 
DAVID SHATH SQUARE Chapter Eleven
I fought my way out of darkness to the surface by thrashing and beating the water like an hysterical marionette. Some inner power manipulated my strings. It controlled my mind and body. It forced me to reach out to the light; to swim upward through layers of screaming silence that changed from black to grey to green and finally, as I broke the surface, to blessed golden sunlight.
As I sucked air into my lungs, I heard Thoreena call my name. She and Shadow were in fast water that surged down the centre of the river. I had emerged in a quiet pool that eddied near the shoreline. I was tempted to swim to shore and haul myself up on the solid, safe granite. But I couldn't leave Thoreena and Shadow to perish in the foaming river beaten to whitecaps by the east wind. A freak squall was moving in fast.
Clouds obscured the river as I struck out using a crawl stroke Thoreena had taught to me. Once I reached the main river, there wasn't much point to swimming; staying afloat was all I could manage. Thoreena and Shadow remained in front of me obscured by cloud and rain. I decided to cast my fate to Poseidon, the Greek God who controlled the seas and demanded a scarifice of fatted sheep in return for a prayer answered. Perhaps a sacrifice of fatted grouse and tender lake trout would suffice if he got me out of this predicament.
I don't know how long I was in the water. It's difficult to estimate when you're in a fast moving river and can't see the shoreline. After a while, the current weakened and I heard Thoreena call my name. I couldn't see her but she was close. In my exhausted state, I imagined she was one of the sirens luring me to my doom.
"Hardy," I heard her call, "swim toward me. I'll save you, Hardy. Swim toward me, I'll save you. Follow me...follow me."
I was drawn to her voice. I began a fast crawl and soon could discern Thoreena's head as she swam into a quiet, green bay where the water was still and serene. We were getting close to shore and something that looked like an old dock clung to the sides of granite boulders like a spider with its legs half in and half out of the water.
After a few more strokes, I could see we were swimming toward a dilapidated jetty of white spruce lashed to trees on shore with fraying hemp rope. Some blessed person had built a ladder out of split tamarack logs. We grabbed the rungs and hauled ourselves out of the water. We lay on the hewn wood planking gasping, our clothes soaked and our bodies beaten from the pounding in the river. Shadow shook himself all over and ran along the shore to find some blueberry bushes to roll in.
I was shivering and so was Thoreena. The sun, though still high in the sky, had lost some warmth and the afternoon air hinted at a cool night.
Take off your clothes," I said to Thoreena.
"What?"
"You heard me. I've seen you naked before and it's getting cold and we've got to get dry before the sun loses its warmth."
She began to remove her clothes and I began to take off my T-shirt and pants. A little perch jumped out my pocket and flipped about on the dock for a couple of seconds before jumping back into the river.
We both laughed because we were embarrassed, confronting each other in broad daylight in close quarters with not a stitch of clothing on either of us.
I looked shyly at her beautiful body and she blushed.
"This is crazy, Thoreena," I said. "It's not like we haven't been naked together."
I could see that her belly was already beginning to swell with life. Her long legs were tinged with soft gold down gloriously beautiful; her hair reflected the sunlight and her lips and full breasts perfectly formed and flawless even in the relentless light of day.
I lay back on the rough hewn boards of the dock and began to recite a few lines of poetry that seemed appropriate and I thought might put her at ease:
"O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night...As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!...Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight; For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night."
Suddenly, Thoreena was crying.
"What's wrong? I thought that little piece of poesy might put you at ease."
"That's why I'm crying, Hardy. That was so beautiful and kind of you. Thank you."
And then she leaned over and kissed me on the lips and I could taste her salty tears and feel the swell and power of her body as it pressed against me.
We made love on that rickety old dock until the sun was on the horizon
To Chapter Ten
Copyright © 1998 David Square/Log Cabin Chronicles/5.98 |
