Foggy Morning

Morning fog in Kakerdaja bog. Estonia.

The lake looked serene and somewhat eerie this morning. The fog gave the scenery a muted look as if looking through dirty windows. The leaves had mostly all fallen off the trees leaving a few stragglers behind showing their dead yellow. Many of the pines had fallen to some kind of disease over the past few years. Only a few of the pines are left leaving the shore line looking as though it was covered in skeletons waiting to grab you the moment you stepped out of your boat.

This was the first time Gordon had taken the boat out since the accident a couple Autumns ago. He and Jewels were out on the lake trying to catch well, anything. The lake used to be so full of life that your line would barely have time to hit the water and you would have a nice carp on your line. Only thing Gordon and Jewels caught that day were colds. Jewels cold turned to a life-threatening pneumonia that she never did recover from. 

The reason Jewels cold was so much worse was because of the accident. She'd cast her line out like usual and almost immediately had something tugging on it. Whatever it was, it was huge. She couldn't handle it on her own. Gordon had rushed over to help her reel this beast in. His help was nearly unnoticeable. They formed a rhythm with the creature. Gordon and Jewels would give a good pull from there end, reeling like mad trying to get the beast to the boat at least. It would then be the beast's turn. It would pull twice what they had pulled. No matter how hard they tried they couldn't keep the beast from pulling away further and further. Yet, they refused to give up.

After about 15 minutes the thing started slowing down making it just a little easier for them to reel the beast in. They would pull and reel; the beast would slowly pull away from them about half what they had pulled it in. They were making progress but  not much it seemed. They reeled and pulled and pulled and reeled, both getting exhausted from the strenuous work this beast was causing. After about an hour, Jewels, too exhausted to do any more, let go of her rod and drooped slowly into the murky water.

"Jewels" Gordon screamed as she took the plunge. He tried to grab hold of her coat to keep her from falling but it didn't work so well with only one hand. Under the murky water she went as if she had just fallen asleep and slowly crumpled until she hit the water. "Jewels" Gordon shouts again.

The pull on the rod slackens. Gordon lets go and plunges into the cold water after Jewels. The water seemed much clearer from below the surface that it did from above it. Gordon frantically looks around, searching for Jewels.