a lot of chuckling and never seemed to tire of paddling us around the lake. We hit every remaining reef, island, point and bay. Surveyed the storms damage. Our north shore looked pretty torn up, the south not so bad. Our time on the water took all of ten hours under the deep blue sky. My uncle would call time out every so often and we'd pull to shore. There we'd snack and he'd talk.
"Thought I'd seen most everything there is to see out on the water. Had a ship blown to pieces around me, seen the ocean aglow at night while we steamed the tropics, slaked my thirst with rain barrel water in the Philippines, rolled a canoe 'cause I was an idiot and once I went swimming in Lake Superior just to enjoy the pain."
Here he paused for a minute. Stoked the pipe. "Seen the sun rise, and seen it set but I'd never seen St. Elmo's fire 'til yesterday. Don't ever want to see it again. Something about it says a man's days are numbered and that number can be counted on half a finger. Felt as though my body was filling up with electricity and could explode any minute. Could have lit a light bulb all by myself. Way back when, the sailors used to take it as a sign of the supernatural, evil or even God. Maybe from Heaven, maybe Hell. They figured it didn't matter. Either way something powerful was coming for sure. Can't say I felt any different. That's why we went ashore as fast as we did."
"The way I see it there's as many signs in the Heavens and on Earth these days as there ever was. Why should it be any different? A man just has to step back now and then, pay attention. Take it seriously. Call it God talking, call it what you want. It'd be a lot easier to understand if God spoke English and took out ad space in the Tribune. Whatever it is up there, out there or in there, it's still talking. But a body has to be quiet, both inside and out, to hear that whispering voice. Sometimes it's no more than a gut feeling. Like maybe yesterday and staying out on the slab. 'Course, sometimes that gut feeling's only gas and heartburn."
Good grief. What could I say to something like that? Okay, he was right about last night. Was even smart enough to stay out of the tent. And now didn't seem in any hurry to get out of here. Maybe he knew something I didn't? Probably a lot. Don't know what was the cause but from the moment I got off the train back in Alexandria I'd felt happy being where I was. Safe like I was in good hands. Honestly, I did feel a little on edge hunkered down on the rock in the storm with lightning booming down but that only lasted a few minutes.
"Uncle Emil, you ever want to do another trip like this one and you need someone in the front of the canoe, I'm your man."
"Archie, that you are. If you're still saying the same thing when we get back to the lodge, I'll be sure to take you up on it."
We trolled our way back to camp. Last chance to find out what it was that tore up my spinner. Monsters of the deep are usually caught in the very last minute of every wilderness adventure. That's what Sports Afield said anyhow. And I did hook up. And it did feel huge. But it was only an eight pound pike. Disappointed? Yup.
"That sure isn't much of a pike. But Archie, from what we've seen, it may be the biggest jack fish in this lake, with the biggest teeth. So I guess, in that sense, that fish is The Lake With No Name Monster (cackle of horror movie laughter followed by deep cough and golf ball sized wad of gob into the lake). Uf dah, thought I was gonna blow out my liver."
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